Collections

Visual images from 1930 of the Great Depression, Jobless party activities, and Father Cox, a Pittsburgh Catholic priest and political and social activist.

Records of First Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (Pittsburgh, Pa.), including minutes, church registers, publications, and baptismal, confirmation, marriage, and burial records.

The Ford E. and Harriet R. Curtis Theatre Collection contain tens of thousands of Pittsburgh theatre programs from the 1840s to the present. They include productions from current performing arts groups in Pittsburgh. Sometimes newspaper clippings, marketing materials, photographs, and memorabilia related to the theatres and performing arts companies are stored with the programs.

Visual images from the 1940s-1980s which visually document train engines and stations in the western Pennsylvania area.

Photographs by Pittsburgh photographer, playwright, and artist, Frank Floyd Hightower. His work documents the Black community and Pittsburgh from the 1960s to present. Subjects range from the Kuntu Repertory Theater, Black Horizon Theater, August Wilson’s funeral, to Pittsburgh scenes, events, and neighborhoods, including Homewood and the Hill District.

Photographs by professional Pittsburgh photographer, Frank Russell Hightower, dating primarily from the 1960s through the 1980s. His work documents the activities of community organizations like the Urban League, the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP, the Catholic Diocese, and several local churches.

Visual images from the 1880s-1900s show the Jones & Laughlin steel mill on Pittsburgh’s South Side, including a wide variety of images of blast furnaces.