The Senator John Heinz History Center
Home of Pittsburgh’s American Experience

The question facing the Senator John Heinz History Center and all museums today, is this: Why go to a museum to learn about history when we can get all the information we need from books and the Internet? The answer is: personal involvement.

As Andy Masich, President and CEO of the History Center, tells it, visitors gather a sense of history that no amount of two-dimensional, informational reading can match. “The Senator John Heinz History Center is a touchstone to the past,” he said. “You can theorize about the past through the Internet and books, but when you come face to face with it here, it’s special. It’s the genuine article, and can spark the imagination.” At the History Center, you can experience the story of George Washington, a 6-foot,
red-haired youth from Virginia who, in 1754, fired the first shot in the French and Indian War. The ensuing clash, known in Europe as the Seven Years War, involved the British, French, and American-Indians in the region of the Forks of the Ohio – today’s Greater Pittsburgh. As Winston Churchill aptly put it, this was truly the world’s first world war.

In November 1758, 250 years ago, when young George accompanied General Forbes to the Forks of the Ohio, they found Fort Duquesne blown up, in smoldering ruins, and abandoned by the French. Before retreating, the French had destroyed the fort by detonating their munitions magazine. Washington, the story goes, asked General Forbes, “What are we going to call this place now that we’ve got it?” Forbes replied, “Why don’t we call it Pittsburgh?” As a Scot, Forbes pronounced the name of the place as “Pittsboro,” as he would have pronounced Edinburgh in his native Scotland. And as Edinburgh was spelled with an “h” at the end, Pittsburgh was spelled in like fashion.

Owing to its affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., no other museum portrays the history of the Pittsburgh region as the History Center does. “The Smithsonian has 144-million objects and specimens, and we get to choose from those that help us tell the American experience with a Pittsburgh connection. We are the Smithsonian in Pittsburgh,” said Masich.

A good example of the benefit of this affiliation is the Jeep in the Great Hall of the Senator Heinz History Center. This prototype vehicle is the first Jeep ever made by the Bantam Car Company in Butler, Pennsylvania. The U.S. War Department donated the Jeep to the Smithsonian in 1944 when World War II was still raging. Because of the special relationship of the History Center with the Smithsonian, the Jeep was brought back to Western Pennsylvania. “This is the mother of all Jeeps and is the
forerunner of every SUV on the road today. They owe their heritage to that little green car here at the History Center,” said Masich.

“The artifacts and objects at the Senator John Heinz History Center are meant to inspire visitors with the we-can-do-it spirit of innovation that sums up the character of Pittsburgh,” he said. That character is about Lewis and Clark and the Gateway to the West. It’s about the Ferris Wheel George Ferris built for the 1893 World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago. He considered the wheel a rival to the Eiffel Tower, the focal point of the 1889 Paris Exhibition. It’s the history of H.J. Heinz and the packaging of ketchup and this product becoming a household name on every continent. It’s the story of Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine. And it’s the history of the Ice Capades that started in East Liberty and the story of that American original, the Zippo lighter.

Apropos of Pittsburgh’s greats, the History Center will open an exhibition titled “Pittsburgh, A Tradition of Innovation” opening in November 2008, marking Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary. The exhibit will recount 200 years of innovation in sports, theater, industry and science.

Among many Pittsburgh legends, the exhibit will feature Pittsburgh innovators like George Westinghouse, inventor of alternating current. “When you flip the light switch in your house today, just remember you can thank Westinghouse,” said Masich. “And if you travel on a train or enjoy products brought to you by rail, thank him for the air brake he invented that made safe railroad transportation possible.”

In the “Points in Time” exhibit at the History Center, visitors can recapture the experience of the Great Fire of 1845, when one of the wooden bridges near Pittsburgh caught fire. The winds swept the flames into town and burned more than a third of the city to the ground. After that, according to Masich, John Roebling asked, “Why can’t we build a bridge that doesn’t burn down? Why don’t we build it out of iron?” He then figured out a way to twist iron wire strands like a rope — we call it steel cable today – used it to build the first suspension bridge in Pittsburgh over the Monongahela River, and went on to build the Brooklyn Bridge.
From the ashes of Pittsburgh’s tragedy came triumph.

According to Masich, if you traced the history of the Pittsburgh region back far enough, say 16,000 years, you’d encounter those Ice Age hunters who first arrived here. They skirted the southern ice sheets on the trail of wooly mammoths, three-toed sloths, or saber toothed cats. And they came to our region for the same reason as the most recent immigrants – to build a better life for themselves and their families.

There’s no better place to encounter these pre-historic ancestors than at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Museum of Rural Life operated by the Senator John Heinz History Center. An hour’s drive from Pittsburgh, Wheeling, West Virginia., and Steubenville, Ohio, Meadowcroft is the oldest site of human habitation in North America. This 270-acre rockshelter is the benchmark for all archeology in North America. Here, archeologists have discovered fire pits, tools, and bones of all successive generations from the Ice Age up to the time of George Washington.

On a more contemporary note, the History Center will host the Parade of Champions in June 2008 and expects to have 15,000 visitors over a three-day period. This will be a three-sport fan fest focusing on the Pirates, the Steelers, and Penguins, including great sports figures from the past, exhibits, trophies, and activities for the entire family.

And that’s not all. The 20,000-square-foot Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum comprehensively presents the region’s remarkable sports story in the Smithsonian wing of the History Center. It’s one thing to see the game on TV, but at this museum within a museum, you can experience the game. And you can capture the unforgettable, but almost forgotten, tales of Pittsburgh sports through hundreds of artifacts, more than 70 hands-on interactive exhibits, and 20 audio-visual programs.

To return to our question, why should people go to a museum like the Senator John Heinz History Center
to learn about history when they can get everything they need from books and the Internet? The answer
is still personal involvement — in our history and where we’ve come from. As noted historian and Pittsburgher, David McCullough has remarked, without history we’d have social amnesia. Then, where
would we be?

For greater insight into the Senator John Heinz History Center, log onto www.pghhistory.org.mg