In celebration of International Women’s Day, we asked Heinz History Center curators and archivists about the women in Pittsburgh history they admire most.

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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 few years ago, and now he shares his skills and his love of history with visitors exploring the site’s historic villages.

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Pittsburgh doesn’t seem to be an obvious place to be home to one of the most vocal Congressional boosters of American space research. The region was home to Dormont’s long-time congressman James G. Fulton, an ardent advocate for space. Fulton used his position in Congress to bring the space race to Western Pennsylvania, spending the latter half of his 25-year career trying to generate high-tech jobs related to the space program.

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One might wonder about the connection between the Apollo space program and the town of Apollo, Pa. The simple answer is just the name, but this small town made sure to make the most of that connection.

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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 and the Allies of WWII, and left their marks on the built landscape of the nation. Individual and corporate leaders encouraged research and development that fed future technological development. From the Wright brothers to the Apollo mission, new ideas from this region played a crucial role in the country’s technological advancement.

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