Making History Blog
47 Results found for: Detre Library & Archives
ResetGus Miller: Oakland's No. 1 Citizen
When Gus Miller turned 75, his daughter and business partner, Myrtle Mae Miller, decided to turn his birthday into a public event. She invited scores of his friends and loyal…
Collection Spotlight: The Gaddie-Truman Family Papers and Photographs
Nestled in Pittsburgh’s East End Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood is the Belmar Gardens housing cooperative. At its conception, the community was celebrated as a solution for middle-income African American families who found…
Glassware on Record: Bryce Brothers and Lenox, Inc., Records
The History Center has been home to Pittsburgh’s legacy in glass for 25 years. The city’s roots as a center for glass manufacturing can be traced to the late 18th…
Crandall-McKenzie & Henderson: Keeping Pittsburghers Clean
In a report on Pittsburgh’s “smoke nuisance” in the early 20th century, academic researchers attempted to calculate the economic burden caused by the city’s air pollution. They found that Pittsburghers,…
Ralph Kruck: Dreaming Up the Future of Industrial Design
Looking back to the 1930s and the start of a decades-long career in industrial design, Ralph Kruck recalled a profession mired in tradition and resistant to innovation.
Samuel A. Musgrave: Industrial Photographer for Hire
Samuel Musgrave portrait, 1952 Working behind the scenes for many of Pittsburgh’s leading companies, Samuel A. Musgrave captured an extensive visual record of Western Pennsylvania’s postwar economy. As a…
Rev. LeRoy Patrick: Advocate for Equality
After arriving in Pittsburgh in 1951, Rev. LeRoy Patrick dove headfirst into the fight to integrate the city’s public swimming pools. Though Blacks were not prevented by law from using…
Matzah, Made in Pittsburgh
A photograph from the April 24, 1929 edition of the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, showing Radbord and a team of baker packing matzah for Passover deliveries throughout Western Pennsylvania. If you…
Moishe Oysher: A Legend Comes to Pittsburgh
Like many cities in the Western Hemisphere, the Jewish population of Pittsburgh enjoyed the Yiddish theatre tradition. Theaters throughout the city were hosting Yiddish productions by the late 1800s, and…
The Story of a Box of Candles: “A Beautiful Gift of Memory”
In the Chanukah display of the A Very Merry Pittsburgh experience at the Heinz History Center is a box of candles with 120 years of history. The box itself is…