Battle of Homestead, a violent confrontation laying bare the opposing positions of America's late 19th century laboring & capitalist ruling classes, began 131 years ago today.

For all the lecturing & writing & somber reflections, little space has ever been created to talk about Homestead's women. And only one was ever named in contemporary accounts: Margaret Finch.

I resolved to tell her story:
http://historicaldilettante.blogspot.com/2019/04/bearing-witness-to-beldam-mother-finch.html

#Pittsburgh #pittsburghhistory #battleofhomestead #laborhistory

Idling Industry a Century Ago: #Pittsburgh steel & related industries historically shut down for only 2 holidays: Christmas & July 4th.
It had been ever thus and 1923 was no exception.

#PittsburghHistory

Article: Pgh Post-Gazette 4 July 1923

Respectfully submitted to encourage usage of 1920s slang: vice & nuisance crackdown aimed at surveillance of #Pittsburgh East End curb lizards 100 years ago

Curb lizards

CURB LIZARDS

#pittsburghhistory #curblizards

Press excerpt 2-6-1923

#OTD 100 yrs ago the #Pittsburgh Daily Post newspaper reported that an audacious armed gunman at a downtown cigar store had paused in medias hold-up to wait on customer.

The Schulte & United cigar companies were both located at this central spot on Sixth & Liberty, so our man easily blended into the workday crowd once done.

#PittsburghHistory

Image: Pgh City Photographer Coll, 1919

What do you do when confronted with the 1923 version of a clickbait headline?

Well, you click it, of course.

And keep clicking and clicking and clicking, because the story has nothing to do with an orgy but is every bit as compelling in its own way.

STORY: https://tinyurl.com/homesteadorgy

#Pittsburgh #PittsburghHistory #Homestead

Yo, #Pittsburgh baseball history (which reflects cultural history)....

This Hill has always appealed to me for the layers and layers of history it contains. My interest in the area's Central Amusement Park was piqued by a 2019 piece in the Heinz History Center journal by Angelique Bamburg: https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/view/63015/62019

And now, David Rotenstein
@dsrotenstein has a new piece that really expands its known history:

https://themetropole.blog/2023/01/18/erased-and-forgotten-sports-history-in-pittsburghs-crossroads-of-the-world/

#PittsburghHistory #PittsburghBaseball #NegroLeague

I managed to squeeze in one and only one blog post in 2022 before the stroke of midnight mercifully laid the year to rest.

It's about a Gilded Age scandal that rocked Pittsburgh...sort of.

You can find it this link: https://historicaldilettante.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-pittsburgh-society-scandal-of.html

Happy New Year!

#Pittsburgh #PittsburghHistory #GildedAge