Answer: Hog Island

In 1917, American International Shipbuilding was contracted by the U. S. government to manufacture ships and build a shipyard at Hog Island, Philadelphia, in an effort to support American soldiers fighting overseas during World War I.  President Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Edith, christened the yard’s first completed ship, the freight steamer Quistconck, in August 1918.  The shipyard ceased operations in 1921.  Eventually, Hog Island was made part of Philadelphia’s mainland and, in the 1920s, was used primarily by the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.  In 1930, the city bought the land from the government for the purposes of expanding the Philadelphia Municipal (now International) Airport.

HSP’s library contains numerous publications relating to Hog’s Island, as well as Cramp’s Shipyard, once located in Kensington, as well as a manuscript collection of records pertaining to the Philadelphia Naval Yard (#1884). Among HSP’s manuscript collections are the Joshua Humphreys papers (#306). Humphreys (1751-1838) was a naval constructor for the United States government and his records document shipbuilding and shipping in early Philadelphia.