Found in Philadelphia

Over the past 50 years, the streets of Philadelphia have been a living laboratory for ethnographer Elijah Anderson. He’s been on the ground here since 1975 studying the people and the culture of our city. He’s published his findings in a series of groundbreaking books that have brought the lessons he’s learned in Philly to the rest of the world.

Over two episodes, we’ll learn how P...

Casting a ballot on Election Day transformed into a completely different experience in the early twentieth century. Generally, voting in Philadelphia moved indoors, grew safer, more inclusive, and, maybe, a little boring. Or has it?

Our guest for this series is Professor Mark Brewin, Associate Professor of Media Studies, at the University of Tulsa. This mini-series relies heavily on Professor Brewin’s 200...

Voting changed after the Civil War in the newly consolidated City of Philadelphia. More men could vote on Election Day than ever before, and the vast majority of them did, though not without deadly violence. Government corruption also expanded. The Pennsylvania Republican party machine blatantly manipulated the vote. Yet, no one did much about it.

Our guest for this series is Professor Mark Brewin, Associ...

The founding fathers wanted to pretend that the government of the newly formed United States stood above faction. But organizing and get out the vote tactics in the streets of Philadelphia proved this wasn’t true. By 1830, political parties had become a driving force behind Election Day. Voting was now a partisan contest limited to only white men. In Philly, the day had a wild, festival feeling that could, a...

Colonial Philadelphia’s government provided a striking contrast to the more egalitarian, consensus-driven leadership of the Native American Lenape. Election Day in colonial Philadelphia placed a spotlight on the social hierarchy with a highly orchestrated, political ritual where wealthy male voters took the stage. But maintaining the high ground wasn’t always easy.

Our guest for this series is Professor M...

These are the women’s movement histories that you haven’t heard.

After the Civil War, women from all walks of life worked to make Philadelphia a better place. Some tried to clean up the streets. Some walked the streets in protest. And some continued, quietly, to improve their everyday lives through community and collective action.  

If you learned something new in the episode, don’t forget to leav...

When you walk around the city at night, do you enjoy the glimpses you get of other people’s well-lit homes? If you do (and who doesn’t?), then this episode is for you.

We’re going to peer into the homes of the different people living in Philadelphia during the Gilded Age. We’ll look at how they lived, what they ate, and explore what happened when they all met in the street.

If you enjoy the episode, d...

Despite cycles of economic depression, Philadelphia transformed during the Gilded Age. Entire neighborhoods sprang up to house a growing population. Major infrastructure projects changed how people experienced the street. For some, it was a time of marvels. For others, it brought new perils to the street.

To see historical images and find a full list of resources for this episode, check out the companion blog for Episode 18 at F...

A 144-year old hotel register from Springfield, Ohio, sends us on the trail of the fly-by-night Philadelphia Blue Stockings. The pursuit will take us through the rough-and-tumble world of late 19th century baseball as we uncover the precarious place of women in sport.

WARNING: This episode deals with sexual abuse of minors and may not be suitable for everyone.

Support your local bookstore and the podcast by buying books tha...

We’re rebroadcasting this earlier episode about the Black community’s fight to integrate Philly’s streetcars in the years following the Civil War 1865-1871. This story fits into the timeline of the series on the history of Philly’s streets. It details the legislative and physical battles fought to win access to public transportation in Philadelphia.

Stay tuned as we continue to work on new episodes in thi...

Philadelphia, like the rest of the nation, was poorly prepared for war. When the Civil War broke out, the cobbled-together city became a key part of the North’s thrown-together war machine. The war flowed through Philly streets, where city residents fought to make the best of a bad situation.

To see historical images and find a full list of resources for this episode, check out the companion blog for Epis...

In a remarkably short period of time, the newly consolidated city of Philadelphia was covered in rails. These rails ushered in a transit revolution: the horse-drawn streetcar.

From 1858 to 1861, the streetcar transformed Philly streets. It filled a major gap in the city’s existing, patchwork transportation system. But the streetcar also disrupted city life because demolition, greed, and racism ran along t...

What kind of city did Philadelphia want to be? There were lots of different opinions in the 1840s and 1850s, but everyone agreed: it did not want to be like this.

Our modern city was born out of the ashes of racist violence and anti-immigrant riots. During unstable times, the streets themselves became a weapon used by mobs to break, bludgeon, and burn. The efforts to restore order in the streets moved Philly towards the modern c...

This episode is all about change and disruption. Early factories were changing the way Philadelphia worked, and it wasn’t pretty. Dismal conditions brought workers together in the streets to demand reforms, which were derailed by an economic collapse. In the background, steam technology was about to transform Philly’s streets. A frenzy of railroad construction in the city brought chaos, as railways unsettled the traditions of stree...

Life overflowed onto the streets of Philadelphia in the Early Republic. The streets were intensely social spaces, but could also be extremely dangerous. As the city grew, it began to take an interest in its past. Street life ebbed and flowed around a boozy calendar of events, where the powerful displayed the proper order of things, and the working class turned that proper order on its head.

Find out more and see a full bibliogra...

The United States of America was street tested in Philly. From the chaos of the American Revolution, to its role as the national capital of the early Republic, Philadelphia was a messy, testing ground for seeing how the ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were lived by people on the street.

The city was a place of divided loyalties and social divisions that played out in public. Streets w...

Philadelphia in the 1700s is a tale of two cities. The city is innovative and forward thinking about improving public spaces. But the city is also a place of deeply entrenched inequality. And you can see it in the streets.

From small colonial town, to the largest city in British North America, Philadelphia’s wealth and prosperity is built with the bound labor of enslaved Africans and desperately poor, w...

Streets are our most basic, and fundamental, public spaces. Cities can’t work without them. But we tend to take them for granted. The everyday-ness of the street gives us a false sense that the streets were always there, pretty much doing the same thing. But our streets have a history too.

In this episode, we’ll get in to why streets, and their history, matter. And then we’ll discuss some of the early history revealed by Philly’...

At long last… the Found in Philadelphia podcast is back with a new series about the history of Philly’s streets. It’s been… a pandemic. But it feels good to be back.

While you’re waiting, check out some Philly history in the news:

The amazing Sha’von Smith and the Grounded Theatre Company continue to produce original works that are inspired by history. See what they&...