In 2006, I was busy working on a new exhibit, Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era. The exhibit would go on to win regional, statewide, and national awards and travel to seven…

  Born in Washington, D.C. and educated in Reading, Pa., Daisy Lampkin was a suffragette, civil rights activist, organization executive, business woman, orator, and community leader. Gift of Earl L.…

  Photo of William A. Johnston. Johnston grew up in Sewickley, Pa. He enlisted in the Army Air Force at the age of 17 and served as a Second Lieutenant…

  On the Centennial of the 19th Amendment Today marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which made it illegal to deny…

  The Homestead Grays baseball uniform of second baseman Clarence Bruce is on display in the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum. Bruce wore number 46 for the Grays for the 1947…

  William “Bill” Snyder (c. 1897-1984) was a bootlegger and gambler whose brief career in the 1920s and 1930s forever changed Pittsburgh. Along with Gus Greenlee, Woogie Harris, and Richard…

  John Brown, by Anton Hohenstein after Martin Lawrence, published by John Smith, lithograph on paper, 1866. Currently on display in the exhibition Smithsonian’s Portraits of Pittsburgh: Works from the…

  This story was originally published in the Fall 2018 issue of Western Pennsylvania History. Portrait of Maude Y. Hawkins, c. 1960. Maude Y. Hawkins Photographs, MSQ 171, Detre Library…

  The Aurora Reading Club celebrating its 90th anniversary in 1984. Aurora Reading Club Records, Detre Library & Archives at the History Center. “Lifting as we climb” means to encourage…

  This is a continuation of a series on the African American experience in Pittsburgh, Virginia. Click here to read part 1. Benjamin Henry Latrobe, An overseer doing his duty…