Topics Technology & Engineering

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

PWD water tech at the Philly Home Show, 1960

PWD water tech at the Philly Home Show, 1960 (detail)

State Street pipeline construction

State Street pipeline construction, 1904

Belmont Filters construction 1903

Belmont Filters construction, 1903

Rudolph Hering

Rudolph Hering

DeLaval Beauty Shots 6

Electric Pump Installations at Lardner’s Point Pumping Station

Engine House of the Belmont Works, R. Newell photo (2004.057.0074.001)

Engine House, Belmont Works

New Mill House at Fairmount (2008.001.0046)

New Mill House at Fairmount

Stand Pipe of Philadelphia Water Works

Water Works Standpipe, 1853

View of Fairmount Water Works, ca. 1827

Diagram of the Philadelphia Water Department's wastewater treatment process

Wastewater Treatment Process diagram

Two black-and-white photographs of pipeline construction on State Road. Depicted are a group of people, trees, buildings, a fire hydrant and a grid of boards over the pipes.

State Road triple pipeline construction, 1904