Topics Sanitation

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

Privy Cleaning Receipt, 1885

Pen and ink drawing of the proposed Delaware Seventh Street Sewer

Plan and profile of proposed Delaware Seventh St. Sewer, 1850

1830 plan for the Pine Street Sewer

Plan of Pine Street Sewer, 1830

Mill Creek Sewer under construction. Several men standing beside a giant partially constructed sewer pipe.

Mill Creek Sewer under construction, 1883

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

Philadelphia Underground, Jan. 29, 1961

“Philadelphia Underground,” Jan. 29, 1961

Captain Sewer and Michael Nutter, 1998

Captain Sewer and Michael Nutter, 1998

30th Street Sewer

30th Street Sewer

State Street pipeline construction

State Street pipeline construction, 1904

Upper Roxborough filter beds

Upper Roxborough filter beds under construction, July 1902

Outhouse over Schuylkill near Pottstown

Outhouse over the Schuylkill near Pottstown