Historic photographs of Philadelphia’s buildings, streetscapes, parks,and waterways are now just a click away on a map-based website. The Philadelphia Department of Recordshas over 2 million photographs dating back to 1865. Among these photographs are stunning pictures of shipsarriving at dock, horse-drawn carriages on cobble streets, and the decaying Eastern State Penitentiary,America’s most famous prison. Today, the public can search for over 30,000 of these photographs by location,view the photographs online, and purchase prints to be delivered to their home or office.
The Photo Archives Website is a web-based GIS application which allows the public to search for historic photographs based on location. Users can search for photographs within a certain neighborhood, within a radius of an address, near a particular intersection, or by a place name like City Hall. In addition users can search for photographs during certain years and they can search the descriptions of photographs by keyword. For example, a user might search for a picture of ‘gas lamps’ or they might search for photographs near their own home address. All search results are returned with a map showing building footprints, streets, and the location of photographs in the area. The website was built on ESRI ArcIMS technology by Azavea, Incorporated.
The Department of Records takes photographs of all public works projects, both before and after, as a risk management tool. This business practice has resulted in the accumulation of many thousands of photographs previously unavailable to the public. At the time, their immediate purpose was for city records and liability concerns, but today they are valuable historic artifacts in the cities archives. Now while browsing the website, users can add photographs they want to purchase to their shopping cart. Pictures are then printed by photographers at the Department of Records and sent to the buyer. This e-commerce component of the website will enable the Department of Records to create a revenue stream that supports the upkeep of the project and expands the number of photographs available online. This component was a critical piece of the project, because it helps fund an innovative project in an shrinking City budget.
Azavea, an ESRI Business Partner, created the Photo Archives Website. Azavea is currently engaged in several projects with the Department of Records which leverage the GIS investments at the City of Philadelphia and that give citizens streamlined access to vital city records while creating a revenue stream for the Department of Records.