Digitizing West Philadelphia's past, one decade at a time

The first words that often come to mind upon hearing "West Philadelphia" are "underprivileged" and "dangerous."

One professor is working to change those words to "rich in history."

That was the goal when History professor Walter Licht started the West Philadelphia Community History Center virtual museum, a site that will hopefully gather the area's history in one central location.

Licht unveiled the Web site last week to professors to demonstrate how it can help students taking Academically Based Community Service courses learn more about the city.

The historical Web site is a result of one ABCS course called "West Philadelphia Community History," led last spring by Licht and Mark Lloyd, the University archivist, in which students worked to gather information about the community.

"It was very frustrating when I'd start an ABCS course [that would] involve researching West Philadelphia, but there was just no base of information to provide these students," Licht said.

Although he had dreamed of forming a heritage museum for over a decade, it became a reality only when he inherited 10 boxes of artifacts after the death of local historian, Ruth Branning Molloy in 2002.

Two years ago, the two men started talking about going virtual, in light of the current economic hardships that would deter funding a physical museum.

This method better shaped Licht's vision of a "West Philadelphia scrapbook" that would be an "interactive center, literally owned by the community."

"That's really the power of the Web," he said.

Though the Web site is still in its early stages, it includes history until 1907, personal stories, maps, population statistics and even resources for schools in the area.

"It's broad-based in its audience, meant for all levels of education," Lloyd said.

One important future addition is an increase in the number of personal stories - Lloyd is determined this semester to get students out and interviewing area residents.

Another is the history section from 1955 to the present, which is "dominated" by Penn's impact, from expanding the University in the 1950s to rethinking about its relationship with the community in the 1990s.

Licht sees the site as a "gift," which, Lloyd said, has "opened lines of communication between Penn students and West Philadelphia in terms of historical identity."

And one of the student founders, College sophomore Darryll Oliver, wants even more.

"It serves a good purpose, and it is a very nice gift," Oliver said, "but it's not really helping out with the problems of crime, health, and education."

He said he hopes that the project "wouldn't stop at the end of the semester" but rather involve reaching out more to the community.

Another rollout event will happen on Feb. 4, where about 45 representatives from community organizations will come to Penn to learn about the site.

"That's where we'll say to community members: this is yours," Licht said.

Visit the Web site of the University's archives center at http://www.archives.upenn.edu.

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