Subjects Sewers & Drainage

Pipes, pumping stations, interceptors or intercepting sewers, outfalls, separate and combined sewers, sewage treatment plants, and any other infrastructure related to the collection and treatment of sewage from homes and businesses.

Three reports on Philadelphia’s Sewage Treatment Project, 1911-1914

Oak Lane Reservoir pipeline, 1904

The Water and Drainage History of Philadelphia: A seven-part course

Down Under!

Black-and-white photograph depicts a large brick sewer tube lying on a barren landscape

Streams, islands, and ferries of early Philadelphia

Archival Storytelling: A snowy Super Bowl Sunday at Sydenham & Dauphin

Dauphin and Sydenham car crash, Jan. 17, 1978

Wheeled robotic sewer crawler in sewer pipe

Still photo from a video sewer inspection, 2000

Norman Lofton inspects sewer at Ditman and Sheffield, 1987

William Penn balks at drinking the "mixed drink" offered him: Schuylkill water, mixed with pollution from the upstream sources named. Editorial cartoon by Fred Morgan, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1899. One of a series of cartoons drawn by Morgan protesting the state of the city's drinking water and trying to encourage the passage of legislation authorizing the construction of a water filtration system.

Half a Century of Clean Water: The Clean Water Act, 1972-2022

Black-and-white photo of industrial tank installation with smokestacks and factories in the background

Emscher Tank Installation at Essen Nord, Germany

Black-and-white image of a tray with three compartments and four small glass cylinders

Drain water from sludges obtained from sedimentation, septic and Emscher tanks

Black-and-white image of a brick sewer outlet that drains into a creek with trees and a hill behind it

Thomas Run sewer outlet at Cobbs Creek