EBT

The EBT Collection is an archive of a system that became integrated into the fabric of Philadelphia black culture.

In 1984, Pennsylvania became the birthplace of food-stamp EBT when the first pilot program launched roughly an hour outside of Philadelphia. By 1998, the state had completed its statewide EBT rollout, introducing the ACCESS card that would remain recognizable for more than two decades.

The name said exactly what the card did: it gave residents access to their benefits.

For Philadelphia, the green and blue ACCESS card became one of the most recognizable objects of its era. Its design remained largely unchanged until 2019, allowing multiple generations to recognize the same image.

The EBT Collection preserves that history through Philadelphia’s lens — taking objects that were never created to be cultural artifacts and documenting the place they ultimately earned in Philadelphia history.

This is an archive of design, history, access, and the objects people lived with every day.