Browse Items (624 total)

This is an artificial collection created by HSP staff, containing manuscript materials from many sources. The collection is arranged alphabetically and primarily by individual, but unlike the "flat" collection, is far smaller in extent. Within this…

Frank M. Etting's connection with the Historical Society began in 1855 when he was elected recording secretary at age 22. After a decade in the army, 1861-1870, he returned to Philadelphia to begin a career of public service. He became director of…

David McNeely Stauffer was an eminent civil engineer, author, and antiquarian. From 1893 to 1913 he devoted much of his time to the extra-illustration of "Westcott's History of Philadelphia, 1609-1829" as printed in the Sunday Dispatch. The total…

Railroad map of the central and western U.S. showing rail lines, states, towns, forts, and mountains. Also shows part of Mexico and the Gulf of California. The Union Pacific Railway, later the Kansas Pacific Railway, was chartered in July 1863 as…

Collection of carte-de-visite portraits of the city employees, attired in suits, seated, and one arm resting on a side table. Identified sitters include John H. Dye, surveyor and draughtsman; Jesse Lightfoot, surveyor; Strickland Kneass, chief…

Trade card promoting surveyor and insurance agent Fred C. Davis and depicting a racist caricature of an African American man on a horse-drawn plow. Shows the man barely seated, leaning back, and with his legs in the air on the plow. He holds broken…

Blank membership certificate for employees of the railroad containing a cabinet card portrait of a young man surrounded by thirteen titled views documenting the activities, benefits, and hazards of life with the railroad. Views include clerks working…

Includes a pictorial envelope and letterhead containing an illustration depicting a collage of imagery, including a map of America bordered by scrolls of "Tracing Cloth," "Drawing Papers. Mounted and Unmounted," and "Tracing Papers"; a globe;…

This scathing cartoon was widely popularized in 18th century America, of William Cobbett, who is in fact being protrayed as a porcupine with some rather crude opinions. He is shown receiving support by those that include the Devil and the British…