Topics City Life

Coal Depot, Richmond, on the Delaware (Picturesque America)

Colored print showin all the booths, restaurants and other amenities of the fair

Ground Plan, Great Central Sanitary Fair, Philadelphia

Receipt from privy cleaning by the Frankford Odorless Excavating Company, 1885

Privy Cleaning Receipt, 1885

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.

“A Decidedly Mixed Drink,” April 6, 1899

Benjamin Henry Latrobe, portrait by Filippo Costaggini, 1880

Portrait of Benjamin Henry Latrobe

Black-and-white reproduction of the title page of an old periodical

19th century life in South Philadelphia’s marshland

Black-and-white image showing a factory, smokestacks and smoke, and streets

Dobson’s Mill, 1884, from History of Philadelphia by Scharf & Wescott

Black-and-white image of a covered dock slanting down to the water with a house in front of it

A Day in the Ma’sh – Still Useful

Black-and-white image showing three small houses, some small boats, weeds, and trees

A Day in the Ma’sh – Low Tide

Black-and-white drawing of two cabins with a wooden walkway in front

A Day in the Ma’sh – At CLXIV Canal Boat St.

Black-and-white drawing of the exterior of a small cabin showing the porch and yard

A Day in the Ma’sh – A Trucker’s Farm Yard

Black-and-white drawing of the interior of a humble cabin

A Day in the Ma’sh – In The Old Cabin Home