Making History Blog
The Irish Connection
The recent choice of defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt with the 46th overall pick, 14th choice of round two, in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers is part of…
Immaculate History
Three Rivers Stadium is gone now, but the memory of what happened there on Dec. 23, 1972, lives on.
Cradle of Quarterbacks
It goes back a long way, this tradition of quarterbacks as a natural resource in western Pennsylvania.
-Roy McHugh, The New York Times, 1991
The Wearing of the Black and Gold
It’s said that Pittsburghers bleed black and gold and, at least metaphorically, it seems true. We adorn our homes, our cars, and ourselves in all manner of the chosen colors.…
Ma Baker: Pittsburgh’s First Airline Caterer
An enterprising local woman provided airline passengers and workers with fine dining options beginning in the late 1920s. The first meals served aloft prepared in Pittsburgh came from Katherine Baker’s Pleasant Hills kitchen. She was known as “Ma Baker” — but she was no plump, flour-dusted grandmother.
The First Black Pilot Was From Pittsburgh
Like many in the wake of the Wright Brothers’ successful flights, Hill District resident Charles Wesley Peters was fascinated by the wonders of aviation. Using his mechanical skills, in 1906…
The Dawn of Aviation as Drawn by Pittsburgh Cartoonist Cy Hungerford
Editorial cartoonists in the 1920s and ’30s chronicled the Golden Age of Aviation as the public scrambled to adapt to a newly air-minded world. Newspaper editorial cartoons had offered visual…
Working in Threes: A Pittsburgher’s Design at the Vatican
In December 2005, a holiday card arrived at the riverside office of Pittsburgh architect Lou Astorino. The message read in part, “I remember always you when [I] visit the Vatican…
“Wild and Confused Merriment…”: Frontier Virginian Wedding and Holiday Customs Near Pittsburgh
The signing of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 sent a wave of new settlers into the upper Ohio Valley and its tributaries. Prior to the treaty, the region’s…
Memories of Bloomfield: New Voices from Pittsburgh's Little Italy
Oral history is an important part of the work of the Italian American Program. In the History Center’s Detre Library & Archives, there are more than 400 oral histories with…