PhilaPlace » technology

From the legendary docks of Fishtown came…The Slinky

Ian Charlton — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:15:54 +0000

Slinky inventor Richard James and son Thomas, play with Slinkys on the stairs of the James family home in Philadelphia in 1945. Courtesy of the Independence Seaport Museum.

Last week I was researching Cramp’s shipyard in Fishtown so that I could add this site to the PhilaPlace map. Cramp’s shipyard was a fixture on the docks of Fishtown from 1830 until the end of World War II (with the exception of a twelve-year stretch during the Great Depression when it fell into disrepair). It had developed a reputation for producing not only commercial ships but also “men of war” starting in the Mexican War and continuing through World War II. Cramp’s good reputation was international– it produced ships for the Imperial Russian Navy as well as the Ottomans. Benefitting from lucrative naval contracts, during World War I Cramp’s employed 11,000 workers. During World War II, the number shot up to 18,000. Cramp’s was a major player in the shift from wooden clipper ships to steam-driven ships of iron and finally steel ships.

But here’s a little known fact my supervisor came across last week–the Slinky was also invented at Cramp’s when naval engineer Richard James’s work with tension springs gave him the idea for a children’s toy in 1943. He unveiled the new toy in Philadelphia at Gimbels department store in 1945. Here is yet another example of a consumer product that emerged (albeit indirectly) from capital the military invested in new technology. And conveniently, there is an exhibit about this very topic now running at the Independence Seaport Museum. The exhibit, which runs until January 3, 2011, includes such products as the Slinky, bellbottoms, and car tail lights. Yes, I know what you’re thinking– it does sound really cool. So check it out!

…and for your viewing and listening pleasure, alone, or in pairs:

New map features on PhilaPlace.org are live now!

Melissa Mandell — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:37:05 +0000

PhilaPlace.org has just launched some exciting new features on its map page! Visitors can click on the new “Streets” tab and view enhanced historical maps that reveal in-depth patterns of change over time for specific blocks in South Philadelphia and Northern Liberties neighborhoods. Land-use and census data recreate details and activities on a street, house by house, business by business, for South 4th Street’s “Fabric Row;” the South 9th Street market; the neighborhoods destroyed by the construction of Interstate 95; and the historically African American settlement on Wallace Street in Northern Liberties once known as Paschall’s Alley.

“Through visual representations overlaid on the contemporary and historic maps, visitors can see with a glance how key areas at certain points in time changed in terms of ethnic make-up, land use, and occupation,” explained Joan Saverino, PhilaPlace project director. For instance, the map for the blocks of South 9th Street shows the dramatic rise in Italian immigrant households in the decade between 1880 and 1900. The I-95 map recreates several square blocks of Front Street as they existed in 1963, before construction began on the Interstate. The entire I-95 swath displaced hundreds of families and destroyed homes including all but a few of the earliest wooden 18th-century houses in what is now Queen Village. “We will add more contextual information in the future…this is a pilot for what we would like to demonstrate on a larger scale, too,” said Saverino.

The maps were produced by one of PhilaPlace’s key partners, Amy Hillier, Assistant Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania, and undergraduate and graduate students who worked under her supervision. Professor Hillier writes:

In my work as a teacher and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, I create or review a computer-generated map just about every day. I teach students how to use geographic information systems (GIS) to map everything from crime data to block party locations. My own research uses GIS to analyze historical and contemporary disparities in things like the accessibility of healthy foods, exposure to outdoor ads for unhealthy products, and access to mortgages. I can map just about anything that has an address…. or so I thought before working with Joan Saverino and her team on PhilaPlace. PhilaPlace is about sharing stories about neighborhoods where people used to live or currently live. It’s pretty easy to map places that come up in stories, things like the house where someone grew up, the bakery or soda fountain where they went for a treat, and where they were married. What’s not as easy is to map the meanings that people associate with these locations, the things that make them places. Together with student interns from Penn, Drexel, Temple, and Skidmore and some wonderful older adults from the Stiffel Community Center in South Philadelphia, we have been exploring ways to use online maps to help people tell and share stories. In addition to offering some innovative mapping techniques on the PhilaPlace website, we hope our efforts will contribute to a growing dialogue about how GIS technologies can be part of qualitative research.

All of the maps used on the PhilaPlace MAP page can also be found as individual images on our COLLECTION page by searching the word maps (no quotation marks) in the search box and clicking on the media results.

Pavements and Podcasts: Urban Studies at Masterman High

Amy Jane Cohen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:56:53 +0000

My most memorable project in high school was one in which I researched my own house. I remember how thrilling it was to find my house on old maps at the Historical Society, to see my street address in City Directories, to trace the deeds of my house at City Hall, and to find census data at the Free Library. By finding out about my house, I also learned about the history of my neighborhood and of the city of Philadelphia. Indeed, when I think about why I decided to major in history at college and to become a teacher of history, I know that completing that project was a pivotal event.

As a 21st -century teacher of social studies, I wanted to give my students the opportunity to experience a similar hands-on and highly relevant research process. I also recognized, however, that today’s students have a range of presentation tools available which were unimaginable when I was in high school. I share with my students my prized project, painstakingly put together with construction paper, handwritten pages, and even crayon. They (and I) find it hard to believe that in 1981, this constituted an “A” project:

While teaching Urban Studies as a senior elective this year at Masterman High School, I hoped to combine the excitement of primary research with the sophistication of today’s technology. As a member of HSP’s teacher advisory committee, I was familiar with PhilaPlace from its early stages, and as PhilaPlace evolved, my ideas evolved as well. Visiting the PhilaPlace website with its rich graphics, personal stories, and extensive documentation, gave my students an ideal model of what on-line neighborhood research could look like.

Though my students could not hope to create something on the scale of PhilaPlace, they did successfully produce their own neighborhood websites, working either individually or in groups of up to five members. While some of the students chose to learn more about their own surroundings, others used the website assignment as an opportunity to explore an area with which they were less familiar.

I gave the students alot of choice in terms of how they pursued and presented their research. Many students engaged in archival research similar to what I had done, however, with digital cameras and scanners, they were able to include images of maps, news articles, and archival photos. Some students attended community events, interviewed neighborhood residents, or visited community-gathering places as part of their research. All of these interpersonal experiences were documented both visually and in writing. Creatively inclined students produced (and then scanned) original drawings or created photo essays on a theme relevant to the neighborhood. Tech-savvy, and not so tech-savvy, students developed interactive digital maps, podcasts, PowerPoints, and videos.

From what I can tell, the students have enjoyed the hands-on and close-to-home aspect of their research just as much as I had. But, clearly, their ability to share their research and analysis greatly exceeded my own.

Each of the student websites can be found by clicking Project Pages. Enjoy their youthful enthusiasm and humor. And, please, reflect for a moment how far we have come from the era of projects held together with glue and string!

I should add that I teach students at the top academic school in Philadelphia which draws students from throughout the city. Their work on these sites is evidence of both their intelligence and their diversity, traits which have enriched the Urban Studies class throughout the year. For one of the first assignments of the school year, students developed a metaphor to describe their own slice of urban life. A ride on the R7 train was compared to a family reunion; Lemon Hill became a VFW post; and Washington Square Park was a needle in an urban haystack.

Amy Jane Cohen teaches in the Social Studies Department at the Julia R. Masterman School in Philadelphia