Many will recall the program series that launched The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia — the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable. This spring we are pleased to again invite you to a series of conversations about our region’s history and contemporary issues.
Sanctuaries: Past Into Present
Throughout American history, people have come to the Philadelphia region seeking opportunity, while others have been fleeing persecution, and still others have been forced here in chains. When have these migrants been granted the right to feel safe, and when have they been denied safety? How do we come to grips with our country’s contradictory history of celebrating the diversity these many migrations produced, while denying rights to many?
This spring, join friends and neighbors for a series of free public seminars across greater Philadelphia. Learn from local experts about Philadelphia’s immigration and migration history, hear from activists working in the region now, and grapple with how our complicated histories shape today’s social and political landscape.
In Search of the Underground Railroad: Connecting People, Places, and Things April 2, 2019 Pop-Up Exhibits at 6 p.m., Lecture at 7 p.m. Rutgers-Camden Campus Center Featuring archaeologist Cheryl LaRoche and community partners.
Discover how historians and archaeologists connect people, places, and things to better understand the lives of enslaved people who sought sanctuary with the Underground Railroad. Link for further information and registration.
Sanctuary Now, Sanctuary When? April 23, 2019, 6 p.m. Arch Street Meeting House 320 Arch Street, Philadelphia Featuring Domenic Vitiello (University of Pennsylvania) and Blanca Pacheco (New Sanctuary Movement)
Learn how the idea of “sanctuary” became part of immigration justice lexicon in the United States and what we can all learn from the experiences of refugees and activists, past and present. Link for further information and registration.
Sanctuary in Sickness, Sanctuary in Health June 4, 2019, 6 p.m. Philadelphia Lazaretto Second Street and Wanamaker Avenue, Essington, Pa. Featuring David Barnes (University of Pennsylvania)
Explore the Philadelphia Lazaretto, discover the critical role it played in Philadelphia’s immigration history, and contemplate the past, present, and future of health care for our most vulnerable. Link for further information and registration.
Sanctuaries: Past into Present is a Greater Philadelphia Roundtable program series of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, produced at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden. “In Search of the Underground Railroad” is supported by the Office of the Chancellor at Rutgers-Camden and co-sponsored by the following departments and programs: History, Africana Studies, Liberal Studies, and Forensic Science.
The American Revolution in Delaware is the subject of a new book by Kim Rogers Burdick, who also is the author of the essay about the gunpowder industry in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. According to the History Press, the publisher of Revolutionary Delaware: Independence in the First State:
In 1776, Delaware declared independence from both England and Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Three Lower Counties of Pennsylvania, the First State was instrumental in the fight to form a new republic. The Marquis de Lafayette, Nathanael Greene and George Washington all made trips to the state. Caesar Rodney’s ride and the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge are legendary, but the state has many unsung heroes. Citizens from every village, town, crossroads and marsh risked their lives to support their beliefs. Author Kim Burdick offers the carefully documented story of ordinary people coping with extraordinary circumstances.
Kim Burdick will speak and sign copies of her book on Saturday, December 17, at 10:30 a.m. at the Kirkwood Library, 6000 Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington, Delaware.
Pictured here, one of SEPTA’s Regional Rail trains crosses the Schuylkill River near the Girard Avenue Bridge on its way from the far reaches of the city into 30th Street Station and the Center City train stations (photograph by Donald G. Groff for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia).
Recently, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) announced that it would be forced to dramatically cut service and raise fares because of a $213 million deficit in next year’s budget (which begins on July 1, 2025). Proposed changes include the elimination of fifty bus routes, five regional rail lines and one metro line, a 20 percent reduction in service and the elimination of all services after 9PM on the surviving regional rail and metro lines, and a 20 percent reduction in service on surviving bus lines. This announcement had the effect that SEPTA likely sought: outrage and shock over the proposed cutbacks and demands that the state find the needed funds.
As a scholar who studies the history of public transportation, I was neither shocked nor surprised by the deficit or the proposed service cuts and fare increases. SEPTA has been inadequately funded through most of its history and this issue has only become worse in the twenty-first century. My entry on the history of SEPTA for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia concluded that “From its founding, SEPTA [has] struggled with structural, funding, and management issues [and t]hese issues, along with the growth of reverse commuting and labor strife, continued to challenge SEPTA and its riders in the early twenty-first century.” From the 1980s onward, Pennsylvania has focused on largely short-term solutions to these issues.
The current funding crisis dates to the summer of 2024. At that time SEPTA warned of dramatic service cuts and fare increases, prompting Governor Josh Shapiro to propose an increase in funding for the transit authority. After the Pennsylvania legislature refused to pass the requested increase, Shapiro, in what he termed a “stopgap measure,” transferred $153 million in state highway funds to SEPTA. Nothing has changed over the last year and, due to federal funding cuts, Shapiro likely no longer has a magic pot of cash from which he can recreate last year’s miracle.
SEPTA’s funding problems are not unique to it or other transit providers in the Commonwealth, as Pennsylvania does not adequately fund any form of transportation. Although the political battle in Harrisburg is often characterized as one between rural Republicans who want highway money and urban Democrats who want transit funding, the state actually doesn’t fund either of these areas at adequate levels. Poorly funded transportation infrastructure is not just a Pennsylvania problem, however, as unsafe roads and bridges are common throughout the United States. A decade ago, Pennsylvania had the highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges of any state, but Shapiro and the legislature increased highway funding in 2023-2024 and this has allowed the state to make progress in that area. What Pennsylvania needs is a similar consensus on mass transit.
A key part of SEPTA’s problem, however, is the public perception that the general manager and the board are politicians and not transportation experts capable of dealing effectively with the challenges at hand. With recent disasters like the painful implementation of the Key transit card program and the delayed introduction of the “bus revolution” it’s easy to see how people form this impression. It is worth noting, however, that the desire to save money motivated SEPTA to do both of these projects in-house rather that use an existing (and proven) transit payment system and to hire an established consultant to revise the bus routes.
Arguably SEPTA needs leadership that has politically savvy people at the top who can work with City Hall, Harrisburg and Washington on acquiring a stable funding base and a mid-level management who know how to run buses, trolleys and trains. It is worth recalling that one of SEPTA’s greatest crises was its truly disastrous takeover of the direct operation of the regional rail network in 1983 when David Gunn was general manager. Gunn was midway into his over forty- year career when he worked in Philadelphia and was acknowledged as one of North America’s greatest transit experts. A shutdown of the commuter rail system, followed by the longest strike in SEPTA’s history, caused such a massive decline in ridership that it took over twenty years for the system to recover. So, perhaps transportation expertise at the most senior levels can be overrated.
What SEPTA, its riders, and all users of transportation infrastructure really need are politicians in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington who are less interested in sound bites and press conferences and are more concerned with sustaining a transportation system essential to the regional economy. This is a truly existential crisis for SEPTA, as, if the proposed cuts go through, it is difficult to see any justification for SEPTA’s continued existence. Eliminating effectively half of the suburban rail network (and all service after 9 PM) and most suburban bus lines, will leave greater Philadelphia with less regional, cross-county service than existed even before SEPTA was created. Such a setback to the region’s evolving integration in such sectors as healthcare and research would be deeply damaging in lost revenue not just locally but to the state budget itself.
John Hepp is Professor of History Emeritus at Wilkes University and his focus is urban cultural history in the period 1600 to the present. He is a regular rider of SEPTA’s Cynwyd Line, a six-mile-long regional rail line with a total of seven trips a day.
We’re pleased to share the news of new support for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project from the Digital Studies Center at Rutgers-Camden. This grant will allow us to improve and expand our bibliographic survey by migrating it to Zotero, a platform that will make the citations more user-friendly and accessible to the public. Watch our Sources page for this transformation by the end of the summer.
A newly-awarded grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council will allow us to launch the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable, a series of public forums for dialogue that will help shape the contents of the Encyclopedia. The first sessions of the roundtable, beginning in March, will respond to suggestions received on this web site and at our Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop last year. See our Events calendar for details of the first three roundtables, and watch for an additional session that is being planned on African American history. Each session will feature new research, lively discussion, and the opportunity to contribute ideas for Encyclopedia topics.
Sincere thanks to all who contributed to our one-day fundraiser on Rutgers Giving Day, March 23, 2022. Your generosity will enable more than 250 hours of employment for students who gain valuable skills at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) as they do fact-checking, illustrations research, and digital publishing for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. We appreciate your support!
On March 21 during Rutgers Giving Day, scholars, students, community members, and staff came together to support The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, produced by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden.
The dedication of all who donated and promoted our cause through social media is truly inspiring. Your generous contributions will be used to employ the students who help to make digital publication of The Encyclopedia possible. Keep an eye on our website or like us on Facebook to watch our essay collection grow!
We are so grateful for the opportunity to continue producing original scholarship and making it accessible to readers like you. Thank you!
P.S. Missed your chance to donate on Giving Day? Make a gift to support The Encyclopedia today!
Our spring series of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable concluded May 11 with a capacity audience at the African American Museum in Philadelphia for “Philadelphia’s Black Attorneys: Not Just Lawyers but ‘Social Engineers.'” We extend to thanks to everyone who contributed their time and efforts to these community dialogues, which collectively drew more than 300 participants to four different venues and generated lively exchanges of information and views. These programs have demonstrated the strong interest of a variety of individuals and groups in being represented in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. We also have heard of the importance of understanding the past in order to plan for the future, especially the need to reach out to today’s youth. The extraordinary collaboration among so many groups and individuals forged by these programs will guide the planning of future programs and help to shape the future content of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Please continue to join the dialogue as we post summaries of the spring discussions and watch for announcements of future events.
Our new initiative for civic dialogue, the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable, began this week with a gathering at the William Way Community Center for a panel, “Striving for Equality: LGBT Activism in Greater Philadelphia.” The discussion highlighted the generations of activism necessary to achieve goals such as the Philadelphia civil rights bill and the Pennsylvania hate crimes bill. By understanding the connections that advocates for LGBT rights have forged between Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington, we gained insight into Philadelphia’s impact in the state and nation. We discussed the importance of visibility for LGBT people in Philadelphia’s history and the prospects for continuing conversation and future collaborations with the Encyclopedia project. We thank the participants and many cosponsors of this event, especially facilitator Kathy Padilla for organizing the panel. Thanks also to Professor William Hewitt of West Chester University for stepping in as speaker to discuss the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin. Topics submitted on comment cards have been posted on our nominations page , and a more detailed summary of the event will be posted soon to allow the conversation to continue.
The Greater Philadelphia Roundtable is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities We the People initiative for American history.
The first event of the spring semester for Penn Urban Studies will feature a talk by Timothy P.R. Weaver, the author of the essay about Enterprise Zones and Empowerment Zones in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Weaver, who is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, will speak about his book, Blazing the Neoliberal Trail: Urban Political Development in the United States and the United Kingdom (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015). His talk, titled “The Rise of the Market City: Unfettered Capitalism and Urban Transformation in the U.S. and the U.K.,” will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 19, at the Penn Bookstore, Thirty-Sixth and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia.
The most-visited topics for 2016 reflect the issues of the presidential year, topics of interest for students and teachers, and some perennial Philadelphia favorites.
Which topics were our most-visited during 2015? Our statistics reveal some patterns: The political season seems to have had an impact on readership of topics related to immigration and nativism. We also see heavy use of topics related to Philadelphia’s decade as the nation’s capital, a popular subject for students and teachers in U.S. history courses. Finally, there are some distinctively Philadelphia topics in our top ten.
Here is the list, beginning with the tenth most-read and leading to number one:
We always see a surge of traffic to “City of Brotherly Love” when sports announcers invoke the phrase during nationally televised Eagles games!
Thanks to all of our authors and to the 227,733 unique visitors who came to The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia during 2015. We look forward to expanding our coverage for you in the new year.
Scrapple received a big boost on May 31, 2021, from a link in the New York Times from Maureen Dowd’s interview with Kate Winslett about her role in Mare of Easttown. Thanks to all of our readers who visited throughout the year.
And the most-visited topic for 2022 is a longtime favorite, one of the essays that launched The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project when co-published with the Philadelphia Inquirer and WHYY:
As we begin a new year at The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, we invite you to revisit the most-read topics of 2024. Did your favorites make the list?
To all of our readers, authors, editors, and staff, thank you for your continuing interest and support! Make sure to visit the home page for links to our most recently published topics.
Earlier this summer, two of the Encyclopedia’s editors, Charlene Mires and Howard Gillette, participated in a meeting of the Association of Philadelphia Tourguides. Building on that fruitful discusison, we now welcome this organization to our growing board of civic partners. Bob Skiba will serve as liaison between the guides and the Encyclopedia.
Frequent users of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia may notice that some features of our website are unavailable or not working properly. The website is undergoing review and maintenance to improve functions and security, so thank you for your patience. You will still be able to read the text for all topics.
If you wish to reach other features, such as texts in image galleries, you may be able to access them through the copy of the website in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine:
The editors, authors, and staff of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia are honored to welcome scholars from Vietnam on November 29. Under the auspices of the Social Science Research Council, the delegation has come to the United States to learn about encyclopedia projects in preparation for producing an Encyclopedia of Vietnam. Read more about the visit on the website of Rutgers-Camden, where The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is produced.
As The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia expands, so does our team of editors. We are pleased to welcome the following colleagues, whose work you will begin to see in the Encyclopedia over the next several months:
Donald D. Groff, a veteran journalist, is our new managing editor.
Tyler Hoffman, Professor of English at Rutgers-Camden, is an associate editor who will oversee topics related to literature and theater.
Jean Soderlund, Professor of History at Lehigh University, is associate editor for early American topics up to 1800.
Roger Turner, Associate Fellow at Dickinson College, is associate editor for topics in the areas of science, technology and medicine.
The expertise and talents of these individuals undoubtedly will enrich The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia in many ways as the project continues to grow. Welcome to the team!
Visitors to the Walnut Street West branch of the Free Library began adding their suggestions for the Encyclopedia at our information table on February 16. A suggestion box will remain at the library for two weeks (until around March 2), so continue to add your ideas! Nominations of topics also are welcome on this web site, where we have already posted some submissions from Walnut Street West.
Discussion at the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable session on April 1 at the Historical Society of Pennsvylania yielded a wealth of insight into the needs and potential for new research on twentieth-century women’s history. We have posted topic suggestions from participants’ comment cards on our Nominations page. Watch for a summary of the discussion to be posted soon.
Invitation to graduate students and other interested scholars: The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, based at Rutgers-Camden, is forming a working group to do original research into Philadelphia’s connections with other regions of the United States and the world. You can help us enhance the Encyclopedia with these topics and break new ground – and perhaps find a thesis, dissertation, or book topic in the process. We anticipate a meeting early in the spring and research during the summer. Modest compensation is available for accepted essays, which will be peer-reviewed.
Let us know if you are interested! Send an email with a brief description of your interests and qualifications to Charlene Mires, cmires@camden.rutgers.edu.
