PROGRAM, ANNUAL MEETING & PICNIC

Monday, September 25

Engineering Philadelphia: The Sellers Family and the Industrial Metropolis

When Philadelphia was the Workshop to the World, the Sellers family numbered among the city’s leading industrial families, developing canals and railroads and manufacturing goods ranging from textiles to steel frames for bridges and skyscrapers. But as Philadelphia de-industrialized in the twentieth century, the Sellers family’s firms also declined.

Author Domenic Vitiello, PhD, is an urban historian at the University of Pennsylvania who will examine the rise and fall of Philadelphia as an industrial metropolis through a focus on the Sellers family and their network of associates.  His talk is based on his 2013 book of the same name from Cornell University Press . Dr. Vitiello’s book is available at Amazon.com and other retail sources.