The SIA 36h Annual Conference will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Thursday June 7, 2007 to Sunday, June 10, 2007
Workshop of the World - Revisited
Industrial Philadelphia

Online and mail-in registration is now closed.

Please do not mail-in your registration. Your mail-in registration will not be processed if you mail it in at this late date.

Please check at the conference registration desk about the availability of any open slots for conference events and tours.

Registration Desk Times (all at Crowne Plaza)
 Thursday 6/7: 9am – 5pm
      Friday 6/8: 7am – 9am  & 5pm – 7pm
  Saturday 6/9: 7:30 am – 12:30 pm

The Oliver Evans Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology will welcome the national SIA for its 36th Annual Conference. The hotel is the Crown Plaza at 18th and Market streets in the heart of downtown. Tours are tentatively planned for Philadelphia's streetcar system, bridges, breweries, architecture, and historic industrial sites and processes, including a banquet at the Fairmount Waterworks. Additionally, there will be a guided cruise of the Delaware River. Tours will branch out to New Jersey for industrial sites in Camden, as well as a tour of the town of Roebling and the new light-rail system that runs between Camden and Trenton. Also planned is an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the industrial records archived in Philadelphia's prestigious libraries and learned societies. Registration materials were mailed to current SIA members in late March, 2007.

We wish to thank the following sponsors for their generous support:
University of Pennsylvania - History & Sociology of Science Department
American Philosophical Society
Philadelphia Area Consortium for the History of Science
Philadelphia Water Department
URS Corporation

Photograph above: Fairmount Waterworks. View looking southeast showing river facade of waterworks. Photograph by Jack E, Boucher, Dec. 1984. HAER (LOC) collection HAER PA, 51-Phila, 328-172

Measured drawing on right: Fairmount Waterworks North Engine section drawing from HAER PA-51, sheet 19 or 36, delineated by Peter C. Doo 1978 shows what the Oliver Evans non-condensing high pressure Columbian engine installation looked like before it was removed in 1832.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS -- The General Tools Award Committee invites and encourages SIA members to submit nominations for the 2007 Society for Industrial Archeology General Tools Award for Distinguished Service to Industrial Archeology.  The General Tools Award is the highest honor the SIA can bestow.  The award recognizes individuals who have given sustained, distinguished service to the cause of industrial archeology and is presented at the SIA’s annual business meeting. 

Criteria for selection are as follows: (1) The recipient must have given noteworthy, beyond-the-call-of-duty service, over an extended period of time, to the cause of industrial archeology.  (2) The type of service for which the recipient is recognized is unspecified, but must be for other than academic publication.  (3) It is desirable but not required that the recipient be, or previously have been, a member of the SIA.  (4) The award may be made only to living individuals.  Teams, groups, agencies, firms, or any other collective entities are not eligible. 

The nomination, which should not exceed three double-spaced typed pages, should address the specific accomplishments that qualify the nominee for the award.  Supplementary material (the candidate’s resume, for example) may be appended to the nomination.  Nominations must also include the name, address, telephone number(s), and e-mail of the nominator.  Any SIA member in good standing may make a nomination. 

The General Tools Award was established in 1992 through the generosity of Gerald Weinstein [SIA], chairman of the board of General Tools Manufacturing, Inc. of New York City, and the Abraham and Lillian Rosenberg Foundation.  The Rosenbergs founded General Hardware, the predecessor to General Tools.  The award consists of a citation, a commissioned sculpture (“The Plumb Bob”), and a cash award.  Previous recipients are Emory Kemp (1993), Robert Vogel (1994), Edward Rutsch (1995), Patrick Malone (1996), Margot Gayle (1997), Helena Wright (1998), Vance Packard (1999), Eric DeLony (2000), Robert Merriam (2001), Charles Parrott (2002), Alex Barbour (2003), Charles Hyde (2004), and Lance Metz (2005).  There was no award in 2006. 

Nominations, which must be received on or before April 16, 2007, should be submitted to:  William McNiece, Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Indiana Univ., Riley Hospital for Children, 702 Barnhill Dr., #2001, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5128; (317) 274-9992; wmcniece@iupui.edu.
THE SIA 37TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE for 2008 will be held in San Jose, CA from May 29 to June 1, 2008

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