Philadelphia in Color

Nathaniel Popkin is the writer and producer of In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America (2026), a 10-part documentary series from History Making Productions, and the nine-part series For the Common Good: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation. He is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of several books including The Possible City: Exercises in Dreaming Philadelphia, Song of the City: An Intimate History of the American Urban Landscape, and Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City (Temple), as well as four novels, most recently Partly Strong, Partly Broken.Alyssa Shea is a multimedia designer with collaborations spanning agencies, nonprofits, cultural organizations, entrepreneurs, writers, and artists. Her work has appeared in film festivals and art galleries, at book launches and trade shows, in storefronts and congressional reports, on billboards and tea tins. With partners like Hidden City Philadelphia, she is involved in the documentation and preservation of Philadelphia's vernacular history.Peter Woodall is a former newspaper reporter and producer for public radio. He co-founded the website Hidden City Daily and is the Project Director of its parent organization, Hidden City Philadelphia. He is the coauthor of Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City (Temple University Press, 2017).Alison Zeidman is an Emmy-nominated and Writer's Guild Award-winning writer/producer who specializes in political, historical, and educational comedy. She works across TV/film, digital media, and publishing.

"Photographs preserve more than places, they hold stories, relationships, aspirations, and memories passed from one generation to the next. Philadelphia in Color: 1950-1990 brings together hundreds of images from family albums, personal archives, institutional collections, and community contributors to reveal the everyday lives of Philadelphians across four transformative decades. Assembled from many perspectives, these photographs present Philadelphia as both subject and storyteller, capturing moments of celebration, activism, labor, leisure, and belonging. Together, they create a collective portrait of a city shaped by resilience, creativity, and change, challenging familiar narratives of urban decline while reminding us of photography's power to preserve memory and connect generations."—Deborah Willis, author of Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present"Philadelphia never gives up, and its biggest wins happen in moments and places you'd never expect. The only way to get this place is to talk with everyone and listen. Tune into the street banter, the radio, the guy next door. Philadelphia in Color is an amazing how-to guide: some 200 neighbors telling us what happened and hinting at what we should do right now. No matter that the pictures are from long ago. This book unfolds like a beating heart, each picture another pulse of life."—Peter Barberie, Brodsky Curator of Photographs, Alfred Stieglitz Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art