Philadelphia is home to some of America’s illustrious history. One Philadelphia historian gives a talk this evening at the Wagner Free Institute of Science on one little corner of the city’s history - its lost cemeteries. WHYY’s Arts and Culture Reporter Alex Schmidt talked to historian Thomas Keels about these hidden pieces of the city’s and the nation’s history.

Thomas Keels fell into Philadelphia history by accident, when he lost his job in finance after moving here from New York. Unemployed, he had a chance to wander around the city.

Keels: “Especially as someone coming from New York where the oldest thing seems to be from the 1960s, I was simply overwhelmed by how palpable the past feels in Philadelphia. You simply cannot walk anywhere in the city without experiencing its history.”

Keels’s first book was about the history of Chestnut Hill. More recently, he published Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries, on which he is basing his talk tonight. Keels estimates that the cemeteries visible today in the city represent only about 10% of the burial grounds that once served Philadelphia.

Keels: “If you’re walking anywhere downtown, chances are you’re walking on somebody’s grave. Washington Square was the city’s main potter’s field. That’s where you ended up when you had nowhere else to be buried. Probably tens of thousands of people ended up in Washington Square, and many of them were never moved probably.”

Keels says he hopes his work will encourage readers to preserve the cemeteries that are still around.

More information:

WHYY’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane: Guest host Alan Tu talks to Keels about the history of Philadelphia’s graveyards and cemeteries. (11/7/05)

Click here to listen to this interview. (59 minutes)

WHYY’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane: Thomas H. Keels joins guest host Alan Tu to talk about the buildings that played an important role in the City’s history but have been torn down to give way to a contemporary Philadelphia. (10/24/07)

Click here to listen to this interview. (59 minutes)