Primary Research
newspapers & magazines • unpublished manuscripts • government documents • Digital Philadelphia
Digital Philadelphia
Google Books Why is Google Books in this section, you ask? Because Google has digitized many books old enough to qualify as primary sources, and you can find some interesting information on Philadelphia in them. For example, have a look at these:
Library of Congress Digital Collections The Library of Congress has a bunch of neat stuff, including some related to Philadelphia. |
Several institutions around town have created marvelous websites with digital photo, map, and other resources. Keep an eye on these as they grow.
PhillyHistory.org (City Archive)
http://www.phillyhistory.org
The Philadelphia City Archive (part of the Department of Records) owns more than 2 million photographs of the city, and several thousand are available on-line through this site. To have the most success in your search, it's worth reading the search help under the "About" link. The map in the lefthand column, with its dropdown menu and zoom, is an easy way to find photos and maps in particular neighborhood.
Philadelphia GeoHistory (Athenaeum)
http://www.philageohistory.org/geohistory/
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia and the City of Philadelphia's Department of Records were the founding partner institutions that launched this site; they have drawn on collections from the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections (PACSCL). Like other sites on this page, it is an ongoing and growing project, but already it has terrific resources, particularly maps (starting in 1840).
Places in Time: Philadelphia (Bryn Mawr, et al)
http://www.brynmawr.edu/iconog/frdr.html
This is an easy way to get links to many of the digital resources about Philadelphia's history (and some of the surrounding region). Note the great range of materials: maps, architectural drawings, photographs, lithographs, and paintings.
Hexamer maps (Free Library, et al) http://www.brynmawr.edu/iconog/hlatlas/hl_intro.html
Fire Insurance companies have maintained detailed property maps for most of American history; Hexamer was one of those companies. Sanborn was another major firm, and those maps are available digitally through Proquest's database--to which neither Drexel nor the Free Library subscribes. However, the Free Library has both Hexamer and Sanborn maps in their "real" collections... and they are good fun to see (as well as informative).
The University of Virginia maintains a nice overview on the history of Sanborn maps and how to use them.
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/maps/sanborn/symbols.html.
Philadelphia Neighborhoods (Penn)
http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/Philaneighborhoods/index.cfm
"Over 85 Philadelphia City Planning Commission Reports prepared from 1946 to 1990," as their website says. They have a separate link for the maps in the reports. Penn's Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image hosts this site.
Philadelphia Architects and Buildings (PAB)
http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/index.cfm
This site is a wonderful collection of historic photographs of buildings, plus information on architects and builders. Their map also helps to locate sites on the National Register (learn about the National Register on this page).
Hagley Digital Archives
http://digital.hagley.org/
Located in Wilmington, Delaware, the Hagley Museum & Library has a rich collection of materials from the mid-Atlantic, including Philadelphia. In particular, note their collections of photographs (aerial and otherwise) available digitally.
Mapping the DuBois Philadelphia Negro (Penn)
http://www.mappingdubois.org/
In 1899, W.E.B. Du Bois published The Philadelphia Negro, a wide-ranging social science survey on African-Americans living in Philadelphia's 7th Ward (Rittenhouse Square, etc). Amy Hillier of Penn's School of Design (City & Regional Planning, Urban Studies) is leading this effort to recreate statistical data relevant Du Bois' 500-page report.
ExplorePAhistory.com
http://explorepahistory.com/
Harrisburg public TV/radio and the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (with a bunch of other sponsors) have created a nice history website to complement the historic markers put up around the state. It's a mix of secondary and primary sources; the website has history essays on themes like industry, sports, wars & battles, and music. Each of the essays has photographs and maps and other primary sources attached to them. Guess what? Philadelphia is included--a search on the site turned up a respectable number of hits for the city (about twice as many as for Pittsburgh).
West Philadelphia Community History Center (Penn)
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/wphila/index.html
This is a collaboration between Penn's history department and their University Archives. It's a mix of secondary and primary sources; the collection of maps is particularly nice.
Coming attractions:
PhilaPlace (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=1239
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia
http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org