Philadelphia and the World

Essay

From its origins as a series of settlements at the edge of the Atlantic World to the age of international air travel, Greater Philadelphia has been a crossroads of global interaction and exchange. With a diverse population from the start, inhabited by Native Americans and then colonized by Dutch, Swedes, Englishmen, Germans, and Africans, the region has been reshaped and reinvigorated by more than three centuries of new waves of immigration. Networks of transportation, communication, travel, trade, and culture link the region to the world.

Related Topics: Global Connections and Impact

Themes

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Map

Timeline

Related Reading

Clark, Dennis. The Irish in Philadelphia: Ten Generations of Urban Experience. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973.

Davis, Allen, and Mark H. Haller, eds. The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower-Class Life, 1790-1840. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1973.

Gallman, J. Matthew. Receiving Erin’s Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845-1855. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Heinrich, Thomas R. Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Ignatiev, Noel. How the Irish Became White. New York: Routledge, 1995.

Juliani, Richard N. Building Little Italy: Philadelphia’s Italians Before Mass Migration. University Park, Pa.: Penn State Press, 1998.

Luconi, Stefano. From Paesani to White Ethnics: The Italian Experience in Philadelphia. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Peltz, Rakhmiel. From Immigrant to Ethnic Culture: American Yiddish in South Philadelphia. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Takenaka, Ayumi, and Mary Johnson Osirim, eds. Global Philadelphia: Immigrant Communities Old and New. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010.

Whalen, Carmen Teresa. From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican Workers and Postwar Economies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.

Related Collections

Balch Ethnic Studies Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia.

National Archives at Philadelphia, 900 Market Street, Philadelphia.

Horner Memorial Library, German Society of Pennsylvania, 611 Spring Garden Avenue, Philadelphia.

J. Welles Henderson Library and Archives, Independence Seaport Museum, Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia.

Links

Connecting the Past with the Present, Building Community, Creating a Legacy