Never Before Seen Images Tell the Story of Philadelphia and its Industry, Culture, People
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2007
www.PhillyHistory.org
High-resolution photos are available upon request
PHILADELPHIA - From the building of City Hall, to the oldest church in Pennsylvania, to American's most historic penitentiary, the Philadelphia Department of Records holds the country's largest municipal archive of historic photographs, totaling over 2 million images. Dating from the late 1800s, the photographs paint a stunning portrait of Philadelphia and its industry, architecture, culture, and people from all walks of life. Until recently, this vast collection was stored in the depths of the City Archives. Now, the Department of Records is making these photographs available to a worldwide audience for the first time through the website PhillyHistory.org. The site currently features over 25,000 images with approximately 2,000 more images being added each month.
This innovative online service is unique in the United States and features extraordinary photographs that open a window to the past with images of ships arriving at dock, industrial development, historic mansions, and horse-drawn carriages on cobble stone streets.
"The photographs really track the development of the city through its height as a great center of industry,"Â says Records Commissioner Joan Decker. "We're thrilled to make this collection available to historians, students, Philadelphia residents, and anyone interested in exploring our city's rich history."Â
With over 40,000 unique visitors to-date, PhillyHistory.org has attracted the attention of historians, geographers, genealogists, researchers and history buffs in Philadelphia and around the world. The images and the ability to search for an old family neighborhood have sparked some remarkable memories from site visitors.
One PhillyHistory.org user remarked, "I was thrilled to see the photo of Jackson St. taken in the 1950s. I think I knew every inch of it! I remember climbing trees, picking blackberries in the fields nearby, swimming at 'Schmities' in the Pennypack Creek, walking for miles through the park, roller-skating on Frankford Ave. to the library and home again with my arms full of books and riding my bike all over the northeast. I miss those days in my old neighborhood. Thank you for the web site."Â
The unique search features of PhillyHistory.org allow users to search for the historic images based on locations and keywords, and the Philadelphia Historic Street Name Index matches up former street names to their current names, making it easy to find an historic building or an ancestor's former home. The Department of Records partnered with Avencia, Inc, a Philadelphia-based geographic analysis and software firm, to create an online application which allows the public to search for photographs within a certain neighborhood, by address, intersection, a place name, year or other keywords. Images are also linked to street maps detailing their exact locations.
Site visitors have found many different uses for the online archive, including student education, as a reference in building preservation and restoration, research of a family tree, remembering childhood neighborhoods, and finding historic images of a homeowner's house. PhillyHistory.org users can also make requests for new images to be scanned and can purchase professional, high quality prints which many have used for home and business décor and as gifts.
PhillyHistory.org also features a blog detailing the history behind many of the images, written by history graduate students who catalog and scan the photographs and research some the city's most fascinating stories, as well as historian guest bloggers. Topics include the building of the Broad Street Subway, the inventor who was responsible for creating one of the first photographs made in America, the development of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the city's grand Wanamaker's Department Store, and the first 'modern' baseball stadium in America which was erected in 1887 at the corner of Broad Street and Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia.
PhillyHistory.org's in-depth blog and historic photos are particularly valuable resources for history students. As the city looks forward to hosting National History Day events March 28-29, PhillyHistory.org makes the photo archive available to the thousands of middle and high school students and teachers who participate in National History Day and the competition that will be hosted locally at the National Constitution Center. Each participant gains first-hand experience conducting historical research and, in the Philadelphia competition, producing a website of their own.
Not only a public educational service, the PhillyHistory.org project is also one of preservation as newly scanned negatives are moved to acid-free envelopes. Nearly 2,000 negatives are scanned every month at the City Archives where some of the oldest photographs consist of large glass plate negatives.
Philadelphia has had official city photographers since the 1800s and still employs two staff photographers today. Photos were taken to capture events - from Founders Week in 1908 to city council meetings - for liability protection, and to document city growth, building development, and the city's changing skyline.
To view photographs and read about Philadelphia history, please visit www.PhillyHistory.org.
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To request interviews, high-resolution photographs, and more information, please contact:
Megan Wendell, Canary Promotion, office: 215-242-6393, cell: 267-304-2391, megan@canarypromo.com
Posted February 20th, 2007 by CanaryPromo
