Philadelphia Negro GIS

1. Philadelphia Negro GIS Amy Hillier University of Pennsylvania Cartographic Modeling Lab Benjamin Berman, research assistant

2. Project Goals • Make “that fat volume” that “no one reads” more accessible; • Develop engaging teaching materials about African American history; • Generate new interest in Philadelphia urban history; • Teach GIS skills by involving undergraduate and graduate students; • Produce research about DuBois’s research methods, residential segregation, and urban change; • Provide data infrastructure for additional academic research.

3. Project Overview • Georectify scanned versions of DuBois’s map from The Philadelphia Negro and fire insurance maps • Digitize 7th Ward parcels • Link to household-level data from 1900 US Census • Integrate photographs and institutional histories • Make accessible through online GIS • Target high school and undergraduate history classes • Develop guided walking tour using PDAs with GPS and wireless technology

4. DuBois’s map of class grades Images from original copies of The Philadelphia Negro in Charles Blockson Collection, Temple University and University of Pennsylvania Archives.

5. With current streets

6. With 1895 insurance map Digitized using 1895 Bromley fire insurance map, University of Pennsylvania Fine Arts Library

7. With 1900 US Census Data

9. Historical photos & narratives Pennsylvania Hospital On May 11, 1751, a charter is granted by the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital to care for the sick-poor and insane who wander the streets of Philadelphia. The story of the Good Samaritan is chosen as the official seal, and "Take Care of Him and I will repay Thee" ushers in a new attitude of social responsibility. In 1898, close to 300 soldiers were admitted to the hospital, wounded in the Spanish American War.

10. Walking tour guided by PDA “Starting at Seventh street and walking along Lombard, let us glance at the general character of the ward. Pausing a moment at the corner of Seventh and Lombard, we can at a glance view the worst Negro slums of the city. The houses are mostly brick, some wood, not very old, and in general uncared for rather than dilapidated…” W.E.B. DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro, p. 58. “From Sixteenth to Eighteenth, intermingled with some estimable families, is a dangerous criminal class. They are not the low, open idlers of Seventh and Lombard, but rather the graduate of that school: shrewd and sleek politicians, gamblers and confidence men, with a class of well-dressed and partially undetected prostitutes.” W.E.B. DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro, p. 61.

11. Research Questions • How did DuBois’s research methods reflect developments in the social sciences? How did they influence future developments? • What was the basis for DuBois’s class grades? • What was the nature of residential segregation by race, ethnicity, and migration status? • What happened to the blacks of the 7th Ward over the 20th Century? To black churches and other institutions? • How did housing conditions in Philadelphia compare with housing conditions in New York and other cities? • Do the empirical data, as recreated in this project, support DuBois’s findings?

12. J. M. Brewer Survey of Philadelphia (1934) (from the Free Library of Philadelphia map collection)

13. HOLC Residential Security Map (1937) Amy Hillier University of Pennsylvania