Research Guides: HLTH/ ICPR 233 Community Engagement and Social Responsibility Seminar (HC): Maps & Images

Getting started...

When working with maps, don't take the information presented for granted. Pay attention to the descriptions of how the information was gathered and analyzed. Be as critical a reader of maps are you are with written materials.

The Lost Art of Critical Map Reading (Graphicarto)
This useful blog post discusses the rising popularity of readily made and shared "bad maps."

Maps and Images of Philadelphia

Social Explorer
Demographic Information from the US censuses from 1790-present.

Philadelphia Architects & Buildings
Search for building history info for historic buildings throughout PA

Greater Philadelphia Geohistory Network

City of Philadelphia Property Search
This site allows users to search for a specific address and find the services areas for various Philadelphia Services.
Landstat
Maps and data (mortgages, deeds, foreclosures) on Philadelphia County.
Phila.gov Maps
The City of Philadelphia provides a very rich variety of data from city agencies through these maps. Includes licensing data for business, zoning information, service areas, crime, etc.
Philadelphia NIS neighborhoodBase
Provides information from the U.S. Census and several city agencies on a variety of topics, including housing, population, land use, utilities, and more. Census information is from 2000; other city information is more recent. A project of the Cartographic Modeling Lab at the University of Pennsylvania.
PolicyMap
PolicyMap includes a range of indicators from the census tract level through the state level about communities. The availability of Home Mortgage Disclosure data is especially interesting.

Health Maps

Social Determinants of Health Map: CDC
Through it's "Healthy People in Healthy Places" initiatives, the CDC has created a series of maps related to different social determinants of health, including poverty and health insurance.

Note: these maps are full US maps, broken down by county.

Food Access Maps

Food Access Research Atlas (USDA)
This atlas presents a spatial overview of food access indicators for low-income and other census tracts using different measures of supermarket accessibility.
Supermarket Access Map (ArcGIS)
A user-made open access map that displays populations' "reasonable" access to supermarkets. It is US-scale, but can zoom in to street level.

Transit Access Maps

Access Across America: Transit 2014 (UM)
University of Minnesota map of transit access in US major metropolitan areas, including Philadelphia.

Crime Maps

With crime maps, in particular, you want to think carefully about who is producing the information and with what agenda. There a numerous popular crime map websites which can be more alarmist than critical.

Crime Maps & Stats (PPD)
Crime map and data produced by the Philadelphia Police Department.

Environmental Maps

Philly H2O: Bodies of Water
Aerial Photography of Philadelphia
Soil Survey of Philadelphia
Topographical Change in Philadelphia
TRI and Superfund TOXMap (NIH)
Zoomable map of US superfund and other environmental toxin sites.

Historical Maps

Places in Time This link opens in a new window
Contains links to indexes of lithographic, engraved, and photographic image collections, measured drawings, illustrations in architectural publications, real estate atlases and maps, city directories, tax records, census records, and scanned full-text resources relating to the five-county Philadelphia area. For access, contact library@brynmawr.edu

American Memory Map Collection
The American Memory Collection of archival and primary source materials pertinent to American culture and history. Includes maps as well as manuscripts, artifacts, etc.

David Rumsey Map Collection This link opens in a new window
Find 18th and 19th century historical maps at the city, country, and continent levels for North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania.

Mapping Du Bois - The Philadelphia Negro
A recreation of Du Bois' survey of Philadelphia's Seventh Ward.
Historic Streets Index
PhillyHistory.org
Provides online access to over 50,000 photographs from the collections of the Philadelphia Department of Records. Also provides digital access to the Philadelphia historical streets index and the Philadelphia historical photograph index.
Philadelphia maps, 1682-1982: townships, districts, wards
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