Guide to the United States Steel Corporation, Homestead Works Records,c.1890-1986

Arrangement

Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
United States Steel Corporation, Homestead Works Records
Creator
United States Steel Corporation, Homestead Works
Collection Number
MSS 418
Extent
84 linear feet (94 boxes, 48 shelf volumes)
Date
1890-1986
Abstract
The Homestead Steel Works was one of six Monongahela Valley operations of the United States Steel Corporation (USS) through the twentieth century. Homestead Works served as one of U.S. Steel's heavy products mills, producing both semi-finished and finished steel products and specializing in plates and structural steel products. Steel production at the mill ceased in 1983 and the site was closed in 1986. The United States Steel Corporation, Homestead Works Records includes accident reports, annual reviews, arbitration records, catalogs, directories, financial records, log books, manuals, medical records, metallurgical specifications, operating standards, rules and regulations, safety reports, shop orders, sketches, technical specifications, test results, weekly contacts and rosters, and other miscellaneous materials. The bulk of the records cover the period from 1960-1983 and include metallurgical fabrication and maintenance files concentrated on Machine Shop No. 1 ("The Big Shop" or Mon Valley Machine Shop) as well as arbitration cases between USS and the United Steelworkers union.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
The guide to this collection was originally prepared by Tom White, Lorrie Kiger, Sara Hawthorne, and Jon Halpern in May 2005. Revisions to the finding aid incorporated by Kate Madison and Nick Hartley in 2016.
Sponsor
Funding for this project was made available by a National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant.
Publisher
Heinz History Center
Address
1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org

History

Homestead Steel Works:The Homestead Works, also known as the Homestead District Works or the Homestead Steel Works, was one of six Monongahela ("Mon") Valley operations of the United States Steel Corporation (USS), alongside Clairton, Duquesne, Edgar Thomson, Irvin, and National Works. Located in Homestead, Pennsylvania, the Homestead steel plant was established by the Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Company in 1879 and acquired by the Carnegie Steel Corporation in 1883. In 1901, the Homestead Works and the Carnegie Steel Corp. became a part of the United States Steel Corporation (USS). Steel production at the Homestead Works ceased in 1983 and the site was closed in 1986 with the consolidation of U.S. Steel's Mon Valley operations and the demise of the Pittsburgh steel industry.

Homestead Works was one of the largest basic open hearth steel plants in the United States. It served as one of U.S. Steel's heavy products mills, producing both semi-finished and finished steel products and specializing in plates and structural steel products. Homestead steel production was linked to the activities of the other Mon Valley operations, often in an "assembly-line" fashion. Pig iron for the plant was provided by both the Carrie and Lucy Furnaces. After a decline in the first decades of the twentieth century, production at Homestead expanded due to Navy demands during World War II. The decades that followed were marked by the slow decline of the American steel industry. With improvements in steelmaking technology, the rise of foreign competition to the American market, and the rising cost of labor and production, USS consolidated its Mon Valley operations throughout the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in the closure of the Homestead Works and other steel mills in the 1980s.

Machine Shop No.1:The Mon Valley Machine Shop, formally known as the Homestead Machine Shop or Machine Shop No. 1, was located at the Homestead Works. Known as "the Big Shop" to the mill workers, the machine shop was responsible for fabricating and repairing machine parts, tools and other equipment for use in at the Homestead plant. Machine Shop No. 1 was one of the five new facilities constructed at the mill during its World War II expansion, blueprints of which are included in the separated oversized collection, MSO#418. Administratively, the shop was a part of the Metallurgical Department of the Homestead Works. By the early 1980s, the machine shop was producing and repairing machine parts for all of the remaining USS mills and operations in the Mon Valley, including Duquesne Works and Edgar Thomson Works. The machine shop functioned until the closure of the Homestead Works in 1986.

Scope and Content Notes

The records of the Homestead Steel Works are housed in ninety-four archival boxes and are arranged alphabetically into five series – I. Administration and Accounting, II. Maintenance and Fabrication, III. Safety, IV. Unions and Labor, and V. Audiovisual Materials. The records within each series are also arranged alphabetically by folder title. They include catalogs, employee records, manuals, operating standards, policies and procedures, reports, technical specifications, and other miscellaneous materials. The bulk of the records cover the period from 1960-1983 and include metallurgical fabrication and maintenance files concentrated on the Machine Shop No. 1, as well as arbitration cases between USS and the United Steelworkers union.

In addition to the Machine Shop No. 1, individual shops, departments, and divisions represented in the collection include the Central Maintenance Division, Fabricating "Fab" Shop, Forge Division, Medical Department, Metallurgical Department, Physical Laboratory, Structural Division, and Wheel and Axle Division. There is substantial administrative and structural overlap between these divisions and departments. The Machine Shop No. 1, for instance, was a part of the Metallurgical Department, and many Metallurgical Department or maintenance metallurgy files refer to the work of the Big Shop. Over the period of time represented in the collection, the internal administrative structure of the Homestead Works evolved. Changes corresponding to the reorganization and renaming of different divisions and departments are reflected within the collection materials.

Arrangement

The Homestead Steel Works Records have been arranged into the following series and subseries:

  1. Series I. Administration and Accounting
  2. Subseries I. Accounting and Management
  3. Subseries II. Employee Files
  4. Series II. Maintenance and Fabrication
  5. Subseries I. Catalogs
  6. Subseries II. Job Checking Cards
  7. Subseries III. Job Planning Specifications and Procedures
  8. Subseries IV. Logs
  9. Subseries V. Manuals and Handbooks
  10. Subseries VI. Metallurgical Department Files
  11. Subseries VII. Pattern and Drawing Records
  12. Series III. Safety
  13. Series IV. Unions and Labor
  14. Subseries I. Arbitration
  15. Subseries II. Labor Relations
  16. Series V. Audiovisual Materials

Conditions Governing Access

In Series I: Administration and Accounting, Subseries II: Employee Files is restricted for 70 years after date of creation because it contains sensitive personal information about U.S. Steel employees.

  1. Boxes 74-85 -- restricted until 2051
  2. Boxes 86-86 -- restricted until 2031

In Series III: Safety, the following are restricted for 70 years after date of creation because they contain sensitive personal and medical information of U.S. Steel employees:

  1. Box 91 -- restricted until 2054
  2. Box 93 (containing Box 16, Folder 26) -- restricted until 2050
  3. Box 93 (containing Box 17, Folder 13) -- restricted until 2047

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the Regional Industrial Development Corporation in 1995.

acc.1995.0395

Preferred Citation

United States Steel Corporation, Homestead Works Records, c.1890-1986, MSS 418, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center This collection has been previously cited as: Records of the Mon-Valley Machine Shop (Homestead Works) USS, 1911-1985, MSS 418, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania Archives

General

This collection has been previously cited as: Records of the Mon-Valley Machine Shop (Homestead Works) USS, 1911-1985, MSS 418, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania Archives

Processing Information

This collection was first processed by Tom White, Lorrie Kiger, Sara Hawthorne, and Jon Halpern in 2005.. Bulk of materials (boxes 31-94) added to collection as part of a National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant project. Arrangement, inventory, and finding aid revised by Katherine Madison and Nick Hartley in 2016.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Related Materials

United States Steel Corporation, Duquesne Works Records, 1889-1984, MSS 42, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

United States Steel Corporation, Duquesne Works Photographs, 1913-1979, MSP 42, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

Carnegie Steel Company Records, 1853-1912, MSS 315, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania Archives

National Tube Division, U. S. Steel Corporation Records, 1899-1968, MSS 574, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center

United Steelworkers of America Local 1397 (Homestead, Pa.) Records, 1937-1972, AIS.1993.17, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh

William J. Gaughan Collection, AIS.1994.03, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh

Separated Materials

To the oversize collection, 32 linear feet of blueprints, arranged and described separately as MSO#418.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • United States Steel Company
    • United States Steel Corporation
    • United Steelworkers of America

    Geographic Names

    • Pittsburgh (Pa.)
    • Homestead (Pa.)

    Other Subjects

    • Steel
    • Steel industry and trade
    • Metallurgy
    • Industrial safety
    • Arbitration and award.

Container List