Antiques and Museums
I was able to go with friends into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Saturday. August was free admission at the Senator John Heinz History Center. Six floors of history from the Pittsburgh area are on display. Each floor had a myriad of items and articles to see. We rode the elevator up and wandered our way back to the first floor. There was even an area for kids to discover interactive displays. (We didn’t go in there. We were a bit over the age; we didn’t have any kids and didn’t want the kids inside to make us look stupid).
I was personally intrigued by the displays on the fifth floor. There were story boards, pictures, and mannequins dressed in period garb of the French and Indian War: Blacks, Hessians, French, and English brandishing weapons or tools of that era. One display had two Native Americans carrying a huge birch bark canoe. It had to be 20 or 22 feet in length. One section had paintings and drawings of battles and clashes. Other displays held swords, rifles, pistols, powder horns and artifacts from the battlefields.
The fourth floor displayed scenes from the Civil War and slavery. It was another area of interest for me. Many of the displays showed the cruelty of slave trade: manacles, whips, and chains. Some walls sported posters offering rewards for the return of runaway slaves. Mannequins showed the inhumane ways slaves were transported and debased. The opposite side of the floor was the Mister Rogers Neighborhood display, Glass making and the Heinz display was a divider between the two sections.
The third floor displays old time inventions and kitchens of the era. Old tools and other paraphernalia filled the displays from corsets to wood shaving planes. Information and items of the Lewis and Clark expedition were exciting to see. A section was set aside for half of the floor of the sports displays with tribute to the Mooney family.
On the second floor is the second half of the sports display section from the third floor. It was impressive to wander among the trophies and memorabilia from the many teams of Southwestern Pennsylvania: professional, college, and high schools, giving honor to the mascots, teams and coaches.
A large section was given to display innovations developed in the Pittsburgh area. It was interesting to see the inventions and improvements that took root in our area.
Back on the first floor, we viewed the large wagons, a fire truck, and a roller coaster car from Kennywood. The staff was more than courteous. It was my first time visiting the museum. I was just thankful they didn’t put me in a display as an antique.