Over the past 50 years, the streets of Philadelphia have been a living laboratory for ethnographer Elijah Anderson. He’s been on the ground here since 1975 studying the people and the culture of our city. He’s published his findings in a series of groundbreaking books that have brought the lessons he’s learned in Philly to the rest of the world.



This is the second half of a two-part series. In this episode, we’ll pick up the story where Professor Anderson tries to understand the rise in violence in Philly streets.



Elijah Anderson is currently the Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University. He’s the author of A Place on the Corner (1978), Streetwise (1990), Code of the Street (1999), the Cosmopolitan Canopy (2011), and Black in White Space (2021). In 2021, Professor Anderson was awarded the international Stockholm Prize in Criminology for his pioneering work. The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is awarded for outstanding achievement in criminological research and the advancement of human rights.



Code of the Streets is being re-released by W.W. Norton in Spring 2025 with a new introduction by Professor Anderson.

Over the past 50 years, the streets of Philadelphia have been a living laboratory for ethnographer Elijah Anderson. He’s been on the ground here since 1975 studying the people and the culture of our city. He’s published his findings in a series of groundbreaking books that have brought the lessons he’s learned in Philly to the rest of the world.



Over two episodes, we’ll learn how Professor Anderson became an ethnographer, what drew him to the streets of Philadelphia, and what he learned there.



Elijah Anderson is currently the Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University. He’s the author of A Place on the Corner (1978), Streetwise (1990), Code of the Street (1999), the Cosmopolitan Canopy (2011), and Black in White Space (2021). In 2021, Professor Anderson was awarded the international Stockholm Prize in Criminology for his pioneering work. The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is awarded for outstanding achievement in criminological research and the advancement of human rights.



Code of the Streets is being re-released by W.W. Norton in Spring 2025 with a new introduction by Professor Anderson.

Casting a ballot on Election Day transformed into a completely different experience in the early twentieth century. Generally, voting in Philadelphia moved indoors, grew safer, more inclusive, and, maybe, a little boring. Or has it?



Our guest for this series is Professor Mark Brewin, Associate Professor of Media Studies, at the University of Tulsa. This mini-series relies heavily on Professor Brewin’s 2008 book Celebrating Democracy: The Mass Mediated Ritual of Election Day.



If you want to learn more and see images of Election Day in Philadelphia throughout history, follow this link to read the Election Day in Philadelphia Companion Blog. You’ll find a full list of my sources there as well.



This episode was mixed by The Wave Podcasting. Guitar, bass and drums played by Kai Reuter.

Voting changed after the Civil War in the newly consolidated City of Philadelphia. More men could vote on Election Day than ever before, and the vast majority of them did, though not without deadly violence. Government corruption also expanded. The Pennsylvania Republican party machine blatantly manipulated the vote. Yet, no one did much about it.



Our guest for this series is Professor Mark Brewin, Associate Professor of Media Studies, at the University of Tulsa. This mini-series relies heavily on Professor Brewin’s 2008 book Celebrating Democracy: The Mass Mediated Ritual of Election Day.



If you want to learn more and see images of Election Day in Philadelphia throughout history, follow this link to read the Election Day in Philadelphia Companion Blog. You’ll find a full list of my sources there as well.



This episode was mixed by The Wave Podcasting. Guitar, bass and drums played by Kai Reuter.

The founding fathers wanted to pretend that the government of the newly formed United States stood above faction. But organizing and get out the vote tactics in the streets of Philadelphia proved this wasn’t true. By 1830, political parties had become a driving force behind Election Day. Voting was now a partisan contest limited to only white men. In Philly, the day had a wild, festival feeling that could, and often did, turn violent.



Our guest for this series is Professor Mark Brewin, Associate Professor of Media Studies, at the University of Tulsa. This mini-series relies heavily on Professor Brewin’s 2008 book Celebrating Democracy: The Mass Mediated Ritual of Election Day.



If you want to learn more and see images of Election Day in Philadelphia throughout history, follow this link to read the Election Day in Philadelphia Companion Blog. You’ll find a full list of my sources there as well.



This episode was mixed by The Wave Podcasting. Guitar, bass and drums played by Kai Reuter.

Colonial Philadelphia’s government provided a striking contrast to the more egalitarian, consensus-driven leadership of the Native American Lenape. Election Day in colonial Philadelphia placed a spotlight on the social hierarchy with a highly orchestrated, political ritual where wealthy male voters took the stage. But maintaining the high ground wasn’t always easy.



Our guest for this series is Professor Mark Brewin, Associate Professor of Media Studies, at the University of Tulsa. This mini-series relies heavily on Professor Brewin’s 2008 book Celebrating Democracy: The Mass Mediated Ritual of Election Day.



If you want to learn more and see images of Election Day in Philadelphia throughout history, follow this link to read the Election Day in Philadelphia Companion Blog. You’ll find a full list of my sources there as well.



This episode was mixed by The Wave Podcasting. Guitar, bass and drums played by Kai Reuter.

These are the women’s movement histories that you haven’t heard.



After the Civil War, women from all walks of life worked to make Philadelphia a better place. Some tried to clean up the streets. Some walked the streets in protest. And some continued, quietly, to improve their everyday lives through community and collective action.  



If you learned something new in the episode, don’t forget to leave a review and tell a friend about the podcast!



Find out what I couldn’t fit into this episode at the companion blog for Episode 20 at FoundinPhiladelphia.com. You’ll also find historical images and find a full list of resources for this episode.



Purchase books that inspired the podcast while supporting your local bookstore (and this podcast!) at bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.



This episode was edited and mixed by The Wave Podcasting.

When you walk around the city at night, do you enjoy the glimpses you get of other people’s well-lit homes? If you do (and who doesn’t?), then this episode is for you.



We’re going to peer into the homes of the different people living in Philadelphia during the Gilded Age. We’ll look at how they lived, what they ate, and explore what happened when they all met in the street.



If you enjoy the episode, don’t forget to leave a review and tell a friend about the podcast!



Check out some historical images and find a full list of resources for this episode in the companion blog for Episode 19 at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Purchase books that inspired the podcast while supporting your local bookstore (and this podcast!) at bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.



This episode was edited and mixed by The Wave Podcasting.

Despite cycles of economic depression, Philadelphia transformed during the Gilded Age. Entire neighborhoods sprang up to house a growing population. Major infrastructure projects changed how people experienced the street. For some, it was a time of marvels. For others, it brought new perils to the street.



To see historical images and find a full list of resources for this episode, check out the companion blog for Episode 18 at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Purchase books that inspired the podcast while supporting your local bookstore (and this podcast!) at bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.



If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to leave a review!

A 144-year old hotel register from Springfield, Ohio, sends us on the trail of the fly-by-night Philadelphia Blue Stockings. The pursuit will take us through the rough-and-tumble world of late 19th century baseball as we uncover the precarious place of women in sport.



WARNING: This episode deals with sexual abuse of minors and may not be suitable for everyone.



Support your local bookstore and the podcast by buying books that inspired this episode at https://bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.

We’re rebroadcasting this earlier episode about the Black community’s fight to integrate Philly’s streetcars in the years following the Civil War 1865-1871. This story fits into the timeline of the series on the history of Philly’s streets. It details the legislative and physical battles fought to win access to public transportation in Philadelphia.



Stay tuned as we continue to work on new episodes in this series on the history of Philly’s streets.

Philadelphia, like the rest of the nation, was poorly prepared for war. When the Civil War broke out, the cobbled-together city became a key part of the North’s thrown-together war machine. The war flowed through Philly streets, where city residents fought to make the best of a bad situation.



To see historical images and find a full list of resources for this episode, check out the companion blog for Episode 16 at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Purchase books that inspired the podcast while supporting your local bookstore (and this podcast!) at bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.



If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to leave a review!

In a remarkably short period of time, the newly consolidated city of Philadelphia was covered in rails. These rails ushered in a transit revolution: the horse-drawn streetcar.



From 1858 to 1861, the streetcar transformed Philly streets. It filled a major gap in the city’s existing, patchwork transportation system. But the streetcar also disrupted city life because demolition, greed, and racism ran along those rails too.



To see historical images and find a full list of resources for this episode, check out the companion blog for Episode 15 at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Purchase books that inspired the podcast while supporting your local bookstore (and this podcast!) at bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.



Contribute to the fundraiser to erect a gravestone marker for Caroline Le Count in Eden Cemetery at GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/honor-caroline-lecount-philadelphias-rosa-parks/share



Find out how you can get involved with the Rename Taney effort online at https://www.renametaney.com/and on Instagram @rename_taney



Learn more about the amazing work of the Young Chances Foundation http://www.youngchancesfoundation.org/

What kind of city did Philadelphia want to be? There were lots of different opinions in the 1840s and 1850s, but everyone agreed: it did not want to be like this.



Our modern city was born out of the ashes of racist violence and anti-immigrant riots. During unstable times, the streets themselves became a weapon used by mobs to break, bludgeon, and burn. The efforts to restore order in the streets moved Philly towards the modern city we know today.



To see historical images and find a full list of resources for this episode, check out the companion blog for Episode 14 at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Purchase books that inspired the podcast while supporting your local bookstore (and this podcast!) at bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.

This episode is all about change and disruption. Early factories were changing the way Philadelphia worked, and it wasn’t pretty. Dismal conditions brought workers together in the streets to demand reforms, which were derailed by an economic collapse. In the background, steam technology was about to transform Philly’s streets. A frenzy of railroad construction in the city brought chaos, as railways unsettled the traditions of street life in an expanding, explosive Philadelphia.



Explore historical maps and images, and see a full list of my sources, in the companion blog for this episode at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Purchase books that inspired the podcast while supporting your local bookstore at bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.



Any questions or comments? You can contact the podcast on the “About” page of the website, or on Instagram.



And if you’re enjoying the show, help others find it by leaving a review! Thank you!

Life overflowed onto the streets of Philadelphia in the Early Republic. The streets were intensely social spaces, but could also be extremely dangerous. As the city grew, it began to take an interest in its past. Street life ebbed and flowed around a boozy calendar of events, where the powerful displayed the proper order of things, and the working class turned that proper order on its head.



Find out more and see a full bibliography in the companion blog for this episode at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Join the podcast and Beyond the Bell Tours for our joint “Badass Women’s History Tour” on July 21, 2022, at 6:30pm. Book you tickets here, or find the tour at BeyondtheBellTours.com.



You can page through the 1810 Cries of Philadelphia children’s book here; and learn about the history of pepper pot stew in Philly from food historian Tonya Hopkins here.

The United States of America was street tested in Philly. From the chaos of the American Revolution, to its role as the national capital of the early Republic, Philadelphia was a messy, testing ground for seeing how the ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were lived by people on the street.



The city was a place of divided loyalties and social divisions that played out in public. Streets were the stage for political theater, where mainstream and dissenting voices vied for control during war and its aftermath. And all of this turmoil took place against a backdrop of recurring public health crises.



Check out the companion block to find out more, get a full bibliography, and see some period images FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Shop the Found in Philly Bookshop at Bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly.



Get out and see some Philly history for yourself with Beyond the Bell Tours.

Philadelphia in the 1700s is a tale of two cities. The city is innovative and forward thinking about improving public spaces. But the city is also a place of deeply entrenched inequality. And you can see it in the streets.



From small colonial town, to the largest city in British North America, Philadelphia’s wealth and prosperity is built with the bound labor of enslaved Africans and desperately poor, white indentured servants. The city grows by criss-crossing Penn’s large city blocks with alleyways and courts, where smaller and smaller houses shelter the working class, while the wealthy live in bigger houses on the main streets.



For everyone, the streets are dirty, dark, and dangerous. And the city has few resources to make things better.



But something’s got to change, and some things do.   



Find out more at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



Check out the podcast bookstore at Bookshop.org/shop/foundinphilly. You can support both the podcast and your favorite local bookstore while shopping for books.



You can also get outside, with real people, who are interested in the history of Philadelphia at Beyond the Bell Tours.

Streets are our most basic, and fundamental, public spaces. Cities can’t work without them. But we tend to take them for granted. The everyday-ness of the street gives us a false sense that the streets were always there, pretty much doing the same thing. But our streets have a history too.



In this episode, we’ll get in to why streets, and their history, matter. And then we’ll discuss some of the early history revealed by Philly’s streets.   



Find out more at the companion blog for this episode at FoundinPhiladelphia.com.



You can also get outside, with real people, who are interested in the history of Philadelphia at Beyond the Bell Tours.



If you enjoy the episode, don’t forget to rate the podcast and leave a review. Thank you!

At long last… the Found in Philadelphia podcast is back with a new series about the history of Philly’s streets. It’s been… a pandemic. But it feels good to be back.



While you’re waiting, check out some Philly history in the news:



The amazing Sha’von Smith and the Grounded Theatre Company continue to produce original works that are inspired by history. See what they’re up to next at www.groundedtheatrecompany.org, and bring the theatre production to your school courtesy of the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion.



Residents choose to rename their street after Caroline Le Count! Read all about it at www.renametaney.com.



Archeological excavations continue at the James West shipyard site along Columbus Boulevard, revealing insights into Philadelphia’s early trading history.



Philly’s 7th Ward Tribute project is working with artists on a place-based experience to be installed later this year. Stay tuned at www.7thwardtribute.com



Beyond the Bell Tours is back in person, offering inclusive history tours for visitors and locals alike at www.beyondthebelltours.com.



Get in touch on your Instagram or at the Found in Philadelphia podcast website.