Collection of 250 portrait photographs on postcard stock depicting residents of South Philadelphia and Kensington by amateur photographer John Frank Keith (1883-1947), ca. 1910-ca. 1940. Keith documented hundreds of, typically unidentified, working-class Philadelphians, individually, and as groups standing on sidewalks, in front of streetscape, and sitting on stoops. The majority of photographs date to the 1920s and show men, women, and children.

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Young woman standing outside a brick and stone house holding a child, Philadelphia.
Group portrait showing a young woman standing outside a brick house in Philadelphia, holding a little child. She wears high heels and a summery dress. The child is also in a summery outfit, and white shoes. The cellar windows have wrought iron screens and also lace curtains. The first floor windows have tie-back curtains and shades with tassels., Azo postcard., See Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh’s “Real Photo Postcard Guide: The People’s Photography,” (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p. 223., Keith was a Philadelphia photographer who specialized in portraiture, mainly of working-class Philadelphians in South Philadelphia and Kensington from the 1910s to the 1940s.
Young woman with two children standing in front of brick house, Philadelphia.
Group portrait showing a young woman in an attractive dark dress standing with two children in front of the window of a brick house in Philadelphia. She holds the hand one child, who is losing a diaper. A girl about eight years old holds the other hand of the child. She, too, is in a pretty dress. The window behind them is open and a sliding screen in place., Azo postcard., See Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh’s “Real Photo Postcard Guide: The People’s Photography,” (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p. 223., Keith was a Philadelphia photographer who specialized in portraiture, mainly of working-class Philadelphians in South Philadelphia and Kensington from the 1910s to the 1940s.

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