Topics Technology & Engineering

Fairmount Water Works: The Surprising History of an American Landmark

Water Bureau Newspaper Scrapbook, 1942-1952

Laboratory Alkalinity test, ca. 1943

Making It Safe to Drink: Water History Video 2

Annual reports and other documents relating to Philadelphia’s water supply system, 1796-1992

Birch’s Views of Philadelphia, 1800

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

Oak Lane Reservoir pipeline, 1904

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

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

Black and white photo of a man wearing a hat and standing on a bridge with his arm on a post

Wood truss drawbridge, Orthodox Street over Frankford Creek, 1899 [Detail]

Tinted image of a single-arch bridge over a river with landscape in the distance

Lancaster/Schuylkill Bridge (Upper Ferry Bridge)

View of Fairmount Water Works, ca. 1827