Pitt Unveils New Historic Pittsburgh Image Web Site

PITTSBURGH—Photographs of Pittsburgh's diverse workforce, steel industries, civic renaissance, and legendary jazz musicians are among those included in the new Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections Web site, launched today by the University of Pittsburgh's Digital Research Library.

The project, accessible at http://images.library.pitt.edu/pghphotos, is a collaboration between Pitt's Archives Service Center, the Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center, and Carnegie Museum of Art. Established with a $242,157 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections is the single gateway to dozens of the city's most important visual image collections, including the Charles "Teenie" Harris collection at the Carnegie, the Pittsburgh City Photographer collection at Pitt, and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development collection at the History Center.

The photographs offer a compelling and comprehensive look at how Pittsburghers lived and worked in the 19th and 20th centuries. They visually record the cultural, educational, and social development of the greater Pittsburgh region, as well as its urban structures and regional landscapes. The site is a treasure trove for genealogists, architects, students, researchers, photo buffs, and anyone seeking a glimpse of the city's rich history.

Users will find it easy to explore the Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections. It is possible to search through the collections or to browse by numerous themes: Pittsburghers at work, at play, at home, or through time; notable personalities; and neighborhoods. The image viewer contains a "zoom" feature, enabling a user to examine the photographs in detail. Each image is accompanied by its title, date,

photographer (if known), description, location, collection source, copyright restrictions, and ordering reproduction information.

"Through this partnership we have provided access to images that visually document the Pittsburgh experience," said Project Coordinator Ed Galloway. "Nowhere else can you search and explore images from dozens of nationally significant collections through one central Web gateway."

"This IMLS grant is an indication of the maturity of our Digital Research Library, which now ranks among the leaders in the creation of solid content for users of the Web," added Hillman University Librarian Rush Miller.

The Historic Pittsburgh Images Collections site is part of Historic Pittsburgh, an online digital archive about the history of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. It is available to anyone with Internet access. In addition to its photographic collections, Historic Pittsburgh contains hundreds of digitized books relating to the region, an extensive collection of historic property maps, city census data, and a chronology of Pittsburgh's history.

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