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The Landing of Penn at Dock Creek Philadelphia , (Artist unknown), circa 1830.
Credit: Gift of Mr. And Mrs. Meyer P. Potamkin, The State Museum of Pennsylvania 95.75.89
After landing at New Castle and Chester, William Penn took a barge up the Delaware River to a lightly populated area of Swedes, Dutch, and Indians, that he decided would be the site for a settlement he named Philadelphia. Penn landed near the mouth of Dock Creek, which flowed into the Delaware near present-day Spruce Street.