Explore Historical Images of Philadelphia on a Map

By Jim L. RSS Mon, June 15, 2009
Hip Map Popup
Hip Map Popup
Hip Map Streetview
Hip Map Streetview

Step back in time and explore the Philadelphia of yesterday using the Free Library of Philadelphia's Historical Images of Philadelphia digital collection with Google Maps. A portion of our records have been geocoded to include latitude and longitude, and when you view an image from our collection on Google Maps, you can see the image, its description, and where it was taken.

Not sure where to start? Try selecting groups of images by neighborhood using the checkboxes located at the top of the page.  You can also compare the digital collections image to the current street view of a location and see how much an area has changed over the years.

There are a little more than 100 images currently available —as we add locations to more images from our digital collections, they will begin to appear on this map. So be sure to check back periodically to see new additions!

Historical Images of Philadelphia Map

 

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There's been a bit of discussion on genealogy mailing lists recently regarding historical overlay maps available for Philadelphia Google Maps. This technology has actually been in use for some time, with historic overlay maps first as i available for Google Earth back in 2006. The premise behind these historic overlay maps is that they are layered directly on top of current road maps and/or satellite images. By adjusting the transparency of the historic maps, you can "see through" to the map behind to compare the similarities and differences between old and new maps, and study the changes in your selected location over time. A great tool for genealogists!
Janae A - Example: Philadelphia
Monday, July 6, 2009
More recently, the Google Maps API has encouraged a number of organizations, developers, and even individuals like you and me, to create historic overlap maps for the online tool Google Maps (nice for people who don't want to download the Google Earth software).
Janae A - Example: Philadelphia
Monday, July 6, 2009
If you really love these historic overlay maps, you may want to download the free Google Earth software. There are many more historic map overlays available through Google Earth, than through Google Maps, including many posted directly by Google. You can find the historical maps in the sidebar section titled "layers."
www.memoreminder.com - Example: Philadelphia
Monday, July 6, 2009
Love the way you can go to a street corner and look around to see what restaurants and hotels are by the museum. Great tool.
Jillian - Washington DC
Monday, November 9, 2009
I would love to have a chance to visit Philadelphia
Ronaq - India
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Nowadays, if you have a gps or gps enabled cell phone, you can view those three dimensional maps which are really wonderfull, especially when you used to google maps.
Neo - Dunbay
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Nowadays, if you have a gps or gps enabled cell phone, you can view those three dimensional maps which are really wonderfull, especially when you used to google maps.
Neo - Dunbay
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Nowadays, if you have a gps or gps enabled cell phone, you can view those three dimensional maps which are really wonderfull, especially when you used to google maps.
Neo - Dunbay
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
It's really amazing what Google Maps enables. There are a huge number of great mashups like this. I personally work on one of my own for finding apartments called PadMapper . I believe one called Panoramio also adds pictures on top of Google Maps, taken by other Google Maps users.
Eric - Philadelphia
Saturday, March 20, 2010
This type of historical Images of Philadelphia on a map it's a really good things for them who see this maps in this web site. the Google maps can also shown this type of historical images. Thanks for your historical image.
Jewelry Buyers Houston - usa
Saturday, June 12, 2010
I sell real estate in Philadelphia and host a website and blog. These images are treasures that should be shared with everyone and appreciated. I'm going to do a blog post on this service. Great post! Frank L. DeFazio Frank@CenterCityTeam.com www.CenterCityTeam.com
Frank - Philadelphia
Monday, August 1, 2011
I completely agree with what you have written. I hope this post could reach more people as this was truly an interesting post, actually i have blog so relate this topic Check this out -> Convergent Evolution of Maps Thanks!
Walter Clark Boutwell
Friday, April 8, 2022

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