In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

This is a history of manufacturing in
Philadelphia, from its beginnings in the late
seventeenth century to the “postindustrial”
city of the early twenty-first. It is intended
as a broad overview of the subject for the
general reader; it is by no means a scholarly
or comprehensive study. To fully cover the
rich and complex story of manufacturing in
Philadelphia over the course of its 330-plus
year history would take several volumes. This
is a brief version of that long, multi-faceted
story, an overview of the key developments
and significant narratives in the history of
Philadelphia manufacturing, with a special
focus on the people and companies that have
had a particularly important role in shaping
that history. It is very much a pictorial history,
highly illustrated with archival photographs,
prints, and other images.
OVERALL GROWTH
AND DEVELOPMENT
OF MANUFACTURING
IN PHILADELPHIA
In its simplest form the history of manufacturing
in Philadelphia can be summarized
as follows: the commencement of manufacturing
on a mostly small scale by artisans and
craftsmen working in shops in the colonial
period, followed by the introduction of
machine-based factory production methods
in the early years of the nineteenth century,
leading to Philadelphia’s central role in
America’s industrial revolution of the early
to mid-nineteenth century, followed by the
development of manufacturing on a massive
scale and Philadelphia’s emergence as an
industrial giant in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth century. The latter period of
intense industrial activity was followed by a
dramatic downsizing in manufacturing in
the second half of the twentieth century
and the city’s transition to a much smaller,
more specialized manufacturing sector in the
late twentieth and early twenty-first century.
Within this broad, over-simplified story line
lays a myriad of individual narratives, a
web of interrelated stories that unfold in
intriguing and, in some cases, surprising or
dramatic fashion.
The history outlined above is similar in
many ways to that of any number of other
northern American cities that were once
major manufacturing centers. There are,
however, several specific characteristics to the
growth and development of manufacturing in
Philadelphia that make its history unique.
Chief among these is that Philadelphia has
always supported an amazing variety of
manufacturers. Unlike some cities—Detroit
and automobiles, Pittsburgh and steel—
Philadelphia was never dependent on just one
or two industries. The range of products the
city was a world leader in making is truly
extraordinary, encompassing textiles and garments,
hats, carpets, iron and steel products,
machine tools and hardware, locomotives,
street and rail cars, ships, saws, medical
@
Above: Aerial view of the massive Baldwin
Locomotive Works at Broad and Spring
Garden Streets, c. 1884. Baldwin was the
largest locomotive works in the world and
Philadelphia’s biggest employer at this
time. From History of Philadelphia,
1609-1884, by Thomas Scharf and
Thomson Westcott.
Below: Hog Island Shipyard,
South Philadelphia, 1918. Hog Island was
a huge naval shipyard during World War I,
employing over 35,000 workers who
assembled military vessels. It closed soon
after the War and the site later became
Philadelphia International Airport.
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL SHIPBUILDING COLLECTION,
INDEPENDENCE SEAPORT MUSEUM, PHILADELPHIA.
CHAPTER ONE
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