About the Project

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About Mapping Penn: Land Acquisitions, 1870 – present

"Mapping Penn: Land Acquisitions, 1870 – present" is an online mapping application that allows users to access, analyze and map data about University of Pennsylvania properties based on University Archive records. These records incorporate 12 data elements, grouped into two categories:

The website is designed to assist University-based planning and development, scholarly research and the general public in efforts to analyze, interpret and understand the history of the growth of the University of Pennsylvania campus in West Philadelphia. The online mapping and reporting tools can be used to focus on a specific lot, name, year, or address. Users are able to create maps, reports, and queries.

Users have the ability to access, analyze and map data. Currently, Mapping Penn incorporates eleven data elements found in five layers:

Sources

Unless otherwise noted in the Transaction Notes, all the land transaction data for Mapping Penn was taken directly from the official deed records at the Department of Records, City of Philadelphia and the original deed records in the University Real Estate Title Papers collection of the University Archives and Records Center (transferred from the Office of the Treasurer, University of Pennsylvania). Please note that the data on the Registry Plan numbers was compiled from the Department of Records' Deed Registry Plans, available on-line at Atlas (under the Deeds heading).

Acknowledgements

Walter Rice, Jr., of R&R Computer Solutions, provided invaluable design work for the creation of this new interface to the site. The Cartographic Modeling Laboratory was also an invaluable partner for initial design and web presence for this data. Important GIS data was provided by the City of Philadelphia through Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access. CAD data used to create footprints of current University buildings was provided by Facilities and Real Estate Services of the University of Pennsylvania and the Department of Real Estate and Architecture of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

The research and compilation of information which led to the creation of the base data on land acquisitions were conducted by several University students and staff who worked at the University Archives:

About the University Archives and Records Center

The University Archives and Records Center is the official repository of all inactive and historical records of the University's administrative offices, academic departments, committees, and student groups. It is responsible to the academic community and to the public for the orderly retention and disposition of all University records, both active and inactive, and for the timeless preservation of historically significant documents and other materials which reflect the University's origins and development and the activities and achievements of its officers, faculty, students, alumni, and benefactors.

The University Archives and Records Center
University of Pennsylvania
3401 Market Street, Suite 210
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6320
Tel 215.898.7024

Disclaimer

The maps and data displayed on this site have been prepared for the inventory of real property acquired and sold by the University of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia since 1870. Users of this site are hereby notified that the public primary information sources should be consulted for verification of the information contained on the maps and in the databases presented on this web site. Neither the University of Pennsylvania, the University Archives and Records Center nor their collaborators assume any legal responsibility for the information displayed on maps or associated data presented on this web site. In no event shall the University, the University's agencies, or the officers, employees, agents, or representatives of any of the foregoing be liable for any direct, indirect, special, punitive, incidental, exemplary or consequential damages arising your accessing or using the site or any information displayed on the site, or otherwise arising from the site or from anything contained in or displayed on the site. The University of Pennsylvania makes no warranty or representation whatsoever, express or implied, with respect to the quality, content, accuracy, completeness, currency, freedom from computer virus, suitability for any particular purpose, or non-infringement of proprietary rights, of any of the information published on this site, or any of the design, text, graphics, images, pages, interfaces, links, software, or other materials, documents, and items contained in or displayed or published on this site.

 

University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania.