Guides: Philadelphia History: Overview

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This guide focuses on secondary and primary sources useful in researching the history of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Reference Works

Most Philadelphia-related books are at call number F 158.18. Unless otherwise noted, links below lead to Franklin, which will tell you where the book is located. More books can be found by searching in Franklin for Philadelphia History as a Subject.

Philadelphia: A 300-Year History by Russell Weigley
Call Number: F158.3 .P5664 1982
Publication Date: 1982
Modern one-volume history of Philadelphia. Chapters arranged chronologically by subject experts. Not too easy to find material on neighborhoods or city regions.
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia
Call Number: Available online
Invisible Philadelphia : community through voluntary organizations by Jean Barth Toll and Mildred S. Gillam, eds.
Call Number: Van Pelt and Museum Libraries F158.18 .I58 1995
Publication Date: Atwater Kent Museum, 1995
Surveys the history of voluntary organizations in Philadelphia through organization "biographies". Provides some bibliographic information as well as disposition of archival materials.
Encyclopedia of Philadelphia by Joseph Jackson
Call Number: Van Pelt and other libraries F158.3 .J15
Publication Date: 4 vols. National Historical Association, 1931-1933
Brief entries on persons, places, institutions, and events in Philadelphia history. Some entries have bibliographic references.
History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 by J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott
Call Number: Online : HathiTrust
Publication Date: 3 vols. L.H. Everts, 1884
Also, print : Van Pelt and other locations F158.3 .S4.
The great history of the city. Volume 1 covers the history of the city. Volumes 2 and 3 cover the history of the city's industries, institutions, and personalities.
The Peoples of Philadelphia: A history of ethnic groups and lower class life by Allen F. Davis (Editor); Mark H. Haller (Editor)
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. F158.9.A1 P43
Publication Date: 1998
Draw on census schedules, court records, city directories, and tax records as well as newspaper files and other sources to give a picture of the ways in which less-privileged groups of Philadelphians lived.
Architectural research in Philadelphia : a guide to the resources available throughout Philadelphia by Moak, Jefferson
Call Number: Fine Arts Reference NA2127.P5 M63 2002
Publication Date: 2001
The Planning of Center City Philadelphia by John Andrew Gallery
Call Number: NA735.P5 P58 2007
Publication Date: 2008
Three centuries of the planning history of the city, from William Penn’s original concept to the design of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the renewal efforts that made Philadelphia a national leader in city planning and urban revitalization.
The Buried Past by John L. Cotter; Daniel G. Roberts; Michael Parrington
Publication Date: 1992
The most significant archaeological discoveries, based on more than thirty years of intensive archaeological investigations in the greater Philadelphia area.
WPA Guide to Philadelphia by Federal Writers' Project (Pa.)
Call Number: F158.18 .P46 1988
Publication Date: 1937
One-volume older history of Philadelphia, produced through the Federal Writers' Project, Works Progress Administration. Divided into two parts: "The city and its background" and "Roads and rambles in and around the city".
The Public schools of Philadelphia : historical, biographical, statistical by John Trevor Custis
Call Number: LA357.P55 C8
Publication Date: 1897
Surveys Philadelphia school districts and individual schools through the nineteenth century.

Librarian for U.S. History

Nick Okrent

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Van Pelt Library, room 204

215-573-2217

Subjects: Africana Studies, Asian-American Studies, History, Philosophy, U.S. History