Penn Press releases three-volume book project on Philadelphia history

The University of Pennsylvania Press recently released a three-volume book project on Philadelphia's history ahead of the United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026.

The book project highlights Philadelphia's role in U.S. history using both narrative and illustrated photographs and maps. The three volumes — titled “The Greater Philadelphia Region,” “Greater Philadelphia and the Nation,” and “Greater Philadelphia and the World" — cover subjects from the American Revolution and abolition to urban development, immigration, and cultural life. 

Many Penn affiliates contributed to the project, including Charlene Mires, who received a Master of Liberal Arts in 1992 and served as the project's Editor-in-Chief. Stephanie Grauman Wolf, a Senior Fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, contributed a piece on Pennsylvania’s founding, and Michael Nairn, who received a master's in landscape architecture from Penn and is a lecturer for Penn's Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, contributed a segment on Topography.

They books were published in association with the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, a civic project that works to raise awareness of the city’s history and impact, and supported by a grant from the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative. As part of the initiative, free copies of all three volumes will be distributed to every branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia as well as Philadelphia-area schools. 

While the encyclopedia's online platform remains active, Penn Press’s full-color print format adds elements not present online, including but not limited to expanded maps and archival photographs. The project's guiding principles emphasize both accessibility and rigor and aims to situate Philadelphia at the “hinge between its past and future.” 

It also prioritizes links between neighborhoods and regional dynamics and highlights the alliances, tensions, and institutions that shaped the city’s development. 

The Penn Press Book Launch for the encyclopedia will be hosted on Dec. 4 by Penn’s Kislak Center at the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center’s Orrery Pavilion.