Bruce Drisbach-American Steel & Wire Company Photographs
Reddit
Twitter
Facebook
What’s online?
All images in the collection are online. The collection contains photographic images depicting the construction of the American Steel & Wire Company building, equipment, worker housing construction, and the Donora environment between 1915 and 1917.
What’s in the entire collection?
The entire collection consists of glass plate negatives is held by the Archives Service Center (ASC) at the University of Pittsburgh. The Bruce Drisbach-American Steel & Wire Company Photograph Collection documents the construction of housing for workers and the American Steel & Wire Company. The housing photographs detail construction of housing from groundbreaking to near completion. They show the variety in the types of housing constructed and care in craftsmanship. The images also show conditions in downtown Donora, Pa. Construction of the American Steel & Wire Company is depicted from ground breaking to completion. There are interior and exterior building images, views of equipment and views of workers as well as images of workers using equipment. Four photographs depict a gathering of mill workers. Found amongst the collection are family photographs and landscape photographs; no dates or exact location exists for these images.
Read more...About the American Steel & Wire Company
The American Steel & Wire Company, founded in 1899, occupied 300 acres in Donora and later became part of the United States Steel Corporation in 1900. Ground was broken for the Zinc Works on June 16, 1915 which would occupy 45 acres of land along the Monongahela River on the opposite side of Donora. The first zinc was produced at the plant on October 29, 1915. The zinc was used to galvanize wire and other steel items as well as being a component of explosives and brass.
Donora and the Zinc Works are probably most famous for the disaster on October 28, 1948 when sulfur dioxide emissions covered the area during a weather inversion leaving 6,000 residents ill and twenty residents dead. This was the first documented case of air pollution deaths. Within twenty years, the American Steel & Wire Company closed.
About the Photographer
The photographs were taken by Bruce Drisbach, a resident of Donora and employee and official photographer for the American Steel & Wire Company.
Search
Sort
Filter Results
Date
Subject
- Donora (Pa.) (105) + -
- Pennsylvania (105) + -
- Donora (81) + -
- Design and construction. (79) + -
- Donora. (58) + -
- American Steel & (54) + -
- Steel-works (54) + -
- Wire Co. Donora Works. (54) + -
- Quality of life (41) + -
- Dwellings (40) + -
- Construction workers (28) + -
- Equipment and supplies. (28) + -
- Landscape (10) + -
- Landscape. (9) + -
- Nature photography. (8) + -
- Refuse and refuse disposal (7) + -
- Children (6) + -
- Portraits. (5) + -
- Central business districts (4) + -
- Dwellings. (4) + -
- Iron and steel workers (4) + -
- Men. (4) + -
- Forests and forestry. (3) + -
- Industrial safety. (3) + -
- Trains. (3) + -
- Waterfalls. (3) + -
- Buildings (2) + -
- Canoes. (2) + -
- Rivers. (2) + -
- Women. (2) + -
- Barns (1) + -
- Blue collar workers (1) + -
- Children. (1) + -
- Design and construction (1) + -
- Donkeys. (1) + -
- Donora. American Steel & (1) + -
- Fences (1) + -
- Health aspects (1) + -
- Industrial housing (1) + -
- Log cabins. (1) + -
- Machinery (1) + -
- Mills and mill-work (1) + -
- Monongahela River (W. Va. and Pa.) (1) + -
- Quality of life. (1) + -
- Railroad cars (1) + -
- Railroad cars. (1) + -
- Rivers (1) + -
- Wire Co. (1) + -
- Zinc smelting (1) + -
- construction workers (1) + -
Location
- Donora, Pa. (118) + -
- Donora (1) + -
- Donora (Pa.) (1) + -
- Pennsylvania (1) + -
Pages
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. September 11, 1917 - September 25, 1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.074.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.001.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.098.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.021.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. September 11, 1917 - September 25, 1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.089.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.101.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.046.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. September 11, 1917 - September 25, 1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.084.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Identifier200102.126.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. September 11, 1917 - September 25, 1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.070.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.019.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.112.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.006.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.047.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.100.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.094.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.018.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.027.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. September 11, 1917 - September 25, 1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.066.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor
-
Title
-
CreatorDrisbach, Bruce
-
Dateca. 1915-1917
-
TypeImage
-
Location
-
Identifier200102.041.DR
-
Collection
-
Contributor