Answer: The Philadelphia Record

The Philadelphia Record newspaper was established in 1877 by William M. Singerly after his acquisition and renaming of the former Public Record newspaper. Seven years later, in 1894, the New York Times praised the Record as “one of the best and most widely circulated newspapers in the United States.” The Record’s success continued and it was acquired, after Singerly's’s death in 1898, by the prominent Wanamaker family of Philadelphia.  By the time of Rodman Wanamaker’s death in 1928 the readership of the Record had begun to decline, but its purchase by J. David Stern again raised readership to 315,000 by the early 1930s. Over the next decade, however, various factors arose which lead to the Record’s eventual demise. The economic climate of the Great Depression, an ongoing and increasingly antagonistic competition with The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Record’s association as a Democratic party-aligned publication were all instrumental in leading to its final closure in 1947.

After its shuttering, The Philadelphia Record donated its photograph morgue to HSP. This gargantuan collection is comprised of over ten thousand photographs snapped by the Record's photographers, documenting everything from eminent visitors to the city to everyday suburban life. Many of these images have been added to the Digital Library. HSP's archivists recently completed the processing and rehousing of this collection, as well as creating a finding aid for researchers. 

On November 11, HSP will join with WHYY and PlanPhilly for a screening and panel discussion, discussing the role of special collections libraries in a digital world. Several images from the Record will be featured during the event. Free and open to the public, please register here.