#Pittsburgh History

[thedevelopmentcommittee]

Pre-Pittsburgh: Memo and Personal Statement

This fake comic takes places two hundred and seventy ago, in my hometown. Pittsburgh’s cherished founding stories traditionally begin with a cameo from historical a-lister, young George Washington, on his hero’s journey. The Old Block House and the Fort Pitt museum literally stand today as physical testaments of imperial ambition in a bygone age that made the city what it is today. The stories of George Washington and Fort Pitt have been told over and over again since time immemorial, so what is there new to say in retelling this story in fake comic form?

First off, this fake-comic is rife with tooty-fruity images of “Ohio Country” between 1748 – 1755. Brick-by-brick and cell-by-cell the Pittsburgh tale slowly builds. While I usually start by just doing lots of studies of previous historical imagery of the place and time, my research left me wondering down other aspects less explored. While George Washington wasn’t the only military dude in the area, the traditional history tells of a syndicate of various military dudes that who came to the wild west of “Ohio Country” to establish imperial domain. There are also white traders and American chiefs as other “agents” that move the story along.

Pittsburgh is the 68th largest city in the United States, it’s one of many places that made contributions to a national historical narrative and it of course experienced national and global phenomena, aside from being home of the Steelers.

Generally, I’m more interested in social history over generation instead of the hijinks of individual military dudes. I just didn’t have the sources to make the entire narrative around Pittsburgh’s social structure of the eighteenth century. This fake-comic turned out to be more of an exercise in telling the old stories.

 The book for this time period that really broadened my horizons was Into the American Woods by James Merrell that narrates the translators and negotiators between the state of Pennsylvania and Native American groups, mainly the Haudenosaunee, who were centered in upstate New York, but had claims to the region. Merrell’s interpretation of the events at Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt are very different from other interpretations on the cause and effects transpiring at the forks of the three rivers. The native people who lived in the region, who had broken free of Haudenosaunee and allied with the French, even helping expel Braddock’s forces in 1755 against the English. History would remember Braddock as Pittsburgh’s first jagoff.

Perhaps in second installment I can present how critical the Ohio Native Americans were in determining which empire would be the victor.

[allaboutyoupostnthings]

The Craftsmanship Behind Pittsburgh's Iconic Buildings

[bogwarg]

Homestead Greys In Star Trek DS9

I recently started watching Deep Space 9 and it brought the biggest smile to my face to see Sisko wearing a Homestead Greys hat.

The Homestead Grays were a Pittsburgh-based Negro league baseball team that played in the Negro National League from 1922 to 1948…

The Homestead Grays were one of the most successful Negro league baseball teams, winning multiple championships in the Negro National League. The Homestead Grays weren’t inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame UNTIL 2006 (almost 60 years later!). The teams primary owner was inducted 60 years after his death. They were one of the best baseball teams PERIOD… They won nine straight league titles 1937-48. So seeing one of the characters in a show from the 90’s represent this team years before the baseball hall of fame even did made me so happy… The record stats from the Homestead Greys weren’t put into consideration into baseball history until this year! The Homestead Greys had some of the best baseball players of all time on their team.

As someone from Pittsburgh seeing this team represented in something as impactful as Star Trek made me so happy. Whoever did the costuming for Star Trek Deep Space 9, excellent job.

EDIT: I’ve read some of the tags and from my understanding it seems like it was Avery Brooke’s idea to include the Homestead Greys cap in DS9. Atm I am unable to confirm that. Either way, that’s so fucking cool and really has added a lot to the show for me!!

[kensatou]

fellas is it gay to tenderly touch your work husband's thigh on live tv at his 500th goal ceremony.....

bonus:

and bonus bonus from @stuckinnet:

[indeedgoodman]

[yeoldenews]

(source: The Pittsburgh Press, December 20, 1894.)

[elierlick]

Four unnamed Black drag queens pose at the Granville Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA, c.1955, shot by Charles "Teenie" Harris (via the Carnegie Museum of Art). This photo is so stunning that I had to colorize it.

[humanoidhistory]

Scenes from the masquerade at the 18th World Science Fiction Convention, aka Pittcon, held in Pittsburgh, September 3-5, 1960. Photos by Jay Kay Klein.

[offsidenewsco]

"For the entire ‘80s and 90’s, only three different players won the Art Ross trophy for scoring lead: Gretzky, who won ten times; Lemieux, who won six times; and Jágr, who won five."

Read Part V of @sergeifyodorov's history of the #NHL here.

[weepingveil]

[yesterdaysprint]

Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1937

[paleotanks]

Cutaway Smilodon and Dire Wolf.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

[aryburn-trains]

PATrain, the successor to the B&O Monongahela Valley commuter service, being turned at Laughlin Junction, with J&L Steel blast furnaces in the background. The RDC is ex-B&O, ex-ATSF. 1975

[yearningforunity]

Dressed to the nines: Men, and women, including one wearing monkey fur coat, behind the Continental Bar at Crawford Grill No 1, c 1945.

[20th-century-railroading]

The waning days of Penn Central, prior to the beginning of Conrail in 1976, did not display railroading in its best light. Pittsburgh, PA, 1975