Collection Highlights

The Allegheny Conference on Community Development is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the economy and quality of life in the Pittsburgh region. The collection documents both the conditions the Allegheny Conference was hoping to change as well as the activities in which the organization was involved.

The Buhl Foundation Photographs contain photographs of homes in Chatham Village, the Buhl Foundation’s $2 million housing development located in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood.  

The General Postcard Collection consists of sixteen boxes of picture postcards from the early twentieth century to the present day. Most are images of the Pittsburgh area but there are several boxes covering nearly every town and county in Pennsylvania. 

The H. J. Heinz Company Photographs depict the company’s Pittsburgh plant and its employees, products, displays, and equipment. The photographs, which date chiefly between 1940 and 1975, were created by the company’s Public Relations Department for internal use. 

The Kennywood Park Records include correspondence, photographs, drawings, publicity material, moving images and financial records, offering a comprehensive view of the history of the amusement park. 

The Elaine B. and Carl Krasik Collection of Pennsylvania and Presidential Political Memorabilia contains thousands of pieces of ephemera that document more than 200 years of state and national politics. 

Pittsburgh can lay claim to many remarkable topographical features but among the most distinctive are its three rivers. But with great rivers come great floods, and Pittsburgh has suffered through many in its history. The Pittsburgh Floods collection contains photographs depicting numerous floods and their aftermath on the city and nearby communities. 

The Pittsburgh Public School Records and Photographs contain a rich range of materials, including correspondence, photographs, reports, scrapbooks, minutes, curriculum materials, and business records documenting 90 schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools District.  

The Westinghouse story is an integral part of Western Pennsylvania’s 250 year history of innovation. As part of the merger with the History Center, all of the Westinghouse Museum’s archival materials and museum artifacts were added to the History Center’s collections.  

The Writt-Richards Family Papers and Photographs document the life of a family in Pittsburgh. The photographs in this collection show family gatherings, portraits, newspaper clippings, bonds records, and correspondence.