Repository

Heinz History Center

Title

George Westinghouse Museum Collection

Creator

George Westinghouse Museum.

Collection Number

MSS 920

Extent

181.5 linear feet (150 boxes and O/S)

Date

c.1864-2007

Abstract

The George Westinghouse Museum opened in late 1987 in the former general offices of Westinghouse's airbrake works in Wilmerding, Pa. The Museum documented George Westinghouse Jr. and the companies he founded, primarily the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC). The museum's administrative records and collections were acquired by the Heinz History Center in 2007. The George Westinghouse Museum Collection contains WABCO and WEC records, which include correspondence, publications, photographs, slides, films, phonograph records, blueprints and schematics, parts and services catalogs, advertisement materials, patent documents, research and development materials, anniversary and G.W. commemorative documents, and ledgers. The collection also comprises primary and secondary sources documenting George Westinghouse and his family, Westinghouse engineers, and the towns of Turtle Creek and Wilmerding, Pennsylvania.

Language

The material in this collection is in English.

Author

The guide to this collection was written by Nick Hartley.

Sponsor

Funding for this project was made available by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Publisher

Heinz History Center

Address

1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org

History

George Westinghouse Museum

The George Westinghouse Museum opened in November 1987, in the former general offices of Westinghouse's airbrake works in Wilmerding, Pa. Known to the community as "The Castle," the general office building was owned and operated by the Education and Research Foundation of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS). It was donated to APICS by American Standard Inc., which had become the parent company of WABCO. APICS in turn provided a part of the building for the George Westinghouse Museum, which was established by volunteers and former Westinghouse employees.

The Museum was divided into three sections. The first included artifacts and other memorabilia relating to the Westinghouse family. The second was devoted to memorabilia and documents relating to the inventions of Westinghouse, including several original models of apparatus used in defending Westinghouse patents in litigation. The third and largest section displayed an array of artifacts and photographs of products and developments resulting from the companies founded by Westinghouse.

In 1998, the Westinghouse Electric Company donated a portion of its corporate records to the Museum, while a separate portion was donated to the Heinz History Center. In 2007, the George Westinghouse Museum closed and its records, archival materials, and artifacts were donated to the Heinz History Center. The Museum's director, Ed Reis, was made the History Center's Westinghouse Historian.

George Westinghouse Jr. (1846-1914) and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO)

George Westinghouse Jr. was born in Central Bridge, New York, on October 6, 1846, to George A. and Emaline (Vedder) Westinghouse, the eighth of ten children. The family relocated to Schenectady, New York in 1856 where Westinghouse attended school and worked in his father's agricultural machine shop business. Westinghouse Jr. enlisted in the Union Army in 1863, serving in the infantry and Calvary prior to joining the Navy as an assistant engineer from 1864 through 1865.

Westinghouse Jr., who started inventing small rotary engines in his father's shop at the age of 14, began experimenting with railway apparatus in 1866, when he invented car-replacers and railroad track switching mechanisms to combat derailment problems. He traveled to Pittsburgh to locate a foundry to produce steel for his inventions, and there cultivated the idea for the airbrake. With the help of several investors, the airbrake was tested in 1868 and patented in 1869. That same year,, the Westinghouse Air Brake Company was established, the first of 60 companies founded by Westinghouse. The Union Switch and Signal Company, prompted by the design of improved railway signaling devices, was started in 1881, and five years later the Westinghouse Electric Company was founded. Overall, Westinghouse inventions would lead to 361 patents.

George Westinghouse Jr. married Marguerite Erskine Walker in 1867, and the couple relocated from New York to Pittsburgh in 1868, purchasing the home they named "Solitude" in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The Westinghouse family also maintained a summer home, "Erskine Park," in Lenox, Mass., and a winter home in Washington, D.C. The couple had one son, George Westinghouse III (1883-1962). George Westinghouse Jr. died on March 12, 1914 and Marguerite Westinghouse died in June of the same year. They are both buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC)

The Westinghouse Electric Company, organized in 1886, was founded to build equipment for a new type of electrical distribution system that George Westinghouse modeled after a similar system for natural gas distribution. Employing notable inventors such as William Stanley and Nikola Tesla, WEC produced commercial and industrial equipment for the generation, transmission, and application of electricity, including the first transformer in the United States, as well as generating stations, meters, motors, and transmission lines.

George Westinghouse became an early proponent of alternating current and was eager to prove its advantages over the direct current system. In 1891, the company built the first high voltage transmission line in California, and two years later Westinghouse won the contract to provide incandescent lights for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which provided large-scale, safe demonstration of alternating current.

In 1895, the company moved to East Pittsburgh and expanded its facilities, comprising over two million square feet on forty acres of land. During the first half and throughout the mid-20th century, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company (which became known as the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) experienced a period of rapid international growth by providing a diverse array of products and services including transportation apparatus, home appliances, broadcasting equipment, nuclear power services and facilities, and defense contracts.

Fueling these developments was an active Research and Development Laboratory. It began in 1895 as three rooms called the "electrical laboratory," but by 1904 all Westinghouse research was combined into a single research division. In 1955, the research center moved to a new laboratory in Churchill, Pa., eventually becoming the Research and Development Center, also known as the Science and Technology Center. This would be the final site for research at Westinghouse and would come to include eight major buildings, including a cafeteria, auditorium, and library.

At its peak, there were 135 divisions within the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Financial troubles in the late 1980s and early 1990s led the company to sell some of these divisions and restructure into 23 business units. Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought CBS in 1995, and three years later Westinghouse changed its corporate name to CBS Corporation and relocated to New York. Westinghouse Electric Company, however, remained in operation of the former corporation's nuclear services, facilities, and engineering sectors. Westinghouse Electric Company moved its world headquarters to Cranberry Woods in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in 2010. Today, CBS Corporation owns the trademark and licensing rights to the Westinghouse name and brand, which is still used by several electronics and electrical companies worldwide.

Scope and Content Notes

The George Westinghouse Museum Collection comprises the administrative records and archival collections of the former George Westinghouse Museum in Wilmerding, Pa. The collection contains WABCO and WEC records, which include correspondence, publications, photographs, slides, films, phonograph records, blueprints and schematics, parts and services catalogs, advertisement materials, patent documents, research and development materials, anniversary and G.W. commemorative documents, and ledgers. The collection also comprises primary and secondary sources documenting George Westinghouse and his family, Westinghouse engineers, and the towns of Turtle Creek and Wilmerding, Pennsylvania.

A large portion of the collection (particularly the records in Series V and VI from WABCO and WEC, respectively) is comprised of assorted materials donated from retired Westinghouse employees and their families. Other materials were collected by the museum from a variety of Westinghouse divisions in Wilmerding and East Pittsburgh (including WEC's Research and Development Department and its Central Library Division). Particular strengths of the collection include biographical materials on George Westinghouse; assorted materials concerning engineers employed by Westinghouse (particularly William Stanley Jr.) and their patents; a collection of blueprints and drawings from WABCO's Construction and Maintenance Department in Wilmerding; and videotapes and film reels that highlight Westinghouse research and development. Also of note are materials pertaining to the Westinghouse Time Capsules at the New York World's Fairs in 1939 and 1964, which include administrative records, meeting minutes, news releases and photographs that cover the planning, production and burial ceremonies of both time capsules.

Arrangement

The George Westinghouse Museum Collection has been arranged into the following 8 series:

Conditions Governing Access

Select items have been placed in restricted folders for preservation. In such cases, access copies have been made for patron use.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The George Westinghouse Museum merged with the Heinz History Center in November 2007. Additional materials were transferred to the History Center in 2009 and 2010.

Archives accession # 2009.0182

Archives accession # 2010.0153

Custodial History

In 1998, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation donated a portion of its corporate archives to the George Westinghouse Museum, while a separate portion was donated to the Heinz History Center (MSS 424). In November 2007, the artifacts and archives of the George Westinghouse Museum were transferred to the Heinz History Center.

Preferred Citation

George Westinghouse Museum Collection, c.1864-2007, MSS 920, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

Processing Information

Preliminary processing by Alex Toner in 2013. Detailed processing by Leah Geibel, Nick Hartley and Kate Madison in 2015 and 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 Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Related Materials

Westinghouse Electric Corporation Records, 1865-2000 (bulk dates c1945-c1985), MSS 424, Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

Westinghouse Electric Corporation Photographs, 1886-1996 (bulk dates c1920-c1985), MSP 424, Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

George and Marguerite Westinghouse Records, 1898-1914, MSS 432, Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

George and Marguerite Westinghouse Photographs, 1898-1914, MSP 432, Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

Edward Reis Papers and Photographs, 1886-1953, 2008.0179 (and additional accessions), Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

Edward Reis Oral History, 2015, 2015.0124, Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

Separated Materials

The following three collections, originally part of the George Westinghouse Museum transfer, have been arranged and processed separately. These collections were identified as having distinct provenances from the George Westinghouse Museum Collection.

Ralph E. Kruck Drawings, c.1927-1935, MSS 530, Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

Turtle Creek Valley Oral History Project Records and Sound Recordings, 1904-1996, MSS 525, Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

William E. Young Papers, 1947-1974, MSS 1127, Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

After processing, a small amount of material was identified as being on loan to the George Westinghouse Museum at the time of that organization's merger with the Heinz History Center. These items have been removed from the collection, which has created gaps in folder numbering for certain boxes.

Container List