Tagged Philadelphia History
City Planning Club - Updated Plans to the Bellweather District
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club - East Passyunk Project
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club - Delaware River Dredging
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club -Philadelphia International Airport Revised / Post World Cup
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club -The Schuylkill River Park Project
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club - The Zipper Proposals Over I-676
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club - The Parkway Proposals
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
Ancient Technologies: Modes of Memory
Vintage reel to reels, polaroid cameras, magnetic tapes and slide projectors created memories, and are now often memories themselves. Generations of technologies evolve quickly. What's new today can soon feel ancient. Technology…
City Planning Club -The Zipper over I-95 and Delaware Ave/ Columbus Blvd/Penn's Landing
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club - Tomb of the Unknown Solider of the American Revolution
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club -Independence Mall
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
Or Not to Be: Representations of Death in Special Collections
"Recognizing death is inescapable can be daunting, but it can also motivate us to live our best lives and make them meaningful." The Free Library's newest exhibition from the Special Collections Division, Or Not…
City Planning Club -The Philadelphia Mint
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
City Planning Club -The Reconstruction of Tun Tavern
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
Proud to be a Philadelphian
A Philadelphian claps back at the outsiders who LOVE to HATE his city. A comedic and historical view of Philly Firsts and why we are so proud! Celebrate 250 years of independence!
Everything You Want to Know: The Creative Mind Through James Atkins and His Artistic Practices
This exhibit and related programming showcases artwork by Philadelphia painter and octogenarian James Atkins alongside audio clips showcasing his creative career and interviews that spotlight his use of our library in his work. The…
City Planning Club - The Association Battery and Society Hill Battery
Join our monthly discussion group! We are continuing a discussion series centered on topics related to Philadelphia history, connecting local history with city planning and development. This month, participate in a thoughtful, guided…
Author Event: Jack McCarthy - A Century of Music Under the Stars
Jack McCarthy is a longtime Philadelphia archivist and historian who has held leadership positions at several area historical institutions and directed a number of major archives and public history projects. He has written…
At This Table: A Monument Lab Residency Exhibition
At This Table: A Monument Lab Residency Exhibition is a Free Library Exhibitions collaboration with Monument Lab that marks the culmination of the 2025 Monument Lab Residency, presenting new monumental prototypes by…
Community Scanning Day
Digitize your family photos and documents related to Mount Moriah Cemetery and the surrounding neighborhood. We'll offer digitization services and tips for preserving your personal archives, plus the option to contribute to an…
Sanborn Maps, 1867–1970 (Formerly Sanborn Maps Geo Edition)
Explore America’s building history through over 660,000 black-and-white, large-scale maps, which chart the growth of more than 12,000 towns and cities. Read this blog post to learn more.
Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2010)
Full access to the oldest continuously published daily Black newspaper in the United States.
Philadelphia Press Index
The Philadelphia Press (1857-1920) was one of Philadelphia's oldest major newpapers. This index is an electronic version of a paper index kept by Free Library staff from 1898 through 1912. It directs you to citations for specific…
Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
Philadelphia Evening Telegraph was a daily afternoon newspaper started on January 4, 1864. Search, browse, and read it online here.
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News can also be accessed on our "PressReader including the Economist" database.
Historical Newspapers - Pennsylvania Collection
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: U.S. State Collections empower researchers to become eyewitnesses to local and regional history. From leading issues and events, like wars, immigration, industrial developments, and race relations; to…
Evening Public Ledger
Evening Public Ledger was one of the most widely read dailies in Philadelphia between 1914 and 1942. Read, search, and browse the full text of the paper here.
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia
Based at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden, the encyclopedia project builds from a foundation of civic engagement and brings the work of leading and emerging scholars to a wide general…
Bakari Sellers | The Moment: Thoughts on the Race Reckoning That Wasn't and How We All Can Move Forward Now
In 2006, Bakari Sellers defeated a twenty-six-year incumbent State Representative to become the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature and the youngest African American elected official in the nation. The state’s 2014…
Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter | The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are
In conversation with Airea D. Matthews The winner of three Grammy Awards and three NAACP Image Awards, Tariq Trotter , aka Black Thought , is the MC and co-founder of The Roots. The Philly-based hip-hop group has produced 11 albums…
Kimberlé Crenshaw | #SayHerName: Black Women’s Stories of Police Violence and Public Silence
In conversation with Dorothy Roberts One of the country’s foremost authorities in civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, race, and the law, Kimberlé Crenshaw is a law professor at UCLA and Columbia Law School, where in 1996 she…
Nikhil Goyal | Live to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty
In conversation with author and Pennsylvania State Senator, Nikil Saval In Live to See the Day , Nikhil Goyal offers a searing portrait of three Puerto Rican children struggling to survive in Philadelphia’s impoverished Kensington…
Brett H. Mandel | Philadelphia, Corrupt and Consenting: A City’s Struggle against an Epithet
In conversation with Ernest Owens A consultant and writer in the fields of civic activism and government reform, Brett H. Mandel served as director of Philadelphia’s Financial & Policy Analysis Unit in the city controller’s office,…
Neil King Jr. | American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal
In conversation with Signe Wilkinson A Wall Street Journal correspondent for two decades, Neil King Jr. reported from more than 50 countries, served as the newspaper’s chief diplomatic correspondent, national political reporter, and…
Jennifer Senior | On Grief: Love, Loss, Memory
In conversation with Mike Sielski A staff writer at The Atlantic, Jennifer Senior won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for “Twenty Years Gone,” an account of a family still reeling from the loss of a loved one on 9/11. Her…
Dan Berger | Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power through One Family's Journey
In conversation with Michael Simmons and Robert Saleem Holbrook Dan Berger is the author of the James A. Rawley Prize winning Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era , an “illuminating” ( The Nation )…
Ilyon Woo | Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
In conversation with Imani Perry Ilyon Woo is the author of The Great Divorce , the “lively, well-written, and engrossing tale” ( The New York Times Book Review ) of a young mother’s five-year fight against her husband, the Shakers…
Tyler Kepner | The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series
The national baseball writer for The New York Times since 2010, Tyler Kepner began his career as a teenager, interviewing players for a homemade magazine that garnered him national attention. His national bestseller K: A History of…
Kerri K. Greenidge | The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Historian Kerri K. Greenidge is the author of Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter , a portrait of the post-Reconstruction civil…
George Lakey | Dancing With History: A Life for Peace and Justice
In conversation with Varshini Prakash Active in grassroot campaigns for social change for more than seven decades, sociologist and Quaker organizer George Lakey was first arrested at a civil rights demonstration in 1963 and most…
Andrew K. Diemer | Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad
Andrew K. Diemer is the author of The Politics of Black Citizenship: Free African Americans in the Mid-Atlantic Borderland, 1817–1863 , an examination of the ways in which free Black Philadelphians and Baltimoreans fought to defend…
Camika Royal | Not Paved For Us: Black Educators and Public School Reform in Philadelphia
In conversation with Edwin Mayorga and Sharif El-Mekki For 20 years Camika Royal was a middle and high school teacher and a teaching coach for her fellow educators in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and her hometown of Philadelphia.…
Jennifer Lin | Beethoven in Beijing: Stories from the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Historic Journey to China
In conversation with Nydia Han, Consumer Investigative Reporter and co-anchor of 6ABC Action News Sunday mornings A reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer for 31 years, Jennifer Lin worked as an international correspondent in China, a…
Erika M. Kitzmiller | The Roots of Educational Inequality: Philadelphia's Germantown High School, 1907–2014
Education historian Erika M. Kitzmiller has conducted research in the city of Philadelphia, its public schools, and the Free Library for nearly two decades. The result of her investigation is The Roots of Educational Inequality , a…
Mike Sielski | The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality
In conversation with Michael Days A sports columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer since 2013, Mike Sielski is the author of Fading Echoes , the true story of two Pennsylvania high school football rivals who later found brotherhood while…
Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague | The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It
In conversation with Tracey Matisak , award-winning journalist and broadcaster Renowned for his “signature blend of deep reportage and character-driven storytelling ( The New York Times Book Review ),” Mark Bowden is a national…
Woody Holton | Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution
In conversation with Adam McNeil, host of the New Books in African American Studies podcast The McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, Woody Holton teaches early U.S. history, specializing in economics,…
Sheryll Cashin | White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality
In conversation with Richard Rothstein Sheryll Cashin’s NAACP Image Award–nominated books on racism and inequality include The Failures of Integration , The Agitator’s Daughter , and Place, Not Race . The Carmack Waterhouse Professor…
Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade
The oldest Thanksgiving Day parade in the country takes place right here in Philadelphia!
National Parks Center – Valley Forge
Valley Forge was the site of the 1777-1778 winter encampment of the Continental Army. The park commemorates the sacrifices and perseverance of the Revolutionary War generation and honors the ability of citizens to pull together and…
National Constitution Center
The National Constitution Center is the first and only institution in America established by Congress to “disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a non-partisan basis in order to increase the awareness and…