Subjects Public Health

Includes activities to maintain the healthfulness of the city, and the animals (such as pigs) and diseases (such as cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid fever) that were the objects of public health efforts.

Fairmount Water Works: The Surprising History of an American Landmark

Philadelphia drinking water 90+ years ago

Water Bureau Newspaper Scrapbook, 1942-1952

Rebirth of the Rivers: Water History Video 3

Dobson FLP

You would not have wanted to drink it: Philadelphia’s water supply in 1884

Color image of a grassy field with trees and buildings surrounding it and white lines drawn on the grass mimicking the path of a creek.

Drawing Dock Creek

Image shows three bottles of water, one clear, one dark and one with sediment floating in it.

Bottled vs. Tap in 1906

Typhoid Fever and sewage tainted drinking water: An 1889 report from the Philadelphia Board of Health

Kensington Water Supply in 1883

Black-and-white image of a creek with people around it and a large building behind it

Dock Creek Sewer in 1849: A report on its condition made to City Councils

CITIZENS’ BUSINESS: 1939-1946

State of the Schuylkill River in 1876: Sewage pollution and possible remedies