Philadelphia

Philadelphia. Founded by William Penn in 1682, Philadelphia was the last of the major Atlantic coastal cities to be established. Penn envisioned a Quaker city, but his policy of religious freedom and his promotion of Pennsylvania's potential wealth attracted a multinational immigration that eventually became the prototype of American heterogeneity. Although Quakers early became a minority of Philadelphia's population, their ideas continued to exert a strong influence on the city's culture. The career of Benjamin Franklin, who arrived as a youth from Boston in 1723, is inextricably linked to Philadelphia.

By 1750, Philadelphia was not only the largest city in British North America but the most modern as well, providing public amenities such as street lighting and an architecturally advanced cityscape featuring up‐to‐date buildings like Independence Hall (1735). For the next fifty years, Philadelphia also enjoyed something of a golden age in its politics, economy, and culture. Many key events in the formation of the new nation were centered there: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution were all born in Philadelphia; and the national government was located there from 1790 to 1799. Its commerce, both overseas and coastwise, surpassed all other American ports, and a broad industrial base led by shipbuilding encouraged new systems of technology and labor practices, as well as a sophisticated banking system. European‐style libraries, museums, learned societies, and a rapidly developing publishing industry assured the city's cultural preeminence.

In the two centuries following removal of the national government to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia's preeminence gradually declined. Overtaken in population by New York City in the early 1800s and by Chicago in 1890, it nevertheless remained significant in industry and commerce until after World War II. Philadelphia expressed its civic pride through an international Centennial Exposition in 1876, but by 1900 a “corrupt but contented” city increasingly became the butt of comedians' jokes. By 1950, although its suburbs continued to grow, the city's population had begun a long decline, dropping 25 percent over the next half century, with matching losses in industry and jobs.

As the fifth largest city in the United States, Philadelphia in the 1990s built on decades of government reform and an improved economic outlook to stimulate new vitality, positioning itself to exploit its historical and cultural advantages. Some of the character of late twentieth‐century Philadelphia reflected its history as an older eastern city with an outdated infrastructure; social problems arising from centuries of unplanned growth; and tensions as well as cooperation among religious, ethnic, and racial groups. On the other hand, the city was also marked by a unique dynamic between the strong grip of tradition and local innovations of national significance. This dynamic is well exemplified in Independence National Historical Park, where the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and other eighteenth‐century icons represent both what was innovative and forward‐looking in the creation of the United States and what remains most traditional and lasting.
See also Anti‐Catholic Movement; Bartram, John and William; Colonial Era; Constitutional Convention of 1787; Early Republic, Era of the; Mott, Lucretia; Nativism; Revolution and Constitution, Era of; Society of Friends; Wanamaker, John; World's Fairs and Expositions.

Bibliography

Russell F. Weigley, Nicholas B. Wainwright, and Edwin Wolf 2d, eds., Philadelphia: A 300‐Year History, 1982.

Stephanie Grauman Wolf