Snapshots of the Past

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1908 – Historic Map Reproduction

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1908, 1908 — antique map
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1908, 1908. Antique map from the Panoramic Maps collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare antique map captures Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1908 in remarkable detail. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

Library of Congress record: The Philadelphia of to-day, the world's greatest workshop : America's largest home city with more home owners than any other city in the world

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1908

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Philadelphia in 1908 was preparing for Founders' Week, an October celebration honoring William Penn and the city's colonial beginnings. The city had passed 1.2 million residents by 1900, and its factories, including the Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Cramp shipyards, and Midvale Steel, kept its economy anchored in heavy manufacturing. City Hall, finished in 1901 and crowned by a statue of Penn, dominated the center of town, and the Market Street subway, which had opened the year before, carried crowds beneath the streets this map records. Many residents took pride in the city's Quaker roots and its part in the nation's founding, and the Founders' Week observances gave them a chance to show that heritage to visitors.

Created / published1908
Creatorw. t. littig & co, philadelphia. executive committee of founders' week
NotesAn original bird's-eye view map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, drawn in 1908. Bird's-eye view maps were drawn by travelling artists who walked a town street by street, sketching every building from an imagined vantage point in the air, then sold the finished lithograph door to door by subscription. Roughly five thousand American towns were recorded this way between the 1860s and the 1920s, and for many of them the panoramic map is the most complete picture of the place that survives. Reproduced from the original in the Library of Congress collections. Printed to order on archival paper. Free shipping on all US orders.
SubjectsPanoramic maps--Pennsylvania
SourceLibrary of Congress, Panoramic Maps
Original scan11,223 × 6,948 px · prints to 37 × 23 in at 300 dpi
Library of Congress titleThe Philadelphia of to-day, the world's greatest workshop : America's largest home city with more home owners than any other city in the world
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-OYK-490621

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