Making History Blog
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Last Ride of Summer: West View Park and the Nostalgia for Lost Amusement Parks
Beware the Ides of March, a seer warned Julius Caesar. For classic amusement parks, the day of reckoning often occurred in the weeks following Labor Day, when summer’s end…
See the Jeep as a Lady
While guys loved the military jeep they drove in the service, the versatile army workhorse was not practical as a family car. Created of necessity on the eve of…
Taking the Field: Women and Baseball
Just as World War II impacted the political, social, and cultural life of the nation and created new opportunities for women at work, so too did it alter sport…
Locating Luna Park
This excerpt from Luna: Pittsburgh’s Original Lost Kennywood follows Frederick Ingersoll in choosing a site to build Luna Park after his first two deals fell through. Late in 1904…
Picturing Protest: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
S. V. Albee and the Great Railroad Strike in Pittsburgh, July 21-22, 1877 Sometime after July 22, 1877, Pittsburgh photographer S. V. Albee captured an extraordinary series of photographs.…
The Homestead Steel Strike: Perspective on the Past
A lithograph in the History Center’s collection provides an interesting perspective on the unfolding of events in the steel strike on July 6, 1892. In title and in imagery…
Washington, Lincoln, and the Fourth of July in Pennsylvania
In July, my thoughts inevitably turn patriotic. I can’t help it. Living in Pennsylvania, I am reminded of momentous events of July’s past and the people who made history.…
Becoming American: The Rajcan Story
A version of this article originally appeared in the Special Edition #Pixburgh Issue of Western Pennsylvania History Magazine. George and Mary in their wedding clothes, 1904. From the Rajcan…
The Real Johnny Appleseed
Through centuries of American storytelling, the name Johnny Appleseed has become synonymous with the fortitude and bravery attributed to early American pioneers. While there are many conflicting versions of…
Cannonballs Unearthed at the Allegheny Arsenal
A backhoe operator excavating the site of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Arsenal for the construction of new apartments recently discovered hundreds of Civil War-era cannonballs. The contractor alerted the bomb squad…