* The Battle of Homestead Foundation Archives & Special Collections is your connection to the workers of Western Pennsylvania and their stories – past, present and future.
Here we preserve the historical materials of the people whose labor built our region and shaped the local communities in which we live today.
You can see our first collection here at the Pennsylvania Power Library website. The Charles McCollester Collection contains both physical and textual items spanning 1877 to 2018 with an emphasis on the 1980’s into the 2000’s. The collection’s subjects vary from Pittsburgh steel and union history, the founding of the Battle of Homestead Foundation, Monsignor Rice and Pennsylvania historical markers. Focusing primarily on the state of Pennsylvania, much of the collection has national significance as well.
* The Archives & Special Collections currently provide on-going labor education to students and citizens, research opportunities for scholars and public history programs for the larger community.
Soon, we hope to offer permanent and traveling exhibitions that promote local heritage tourism as well as a researchable, online digital archive that serves academic objectives and advertises the historical significance and cultural richness of the region known as the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area.
Archives Personnel
Archives Committee Co-Chair: Jacqui Cavalier, EdD (Professor of History at Community College of Allegheny County)
Archives Committee Co-Chair: Perry Recker (M.Phil, M.L.S., Retired librarian)
Archives Project Advisor: Sinéad Bligh (MFA, MLitt Archives and Records Management)
Archivist: Kallie Sheets (MS-Master of Information and Library Science)
Archives Administrator: Cassidee Knott (BA-History, MA-Public History)
Archives Interns: Dalena Collins, Zachary Adams
Collections
Jim Hohman
Pump House Gang and What They Do
James Hohman, a now-retired graphic artist from Pitt, and a two-decades member of the Battle of Homestead Foundation (BHF), filmed…
The Lilly Story.
In 1924 the little central Pennsylvania town of Lilly, near Altoona, was targeted for a massive Ku Klux Klan demonstration…
Past Events and Guests
Events and People who have appeared at the Pump House Literature Poetry Film Labor Music William Serrin Judith Serrin John…
Mike Stout
Homestead Works Remembered
The world’s largest steel-producing plant is gone, replaced by a shopping complex, but those who worked in the mills want…
Help us in our Mission
Support our efforts to save artifacts, educate the public, and build strategies for the future of work.