Archives Service Center - News

The Archives Service Center added eight more real estate plat maps of Pittsburgh created by the G.M. Hopkins Company to the Historic Pittsburgh Maps Collection. They include an 1882 atlas; Volume 3, Volume 4 and Volume 5 [1890]; Volume 1 [1898]; Volume 2 [1899]; a 1910 atlas; and Volume 2 [1914]. These additions are part of an ongoing project by the ASC to identify and digitize all the Hopkins maps produced for Pittsburgh between 1872 and 1940. Twelve more volumes will be coming soon in the following months.

The Archives Service Center is pleased to announce the largest update to its online Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection with the addition of nearly 2,000 digitized images. The new images are part of an initiative to reformat all the glass plate negatives in the Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection (AIS.1971.05) to facilitate preservation and access. The images found in the newest addition, which represent the earliest ones in the collection (1901-1908), document improvements to city infrastructure, such as the construction of the Aspinwall and Ross Pumping Stations, the development and condition of roads in many neighborhoods (e.g., Shadyside, Point Breeze, and Morningside, among others), and residents and construction workers in these neighborhoods.

The Archives Service Center processed the Jay C. Waldman Papers (AIS.2007.10) that document the fifteen years (1971-1986) he served as a close aide to former PA Governor Dick Thornburgh. Waldman served Thornburgh in various offices and capacities, including Thornburgh's tenure as U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, and Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The Archives Service Center processed the Russell H. Heffley Photograph Collection (AIS.2009.05) that documents the industrial history of Johnstown, Pa. Comprising 648 images, this collection features interior and exterior mining views, advertising photographs for area businesses, and views of the people and the city of Johnstown at its peak as a steel town during the mid-twentieth century.

The Archives Service Center opened the Wendell Wray Papers (UA.90.F88) for research use. The collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Wendell Leonard Wray, the first African-American male to both graduate from Carnegie Tech Library School and be hired at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Public Library. Wray relocated to New York City where he directed the Harlem-based North Manhattan Project, and later the Schomburg Center for Research in Black History. Later, he taught at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Science, specializing in the instruction of oral history and African-American bibliography.

The Pitt Chronicle, a newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh, featured two stories in its September 30th issue on digitization activities by the Archives Service Center. The article, "New Pitt Web Sites Tells Story of Early Pittsburgh As Seen Through the Lens of the Jewish Community", focuses on the release of our NCJW Oral History Project website. The other, "Pitt's Library System Digitizes, Mounts Works of Fred Wright, Noted Labor Cartonist", describes our new image collection devoted to the Labor History Series drawn by UE cartoonist Fred Wright.

The Archives Service Center recently released website, Pittsburgh and Beyond: The Experience of the Jewish Community, has received the attention of The Jewish Chronicle and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The Archives Service Center announces the release of a new website devoted to the oral history collection created by the Pittsburgh Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) and housed by ASC. Pittsburgh and Beyond: The Experience of the Jewish Community comprises over one thousand hours of interviews of Jewish men and women in Pittsburgh between 1968 and 2001. Conducted by volunteers, the 516 interviews provide a window into the Jewish community's impact on academic, business, civic, cultural, medical, political, religious, and social evolution and development in Pittsburgh, as well as national and international events. The audiocassette tapes were digitized and mounted online accompanied by detailed abstracts and other descriptive information which can be searched. Also see the press release issued by the University of Pittsburgh.

University Archives and Records Management is offering a session through the Office of Human Resources' "Faculty and Staff Development Program" series on Thursday, October 1, 2009 from 9-11 a.m. at 342 Craig Hall. This workshop will provide an overview of records services available at no-cost to University departments. Participants will receive an overview of campus-wide retention policies and regulations for records management, as well as information about records storage and shredding options. In addition, we will discuss use of the University Archives for the storage of historical records including faculty papers, administrative records, and student organization records.

In conjunction with Labor Day, the University of Pittsburgh announced the release of the ULS website, Drawing on the American Labor Movement: Labor History Cartoons of Fred Wright. The cartoons are part of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) collection held by the Archives Service Center since 1975.

The Archives Service Center will be closed on Monday, September 7 for Labor Day. We will reopen during our normal operating hours on Tuesday, September 8.

Today the Archives Service Center added more images to the University of Pittsburgh Archives image collection. The images of the Pitt campus were shot by Ken Kobus and donated to the Archives Service Center along with his photograph collection documenting the railroad and steel industries.

The Archives Service Center has mounted a selection of 600 photographs by noted photographer Harold Corsini. Corsini (1919-2008) worked as a freelance photographer in Pittsburgh for much of his long life. The images selected for digitization, taken during the 1940s-1970s, best represent the creative and commercial content of Corsini's work as a professional photographer as well as an artist. They comprise commercial photographs taken for local and national businesses, industrial photographs taken for US Steel as well as images from WWII and of Southeast Asia and East Africa. The images can be searched or browsed by topic. The ASC acquired his 55,000+ photographic collection in 2007. Please consult the collection finding aid for more information.

The Archives Service Center has opened the Michael M. Dawida Papers for research use. Dawida (D-Carrick) served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1979-1984) and then in the Pennsylvania State Senate (1985-1995). The papers, primarily documenting his state senate career, include legislative files, subject files of the various public issues that concerned Dawida, news releases, correspondence, and videotapes of "Senate Journal," a television program hosted by Dawida. Please see the online collection guide for more information.

We improved the viewing interface for the G.M. Hopkins Company maps on the Historic Pittsburgh website. Now the map plates can be enlarged and more easily navigated using the Zoomify interface. You can now zoom in on a map plate and drag it around to move within it. We also improved the ability to browse map plates from each volume. Users can now freely download map plate images as 200 dpi JPEG files for noncommercial and educational purposes.

Archives Service Center and Preservation personnel, in collaboration with staff from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, are working on a major project associated with an important component of our CONSOL Energy coal mine maps. A reporter for The Allegheny Front, an environmental radio station, recently produced a story about the project called New Information From Old Mine Maps. It includes comments from Amy Baker, our conservator for the project.

We created a new full-text collection within our Historic Pittsburgh website. The Historic Pittsburgh City Directories collection contains 125 directories published between 1815 and 1945. The majority of the directories were published by J.F. Diffenbacher and R.L. Polk & Company. While most of the directories cover Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, a portion includes Homestead and nearby boroughs. Thanks to the Heinz History Center and Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation for contributing many of their city directories for this project!

The Archives Service Center opened the Leighton E. Orr Papers (AIS200903) for research use. This collection contains the technical reports generated by Orr in his work as a professional consultant specializing in ceramics and glass.

The Archives Service Center opened three new collections for research use from our Archives of Industrial Society (AIS). They are the Electrical Workers of Western Pennsylvania Oral History Project (AIS199115), the Gail M. Rockwood Papers (AIS200020), and the Pittsburgh Brewing Company Scrapbooks (AIS200708). We also opened two collections from the University Archives (UA): Elizabeth Elmer Papers (UA90F86) and Ivan Elagin Papers (UA90F85).

In honor of Independence Day, the Archives Service Center will be closed on Friday, July 3. We will reopen during our normal operating hours on Monday, July 6.

The University Records Management (URM) office, part of the Archives Service Center, recently published its June 2009 Newsletter. It highlights and describes the implementation of a new itemized service for all Pitt accounts using BRM services. This service becomes effective on August 3, 2009.

The Archives Service Center has digitized and mounted online work by former United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) staff cartoonist Fred Wright. The web site, Drawing on the American Labor Movement, features the entirety of Wright's "Labor History" series in addition to a sampling of his other works. This series of 177 cartoons describes some of the conflicts and hardships faced by workers during the American labor movement, from the colonial period to the Vietnam War.

The Archives Service Center is closed on Monday, May 25 in observance of Memorial Day.

The Archives Service Center opened the Denominational Ministry Strategy Collection for research use. Also we mounted a finding aid that provides an overview of the entire United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) records. Since this collection is so large (3,000 linear ft.), it has been arranged at record group, subgroup and series levels with finding aids reflecting these distinctions. The majority of the collection is open for research use.

The Archives Service Center opened three new collections for research use. They include the Patricia Pelkofer Papers, the Ralph E. Griswold, GWSM, Inc. Collection, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Offered by the University's Human Resources department, this workshop will provide an overview of records services available to University departments through the University Records Management and University Archives programs. Participants will receive an overview of campus-wide retention policies and regulations for records management. It will also cover services available through BRM, the University’s contractor for off-site records storage and shredding. In addition, the presenters will discuss use of the University Archives for the storage of historical records including faculty papers, administrative records, and student organization records. The workshop is scheduled for Friday, April 3 from 9-11 am in 342 Craig Hall. For more information and/or to register, please visit the HR website.

The Archives Service Center will be closed on Friday, March 13 for Spring Break. We will resume our normal business hours on Monday, March 16.

The Archives Service Center opened three new collections for research use. They include the Garden Club of Allegheny County and the Ohio Company Papers. Also we created a collection guide to the Allegheny County (Pa.) Coroner's Office Records.

Come join local archivists, museum curators and preservationists tomorrow (Sat., February 28) from 10 AM - 4 PM at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to learn more about what you can do to preserve your family history. Over 30 individual conservators and vendors of conservation supplies and services will be on hand to address your conservation issues. Bring books, photographs, film, letters and other documents, paintings, textiles and family treasures for free conservation advice. No appraisals or valuations will be given. The event is free with Museum admission; no separate registration is required.

The Digital Research Library updated the University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions Website today. The site now contains 522 titles published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. The digitized titles were contributed by the Archives Service Center.

Dr. Richard Oestreicher selected new material for digitization from a collection of influential left-wing organizations in the United States that he recently donated to the Archives Service Center. This material was digitized by the ULS Digital Research Library and is now available online at the American Left Ephemera Collection Website. The site now contains 192 texts and 110 images.

The University Records Management (URM) office, part of the Archives Service Center, recently published its February 2009 newsletter. Also, in conjunction with the University's contractor for records services, Business Records Management, the URM is conducting a survey for all authorized users of storage and shredding accounts. The intention of the survey is to get feedback from the University community on the services and performance of our program. The survey will be available until March 31, 2009.

The Archives Service Center opened 49 new collections for research use and updated the collection guides to 39 others. The new collections include the Environmental Action Foundation Records, several United Electrical collections, and the remainder of the Darlington manuscript collections. Search Collection Guides.

The Archives Service Center updated its Documenting Pitt website by digitizing a group of material known as the Honors Convocation Programs. The new additions comprise the Book of the Scholars from the Scholars’ Day Assembly for 1932, 1934-1957, the Honors Convocation Programs for 1963, 1966, 1977-2008 and the Tap Day Program for 1976.

As part of the media activities surrounding last week's announcement regarding the Mine Map Preservation project, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published this article on January 16, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published this article on January 19, and the Observer-Reporter published this article on January 20.

The Archives Service Center will be closed on Monday, January 19 in recognition of Martin Luther King Day.

The University Library System announces today the commitment of $200,000 from CONSOL Energy Inc., the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection California District Office (PA-DEP), and the United States Department of the Interior Office of Surface Mining (OSM) to catalog, conserve and prepare coal mining maps held by the Archives Service Center for digitization. This collaborative effort will impact mine safety, mining operations, land reclamation, new development, and research. CONSOL Energy Inc. first began placing mine map materials with the Archives Service Center in 1991.

The Archives Service Center will be closed to researchers on Thursday, January 15, 2009 due to a special event being held in the archives. We apologize if this is an inconvenience.

The Archives Service Center welcomes Alesha Shumar and Zach Brodt as project archivists.