Still Philadelphia: A Photographic History, 1890-1940

by Fredric M. Miller

This is a book about Philadelphia and about photography, but it is not the usual book about either. On one level, this is the pictorial story of a great industrial metropolis in transition. It is the story of a railroad city, a city of trolleys and subways and horse-drawn vehicles, as it gradually succumbed to the automobile. It is the story of a city filled with neighborhood industry giving way to suburbs, to commuter travel, and to a change in the very nature of work. It is the story of a city spreading out, expanding and doubling in population in fifty years. It is the story of urban exuberance and vitality where ethnic groups mixed and mingled, but it is also the story of slums and poverty, crime and conflict. A Philadelphia family album, filled with pictures of ordinary people, Still Philadelphia focuses on the city of immigrants and industry, not on the lives and houses of the wealthy.

Genres: History, Local History, Photography, Nonfiction

290 pages, Hardcover

First published April 25, 1983

Reviews

[Sandy Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book, especially for anyone born and raised in Philadelphia. Although the photos are from 1890 to 1940, they will trigger memories for those born after. A magnificent compilation of photos with descriptive history.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around the Turn of the Century, Philadelphia was in a turning point in its history. Put together by Temple University's Urban Archives collection, the authors do an excellent job crossing architecture with people. The South Street area was becoming increasingly Jewish as refugees from Russia fled, rubbing elbows with the Black community of the 5th ward. Italians and Irish flooded South Philly. Irish, Polish, and German immigrants flocked to the new industries in Kensington. The middle class areas of West Philadelphia and North Philadelphia became the first "street-car" suburbs, commuting daily to their office jobs in the downtown Center City, as Broad Street was widened at the same time to provide room to the new "automobile". At the same time, vast amounts of row housing put the working class (of all different origins and colors) very near their factory work places. There is a classic picture of the Stetson factory (in Kensington) Christmas party, where hundreds of factory workers are in suits lined into neat rows. You can find a Jewish man and an Irish girl courting.

Wow. "Still Philadelphia" is a treasure that any Philadelphian should take a look at. They may recognize some of their streets, and they might not. For instance, Broad and Girard Streets, today is an El Stop, in a working class Black neighborhood near Temple University, in the 1890s was the site of several mansions of the Well-to-do class of Philadelphia (who's descendants now live on the Mainline of the suburbs.) South Street, today a smorgousboard of dinky strange shops and tourist attractions, a century ago was a Jewish marketplace (though the traffic doesn't seem to have changed.) 58th and Baltimore, now a working-class Black neighborhood just blocks away from gentrification, was in 1906 farmland.

As our city rapidly changes, a city with thousands of Latino and Asian immigrants arriving, struggling neighborhoods, and areas balancing gentrification with building neighborhoods that meet the needs of the already established community, it's fascinating to look back to an earlier time when the city struggled with similar, yet different issues.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more intimate and academic take on historical photography that others I have read lately, and intentionally so. The authors successfully avoid the big, common, and public for the private and personal. Covering all neighborhoods and most ethnicities, The only puzzling omission was a complete absence of any mention of Prohibition aside from a single, tangential reference to some closed breweries in a single photo.