Collections

Historic Pittsburgh comprises a variety of primary and secondary sources from multiple partners about the greater Pittsburgh region, including a wide range of publications, maps, manuscripts, visual images, and audio-video materials, that support personal and scholarly research.

H.H. Seiferth Sign Company Photographs

This collecion includes images of outdoor signage created by the H.H. Seiferth Company for the storefronts of Pittsburgh businesses. Included in the collection are photographs documenting signs for the Frank & Seder store, Kaufmann's, Joseph Horne Co., the Rosenbaum Company, the Andrew A. Artz Café and Bar, F.C. Doeschner Furs, and other businesses.

Contributor: Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center

H.J. Heinz Company Photographs

Visual images from the 1870s-1970s that document the history of the food processing company founded in Pittsburgh, including products, factories, safety and quality control procedures, equipment, food distribution systems, and the Heinz family.

Contributor: Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center

H.K. Porter Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Records

Collection contains the records of H.K. Porter Co. for the years 1877-1968. H.K. Porter was a major manufacturer of light locomotives from 1867-1941.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Harold Corsini Photographs

Visual images from the 1940s-1970s show images taken by freelance photographer Corsini for local and national businesses, including US Steel, as well as images from WWII and Southeast Asia and East Africa.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Harold V. Cohen Photographs

Contains images that document Harold Cohen’s life and career as a theater and movie critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Primarily dating between the 1910s and 1960s, the images depict Cohen with celebrities and his family.

Contributor: Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center

Harper Family Papers

The Harper Family online collection includes images of the Harper Family and Pittsburgh Sanitary Fair buildings as well as correspondence, primarily between John Harper and Dorotha Dix, concerning the Western Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Dixmont (later known as Dixmont State Hospital).

Contributor: Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center

Hebrew Institute Photographs

Visual images from 1915-1984 document school classes, the laying of the cornerstone, and the Hebrew Institute's first school bus.

Contributor: Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center

Henry Clay Frick Business Records

Contains material reflecting the business and financial activities of Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) with particular relevance to Pittsburgh and the western Pennsylvania region. Frick kept in frequent correspondence with Andrew Carnegie among many others as noted in the collection material.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Henry Ellenbogen Papers

Materials from the Henry Ellenbogen Papers include correspondence pertaining to immigration cases of Jewish individuals who contacted Judge Ellenbogen in an attempt to escape Nazi persecution in Europe. These letters and telegrams written between 1934 and 1943, pertain to the following five cases: the Brajtman family, Emanuel Ellenbogen and family, Ignatz Ellenbogen and family, Salomon Ellenbogen and family, and the Feuerman family.

Contributor: Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center

Henry Marie Brackenridge and Family Papers

Focuses on correspondence concerning Henry Marie Brackenridge's political career, and contains letters from notable politicians of his day, including Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and William Henry Harrison.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Herb Ferguson Photographs

Image collection primarily includes photographs taken by Herb Ferguson for the local neighborhood newspaper produced by the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC).

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Hervey Allen Papers

Hervey Allen was known as an American poet, essayist, and novelist. His paternal grandfather, Edward Jay Allen, was a Civil War Colonel and influential Pittsburgh figure who traveled west over the Oregon Trail to survey and establish United States land claim in 1852 in what is now Washington and Oregon.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Historic Pittsburgh Book Collection

The Historic Pittsburgh Book Collection comprises published material from the 19th and 20th centuries that document Pittsburgh in the printed word.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Historical Society of Upper St. Clair Collection

Visual images depict residents and families, schools, houses, major roads, local landmarks, and the overall development of the township of Upper St. Clair, Pa., from an agrarian community to the current day.

Contributor: Historical Society of Upper St. Clair

Homer S. Brown Papers

Homer S. Brown became a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association in 1923. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1934 and became the first African-American appointed to the Pittsburgh Board of Education (1943), and elected (1949) as Allegheny County Judge. He served as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Allegheny County from 1956 to 1975. This digital collection consists of select speeches and articles written by Brown.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Homestead Album Oral History Project Records

The collection consists of oral history interviews conducted in 1976 and 1977 by the Pennsylvania Ethnic Heritage Studies Center, part of the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. The interviews document the experience of individuals of varied ethnicities who have lived in the Homestead area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Hotel Schenley Register

The Hotel Schenley register documents the names and residence of the many visitors who lodged at the hotel in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Oakland during a four month period in 1908.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Howard Etzel Photograph Collection

Include views of steamboats that operated in the Western Pennsylvania region, many of which were operated by local companies, including the U.S. Steel Corporation, the Crucible Steel Company, and the Pittsburgh Coal Company.

Contributor: Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center

Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Andrew Watson Papers

Consists of the business papers and correspondence of Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Andrew Watson regarding various properties in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Contributor: University of Pittsburgh

Humane Animal Rescue Records and Photographs

The Humane Animal Rescue Records and Photographs contain selected images from 1902 to 2005 of buildings, staff, animals, and events hosted by both the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society (WPHS) and the Animal Rescue League Shelter & Wildlife Center (ARL).

Contributor: Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center