The Heinz History Center in the Strip District — recently named the best history museum in the country by USA Today for the second year running — is chock full of stunning historical artifacts. But only about 15% of the museum’s 60,000-piece-strong collection are on view at any given time.
So, about 300 of those iconic Pittsburgh items are coming out of the archives and will be on display in new exhibit “Pittsburgh’s Hidden History,” opening on Saturday.
“As you might imagine, the staff of the History Center has great passion for our history, and we take great joy in sharing that history with our public audiences. We love history, we love Pittsburgh, we love what we do,” said Jeffrey Brodie, vice president for museums at the Heinz History Center, at a preview of the exhibit on Thursday.
He added that “Pittsburgh’s Hidden History” is meant to inspire a lifelong love of history in its viewers.
The whimsical exhibit encompasses a little bit of everything from the region’s past and present. For example, flanking the doorway to the exhibit hall is a pair of statues based on Asian stone lions that guarded the Oriental rug department at Kaufmann’s in Pittsburgh.
The gallery is segmented into a number of thematic sections. Anne Madarasz, chief historian and director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, said, “We were thinking about, how do we take all these disparate things and group them together in a way that plays off this idea of curiosity and whimsy?”
The sections are introduced by large signs that often ask questions for the viewer to consider as they pore over the objects. For example, the segment titled “Scary Pittsburgh” asks “What scares you as you navigate the city?” Within, you’ll find artifacts related to zombies, clowns, creepy dolls and old Kennywood dark ride Le Cachot.
Other sections have been given titles including “Food for Thought,” “In Bloom” and “That’s So Old.” Whether museum goers are lifelong Pittsburghers or new to the city, they’ll find showstopping treasures in each section.
Those include a 1910 Honus Wagner trading card, a sign from The Original Hot Dog Shop and a 14,000-year-old flint tool from Meadowcroft Rockshelter — the oldest object in the exhibit.
Curator Emily Ruby, for example, loves the fur bouquet in the “In Bloom” section. It was a gift that could be purchased from Azens fur store in Downtown Pittsburgh. “The man went in to buy a mink coat for his wife, and instead of picking out the mink coat for her, instead he brought home a fur bouquet of mink samples. And there was a card with it that says ‘nurture these flowers and soon they’ll grow into a full mink coat.’”
“I have been wanting tho get that out on display. When we were talking about this exhibit, everyone on staff had their thing that was, ‘this is what I want to see out.’ And that was mine,” she said.
Madarasz has many favorites, but she loves an 18 karat gold pocket watch engraved with an image of Pittsburgh that comes from before the Great Fire of 1845. “It came from a collector, we don’t know who owned it,” she said. “To me, it’s probably a one of a kind object. Imagine carrying Pittsburgh around in your pocket with you. This sense of how proud you are of your city and how much it means to you that you invested in something like that.”
Another concept she emphasized was how important every item in the History Center’s collection is.
Sierra Green, an archivist at the History Center, has a more modern favorite: a disability rights advocacy quilt made my Amy Delancey Selders in 1999. “When my colleague and I looked at this quilt, we immediately saw so many Easter eggs that reflect the national and local fight for disability rights amongst the disability community,” she said. “We’re so honored that she entrusted this quilt and this story to us. This exhibit was our first opportunity to put this on display, and it was an easy yes.”
Not everything was an easy yes — Madarasz said that ultimately about 100 objects were cut from the exhibit for space — but overall, the experience was a positive one for History Center staff. “It was a lot of fun. It was freeing to think about things the way we thought about them. … Our goal was to really make it fun, thoughtful, whimsical. It was a lot of work,” Madarasz said.
With so many irreplaceable pieces, the gallery space is very controlled to ensure they’re properly preserved. Lighting, mounts, cases, humidity and theft prevention are all very intentionally curated to prevent any dust, pests or touching to harm the artifacts during the exhibit’s run through Oct. 5.
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That includes the sleigh that escaped prisoners John and Edward Biddle used as part of their getaway in 1902. Their story was turned into the 1984 film “Mrs. Soffel.” This is the first time the sleigh will be on public view in a History Center exhibit.
The staff wanted to emphasize the connections that can be drawn between Pittsburgh’s hidden history and each person who comes to see it. There are interactives involved, including booklet “History by You,” which allows visitors to create their own collections of objects that they would put together by sketching them.
In the center of the gallery, there’s a tabletop game that museum goers can play. The tabletop is covered in tiles with pictures of objects from throughout “Pittsburgh’s Hidden History,” and the player gets to place the tiles to make connections between each item.
The History Center will also host a number of 21 history trivia nights in conjunction with the exhibit throughout its run, with cash bars and snacks. They will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on selected Thursday evenings, including May 15, June 12, July 10, Aug. 7 and Sept. 4.
“People bring their own personal connections to these pieces and they know, well, this place might be gone, but my memories and shared experiences I had, and the pieces of that place are still preserved and available,” Madarasz said of the exhibit.
“Pittsburgh’s Hidden History” will open Saturday, April 26 and run through Oct. 5 at the Heinz History Center in the Strip District. To learn more, visit heinzhistorycenter.org.