Women programming the ENIAC computer, built in 1943-45 at the Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (where my father earned his Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering).
As long as I’m at this, I may as well point to a few Philadelphia web sites that I visit on a fairly frequent basis. (You’ll also find these under “Philadelphia Links” in the right-hand column of the page; I’ll add to this list on occasion.) The list is far from complete, but I do recommend these sites to anyone in or outside of Philadelphia who wants to maintain their relationship to the city, even in this increasingly virtual world.
Billy Penn: Philadelphia news from a project supported by public broadcaster WHYY. I find this by far one of the best aggregators of Philadelphia news and opinion, produced with wit and skeptical panache, a truly Philadelphia characteristic.
Elfreth’s Alley: Life along one of America’s oldest residential streets. A museum, tours, and more.
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia: Billing itself as “the most comprehensive, authoritative reference source ever created for the Philadelphia region,” this project from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden is not comprehensive quite yet (what, nothing on the history of the city’s newspapers?), but it’s getting there, and there’s plenty to explore in the meantime.
Hidden City Philadelphia: The inside story on some of Philadelphia’s most interesting places, and a continuing call to preserve them. The organization also offers tours and a nice selection of merch for holiday and birthday giving.
Philadelphia: The Great Experiment: A fine television series about the history of the City of Brotherly Love, nearing completion. All current episodes are available online.
Each of these has associated Twitter and Facebook links; many of them, too, maintain newsletters. It’s worth signing up. And if you have a personal favorite or two you’d like me to know about — well, that’s what the comments section is for.
