Topics City Life

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

Frankford borough map, 1845

Map of Frankford Borough, 1845

History of Belfield (1934)

Frankford Creek Watershed Historical Timeline

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

Overbrook, as it was. A brief history of the Overbrook neighborhood of Philadelphia, focusing on changes in the natural landscape.

Newspaper Clipping Scrapbooks of Frederic Graff Jr.,Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia Water Department: Part 1, 1854-1857

Newspaper Clipping Scrapbooks of Frederick Graff Jr., Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia Water Department. Part 2: 1858-1871

A Tour of Philadelphia’s Delaware River Waterfront in 1876

Dealing with the city’s wastes in the mid-19th century

Second Bank of Pennsylvania, South Second Street, Philadelphia

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