Making History Blog
Five Frontier Women
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Fort Pitt Museum recognizes five women essential to early frontier history. Massy Harbison life-like figure at the Fort Pitt Museum. Massy Harbison…
What to Do at Meadowcroft
Something we often hear from first-time visitors is that they had no idea that there was so much to do here at Meadowcroft. We are a museum that tells…
Can You Name Five Women Artists?
Since 2016, the National Museum of Women in the Arts has celebrated Women’s History Month with a social media campaign raising awareness of the lives of women artists. The…
The Steel Woman of the Steel City: Catherine Baker Knoll
Four seemingly dissimilar objects actually tell the rich and complex story of an iconic Pennsylvania woman. A blue overcoat, a green inaugural gown, a black and gold Pittsburgh Steelers…
Lord Dunmore’s War
What is Lord Dunmore’s War? It’s the war everyone would know if there had not been an American Revolution. Occurring at the same time as the Intolerable Acts and…
Inspiring Women in Pittsburgh History
Western Pennsylvania’s rich history is full of women who broke down barriers and made a lasting impact on the region and the world. Journalist Nellie Bly, conservationist Rachel Carson,…
5 Questions with Blacksmith Dewayne Curry
Dewayne Curry spends most of his summer days as a 19th-century blacksmith working in the heat of a 2,000-degree fire. He took up the craft of blacksmithing just a…
Congressman James Fulton: Strong on Space
President Kennedy signs National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Authorizations, July 21, 1961. Congressman Fulton shakes the President’s hand after he signed the funding bill for NASA. Courtesy of…
Apollo on Earth (and in Outer Space)
“‘Why write a history of Apollo?’ Importance is relative.” – “History of Apollo, PA 1816-1916: The Year of a Hundred Years” by T.J. Henry, M.D. “Moon soil” from Moon…
Pittsburgh and the Moon
A commitment to innovation and a willingness to fund new ideas has made Western Pennsylvania a center for innovation. Regional industries supplied settlers going West, armed the Union Army…