Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation

Innovators from this region have changed the world. Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation, recognizes the incredible impact our region has had on peoples’ lives.

A life-like figure of one of our earliest ancestors is featured as part of the display honoring Meadowcroft Rockshelter, North America’s oldest site of human habitation.

A young visitor takes a look inside of a steamboat in the Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation exhibit.

Photo by Annie O'Neill.

A life-size cannon cast at the Fort Pitt Foundry highlights a special display on Pittsburgh’s role as the “Arsenal of the Union” during the Civil War.

Explore the use of energy in Western Pennsylvania.

Photo by Annie O'Neill.

Pittsburgh engineer George Ferris developed a giant revolving wheel that could hold 2,000 passengers as part of the 1892 World’s Fair in Chicago. It is said that Ferris drew plans for an enormous wheel-ride – down to the finest details – in just 20 minutes while having dinner at a chop house in Chicago. Ferris had traveled to Chicago in 1892 to brainstorm what could eclipse the memorable Eiffel Tower from the 1889 Paris Exposition.

To ensure the utmost safety of passengers, Ferris designed the axle to endure six times the weight of the actual ride. Westinghouse air brakes provided another layer of safety on the Ferris Wheel. Almost instantly, the Ferris Wheel became an American icon. Rather than create a new attraction for the 1904 St. Louis Exposition a decade later, fair organizers simply reassembled the original Ferris Wheel, which still amazed and delighted the crowds.

Created by students at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, 2008.

A variety of touch-screens throughout the exhibit allow visitors of all ages to learn about the Pittsburghers who helped to change the world.

Photo by Rachellynn Schoen.

Westinghouse artist J. Howard Miller created one of the most iconic images of female empowerment.

In 1943, Miller used a photograph of a Michigan factory worker as inspiration for his legendary poster showing a Westinghouse Electric woman war worker rolling up her sleeves to lend muscle to the Allied war effort.

Around the same time, lyrics of a song titled “Rosie the Riveter” by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb spread across the country, telling of women helping on the home front, and Norman Rockwell created his own “Rosie the Riveter” for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The song and famous image led to widespread popularization of the iconic figure, as millions of “Rosie the Riveters” throughout the country entered the workforce for the first time, including 30,000 women working at factories and mills in Pittsburgh.

A noted journalist with the Pittsburgh Courier, Frank Bolden became one of the first African American reporters given access to U.S. troops during World War II.

Born in Scotland and raised in Pittsburgh, Andrew Carnegie became one the leading industrialists in American history.

As a messenger boy and later telegrapher with the Pennsylvania Railroad, a young Carnegie stood at the threshold of a new era of American business: the newly invented telegraph expanded local businesses overnight and the railroad grew into the largest industrial presence in the country. From 1853 to 1865, Carnegie worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad and also entered the iron and bridge business, making savvy investments in railroad-related concerns. For Carnegie, the lessons learned during his years with the railroad – the power of new technology and large-scale management – shaped business decisions he made over the next several decades.

Photo by Annie O'Neill.

Entrepreneurs John P. Harris and his brother-in-law Harry Davis opened a theater in downtown Pittsburgh devoted solely to moving pictures in a remodeled storefront on June 19, 1905. It had a 96-seat capacity and featured short reels of film 15 to 20 minutes in length. This projector played the reels in the first nickel-charging moving picture theater, called a nickelodeon, located in the 400 block of Smithfield Street. The term nickelodeon combines the price of admission and the ancient Greek word for theater.

Gift of Eugene Lemoyne Connelly.

Photo by Annie O'Neill.

This 1950s-style kitchen provides an example of what a local post-World War II home looked like.

This 1950s-style living room provides an example of what a local post-World War II home looked like.

He was seven feet tall, weighed over 250 pounds, smoked cigarettes, could count to ten on his fingers and traveled with a canine companion at his side. He was Elektro the Moto-Man and his little dog Sparko. Elektro showcased his talents at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York for the Westinghouse Electric Company. The hourly show held in the Westinghouse Pavilion proved to be one of the most memorable and crowd-pleasing attractions at this two-year long fair. Visitors waited in long lines to watch the world’s first voice-activated robot. He walked, talked, counted, and could identify the difference between the colors red and green, all with a bit of charm and polite, pre-recorded conversation.

Photo by Annie O'Neill.

Throughout the 20th century, Pittsburgh was home to many jazz greats. This Baldwin vertical or studio piano owned by Mary Lou Williams was kept in her home on Hamilton Terrace in New York City. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Williams’ home was the gathering place for many jazz musicians including Bud Powell, Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron, and others who would often play their compositions as they created the new sound of bebop.

Courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh, Sonny Rollins International Jazz Archives.

Photo by Annie O'Neill.