It was my privilege recently to give a talk to a combined meeting of the Pennsylvania Canal Society, the Ohio Canal Society, and the Northern Ohio Chapter of the Society of Industrial Archaeology. The occasion was their annual Fall Tour, which was located in the Pittsburgh area this year. I chose for my subject the… [Read More]

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society kicked off its twenty-first year with its first Fall program meeting last month. The speaker was Norene Beatty, President of The Pittsburgh Old Stone Tavern Friends Trust, a non-profit organization with the mission of preserving one of Pittsburgh’s oldest buildings. Located at the intersection of Greentree Road and Woodville Avenue in… [Read More]

One of the best things about this time of year is the proliferation of festivals. They didn’t amount to much last year, but now we seem to be ignoring the pandemic and are supporting this kind of event bigger and better than ever.  The Washington-Greene County Covered Bridge Festival is one of my favorites; it… [Read More]

Our Book Club meeting this month was delayed to avoid Rosh Hashanah, prompting me to investigate that holiday. My initial investigation determined that it was Jewish New Year, celebrated on the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. I also learned that this calendar was a lunar one and that its first… [Read More]

In a previous column I remember writing that “Ed Weise was the best ‘best friend’ a teen-aged boy could ever have”. And indeed he was; his passing has triggered an avalanche of memories for me. Despite being saddened by his death, it is easy for me to celebrate his life and the portion of it… [Read More]

Noblemen in Scotland employed ghillies as caretakers of the forests and streams on their extensive estates; that seems like an appropriate description of the role I have assumed in my regular visits to the natural park adjacent to my home. Part of my responsibility is to inspect all parts of the park. It is a… [Read More]

One of the most rewarding things about being an amateur historian is researching an unknown person or event successfully and ending up learning a little bit more about life in an earlier era. I recently had an inquiry from a lady named Nancy Komatz with a question regarding her great-grandfather, Richard Biddle Davis. She knows… [Read More]

I have just returned from a delightful week’s vacation at Chautauqua with my daughter Elizabeth and her family. We have visited there off and on for many years; last year we decided to rent a house for a week inside the Institution, a pleasant experience although the pandemic had eliminated nearly all of the regularly… [Read More]

Representing the University of Pittsburgh, my daughter Elizabeth was the co-sponsor of a short course this month in conjunction with Konan University in Kobe, Japan. Its subject was “Global Cities: Pittsburgh and Kobe – Livability, Resilience, and Sustainability”; its objective was to explore the future potential for the two cities. When she first discussed the… [Read More]

It has been thirty years since my last visit to the Arden Trolley Museum. An old friend, Kevin Abt, here for a visit, suggested we remedy that omission. It was particularly appropriate for me; my recent column on trolleys in this area has peaked my interest in them. Kevin was one of my first students… [Read More]