Topics City Life

Play Ball! Meet the 1960 PWD Softball Team

Birch’s Views of Philadelphia, 1800

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

Ground Plan, Great Central Sanitary Fair, Philadelphia

Northeast Philadelphia history, one page at a time: The Holmesburg Library Scrapbook Collection

Fairmount Gardens, with the Schuylkill Bridge. This 1839 engraving, published in London, shows a view of the South Garden from the walkways that brought visitors up the cliffside to the overlooks at the height of the reservoirs. The fountain used the pressure of the reservoirs and was a a delightful refreshment in hot weather, and a wonder at all times. One anachronistic element of this engraving is the Upper Ferry Bridge, which burned the year before the print was published. Harding’s Hotel, a popular resort, is at the western end of the bridge.

Fairmount Gardens with the Schuylkill Bridge, 1839

“Fairmount Waterworks. From the forebay.” (From nature & on stone G. Lehman; Published by C.G. Childs & G. Lehman, 1833. Free Library of Philadelphia, Print & Picture Collection)

Fairmount Water Works from the forebay, 1833

Portrait of Frederick Graff with Centre Square Water Works in the background, by James Peale, 1804. (Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent)

Frederick Graff portrait with Centre Square Water Works in background

Fourth of July in Centre Square, John Lewis Krimmel, ca. 1812. The wooden statue in the fountain, “Allegory of the Schuylkill River (Water Nymph and Bittern)”, was carved in 1809 by Philadelphia sculptor William Rush.

Fourth of July, Centre Square, ca. 1812

Benjamin Henry Latrobe, portrait by Filippo Costaggini, 1880

Portrait of Benjamin Henry Latrobe

Southeast Corner of Third and Market Streets, Philadelphia

Southeast Corner of Third and Market, Philadelphia

Benjamin Franklin was concerned for years about the health of Philadelphia, especially about the unhealthiness of the city’s wells. He left money in his will to provide a clean water supply from outside the built up part of the city. He also helped found the first fire company in Philadelphia.

Benjamin Franklin, the Fireman

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

Images from “A Day in the Ma’sh” by Maurice F. Egan, Scribner’s Monthly, July 1881