{"id":742,"date":"2016-05-18T17:52:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T21:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/infrastructure-week-throwback-graff-collection-shines-light-early-water-champion-artist\/"},"modified":"2022-12-03T13:16:13","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T18:16:13","slug":"infrastructure-week-throwback-graff-collection-shines-light-early-water-champion-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/infrastructure-week-throwback-graff-collection-shines-light-early-water-champion-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Infrastructure Week Throwback: Graff Collection Shines Light on Early Water Champion, Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u201cDesign<\/a>
\n\u201cDesign for Cast Iron Wheel by F. Graff\u201d from the Frederick Graff Collection at the Franklin Institute. Credit: Philadelphia Water, the Franklin Institute and The Athenaeum of Philadelphia. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This post explores the foundations of Philadelphia's water infrastructure as we continue to highlight the crucial systems that keep Philly running during Infrastructure Week 2016<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Last year, Philadelphia Water historian Adam Levine<\/a> joined department employees like long-time engineer Drew Brown on a tour of the Franklin Institute<\/a> archives, which include a trove of 18th and 19th century drawings by Frederick Graff<\/a>, an engineer himself with incredible artistic talent who helped to design and operate some of Philadelphia\u2019s earliest water infrastructure. Included in the collection are\u00a0a\u00a0number of water-related works by other artists, engineers and cartographers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Graff\u2019s collection\u2014much of which incorporates watercolor and focuses on hydraulic systems and Philadelphia\u2019s rivers and streams\u2014showcases a fascinating blend of the technical and beautiful, capturing the most finite details of buildings, machines and natural terrain with breathtaking style.<\/p>\n

Many of the maps and drawings in the collection\u00a0are packed with information in the form of notes and finely crafted text, like this map of the Wissahickon<\/a>\u00a0by John Cresson and S.B. Linton, which states that the creek was added to Fairmount Park \u201cfor the protection of the purity of the water of said creek.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because they offer so much information in such an appealing way, and because so few people even know they exist, Levine and Philadelphia Water worked with the Franklin Institute's John Alviti and the Regional Digital Imaging Center at The Athenaeum of Philadelphia<\/a> to create high quality scans of the Graff drawings and collection\u00a0and then made them available to the public via the web.<\/a><\/p>\n

Visiting the digital archives allows<\/a> you to inspect every drawing in fine detail, and it\u2019s easy to get lost in Graff\u2019s gorgeous world and meticulous notes. Levine talks passionately about the significance of the Graff collection in this short video:
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