Making History Blog
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The Spencer Family Valentine Hunt
Vintage Valentine, c. 1870-1910. Spencer Family Papers, Detre Library & Archives at the History Center. Spencer Family Home, 1890, G. M. Hopkins Company Map. In the early 1900s, on the…
The Westinghouse Time Capsule
A version of this article originally appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of Western Pennsylvania History. At 1 p.m. on the 1938 autumnal equinox, Sept. 23, the Westinghouse Time Capsule…
A Very Aluminum Christmas
An aluminum tree in the lobby of the Alcoa Building, 1966. Alcoa Company Photographs, MSP 282, Detre Library & Archives at the History Center. Emerging in the mid-1950s, aluminum Christmas…
Reading the Menus
Even before reading the text on one small document, the three satiny bows binding its pages — one red, one white, one blue — suggest that its message might be…
The Steelworker’s Work Whistle on VE Day: Three Dots and a Dash
“Preliminary advices indicate that within the next 24 hours, the Chiefs of State of the Principled Allied Powers will proclaim the Day of Victory in Europe and the end of…
The Heinz Passover Ad Campain’t
Every spring, readers paging through the mid-century Pittsburgh Jewish press could expect to see an advertisement different from all other advertisements: The Jewish Criterion, April 16, 1954, p. 18. Pittsburgh…
The Secret History of a Famous Westinghouse Photograph
Westinghouse at Work, 1910. One of the most recognizable images of George Westinghouse Jr. depicts the inventor and businessman seated at a drafting board, a piece of paper in front…
Documenting a Historic Rivalry: Pittsburgh Steelers & Cleveland Browns
Muscle and sweat. Strength and determination. Civic bragging rights that cross generations. As one of the oldest rivalries in professional football, annual games between the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh…
American Archives Month at the History Center
Safely preserved behind the doors of the History Center’s Detre Library & Archives are countless stories of the past. The essence of these stories can be found in the historical…
A Different Kind of History
The Wah Hoo, Highlander, The Piper, The Flame. What are these names? Bygone dances? Restaurants? If you guessed local yearbook titles, you’re correct. Can you now guess which of the…