Shapefiles and data at the census tract, county, state, and other geographic levels going back to 1790 for counties, and 1910 for tracts. Also includes some data for downloading.

86 neighborhood planning surveys prepared and published by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission between 1946 and 1990. These reports contain descriptions of current conditions of housing stock; population trends; property turnover; public transportation; community activity. Recommendations are made for future action.

Includes beautiful maps and atlases of the Hexamer Volumes from the 1850's through Philadelphia Land Use maps 1960's.

The City of Philadelphia provides maps of City Services, service areas, and zoning rules.

The Cartographic Modeling Lab provides shapefiles for download of several Philadelphia files, most notably the Philadelphia Neighborhoods file used in the creation of the Neighborhood Base.

Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Center files on Philadelphia. Includes shapefiles from the City of Philadelphia, as well as some state resources. Important files here are Street Centerlines, local area boundaries (planning commission, police, councilmanic districts) and aerial photos.

Shapefiles and data at the census tract, county, state, and other geographic levels going back to 1790 for counties, and 1910 for tracts. Also includes some data for downloading.

Explore / Places

The Places project is our way of saying thank you to all our members who’ve taken the time to put their gorgeous photos on a map. Browse the whole globe, from your hometown to your favorite place, or places you’ve never even heard of..

Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Center files on Philadelphia. Includes shapefiles from the City of Philadelphia, as well as some state resources.

Recommendations for exploring SL in an afternoon - NOAA, and other intensive spaces in SL.

Local organizations and information. Don't let the clunkiness of the site deter you. There is a lot of great information about philadlephia here.

 

The guide to Philadelphia newspapers through history.

This link presents the collection of electoronic resources at the Penn Library related to Philadelphia Studies.

The Philadelphia Neighborhoods Planning History Project creates a web presentation of the full content of 86 neighborhood planning surveys prepared and published by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission between 1946 and 1990. These reports contain descriptions of current conditions of housing stock; population trends; property turnover; public transportation; community activity. Recommendations are made for future action. The project will facilitate university and public research on Philadelphia's architectural and social environment by providing access to a body of material whose content is of current and future interest but whose printed format is ephemeral and subject to physical deterioration and loss. The reports are a primary resource for the study of how the problems and aspirations of Philadelphia neighborhoods were described during decades of debate about urban renewal in Philadelphia. School of Design faculty have affirmed the survey's continuing relevance to the curriculum of the school. At the same tiime, the initiative aligns with the University's stated commitment to Philadelphia as an urban environment.

Index to Aerial photos of the Philadelphia area taken between 1924 and 1960 held at the Library Company and (some) at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

A phenomenal collection of photographs from the Archives of the City of Philadelphia

This is a useful collection of Research Guides from the Penn Libraries to help find information about Philadelphia.

NeighborhoodBase includes maps and data from a number of city agencies, plus census data. All data is available for aggregation at a range of geographic levels (ie, wards, census tracts, etc). A great source for data and maps about life in Philadelphia.

This is an effort to bring together some resources -- images, documents, tools, and links -- for pursuing historical information about place in the five-county Philadelphia area: Bucks, Chester, Delaware. Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties. The project has been building incrementally, as opportunities have permitted, since 1997. The overarching idea is to use new media to more effectively disseminate information about place, to enhance cross-institutional access to documentary materials of this sort, to better connect people with the history of their environment, and to thus enrich their lives here.