Details
Creator Jennings, William Nicholson, 1860-1946, photographer.
Contributor Pennsylvania Railroad.
Title Commerce St. looking east from 21st St. [graphic] / W.N. Jennings.
Publisher [Philadelphia]
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1925
Date March 25, 1925
Physical Description 1 negative : safety ; negative 21 x 26 cm (8 x 10 in.)
Description View of Commerce Street showing a section of the "Chinese Wall," the brick viaduct built in 1882 connecting the Broad Street and West Philadelphia railroad stations. Several playbills are pasted on the viaduct under which an African American man sits on a crate. Parked cars line the street. City Hall's tower is visible in the distance.
Notes Title and date from inscription on negative.
Inscribed on negative: 214924.
Note on negative sleeve: Pennsylvania Railroad No.77; Penna. R.R. Co. 214924.
Photograph commissioned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
Reproduced in Kenneth Finkel and Susan Oyama's Philadelphia, then and now. (NY: Dover, 1988), p. 28.
Reproduced in Harry Silcox's Jennings' Philadelphia: The life of Philadelphia photographer William Nicholson Jennings (1860-1946) (Philadelphia: Brighton Press, Inc., 1993), p. 110.
Purchase 1981.
Description revised 2022.
Access points revised 2022.
Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Biographical / historical note Jennings was a 20th century Philadelphia commercial and "progress" photographer whose clients included the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Subject African American men -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Automobiles -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Railroad bridges -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Geographic subject Commerce Street (Philadelphia, Pa.) -- 2100 block.
Genre Negatives -- 1920-1930.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Jennings [P.9480.214924]
Accession number P.9480.214924 (s)