Arthur Glaser's collections
American stereotype: All Black Pilgrim Attire
<p>Every year near Thanksgiving, images of our Pilgrims father begin to proliferate showing them as very austere and wearing only black clothing. This learning lab introduces images of Pilgrims that are compared with written primary sources. It was customary in the 17th century to inventory all the belongings of the deceased before they were distributed to the heirs. These inventories and the wills themselves provide detailed information about the attire of everyday Pilgrims of this period.</p>
Arthur Glaser
21
Samuel Langley, Solar Scientist
<p>Samuel Langley was the director of the Allegheny Observatory very near the city of Pittsburgh. Langley focused his telescope on the sun each clear day hoping to find its secrets and energy output.</p>
Arthur Glaser
21
George Catlin: Indian Portraiture
<p>During the 1830s, George Catlin and his team produced over five hundred images of native American life on the western plains. Nearly half of his work consisted of exquisite portraits of Indians of many different tribes. Some tribes like the Hidatsa disappeared before any other visual representation of them could be made.</p>
Arthur Glaser
25
George Catlin: Lives of the Plains Indians
<p>Long before the camera went west, artists like George Catlin were preserving the images of the native Americans on the western plains. Catlin's paintings are numerous and divide into two genre: the group activities and portraiture. This learning lab focuses on group activities of many plains indians including hunting, traditional dances, and recreation.</p>
Arthur Glaser
32
Captured by Indians: Warfare and Assimilation on the 18thC Frontier.
<p>After the Britains won the British, French and Indian War, the victors made promises to the native Americans that the former French claims would not be occupied by the English colonists. The Quebec Act forbade settlers to pass beyond the ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. Britain soon discovered that it was impossible to stop the settlers from crossing into Indian lands. The reaction of the native-Americans was swift and furious. Raiding parties killed and/or captured hundreds of these frontier farmers.</p>
Arthur Glaser
34
Charles Messier: Comet Ferret
<p>Charles Messier was an eighteenth century astronomer whose specialty was searching for comets. He observed at an observatory atop the Hotel Cluny which was financed by the French Navy.</p>
Arthur Glaser
24
Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
<p>Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his famous poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" during the American civil war. Since he was not an eyewitness to the ride, historians have found errors of substance in the poem. This lab focuses on what really happened that night, April 19, 1775.</p>
Arthur Glaser
21
Benjamin West: America's First Painter
<p>Benjamin West began painting in America during the late colonial period. His works represented a variety of styles. He was equally good at portraiture which was what most customers wanted and romantic renditions of battle scenes. Later in his career he devoted much of his time to Greek and Roman mythological themes.</p>
Arthur Glaser
25
Pittsburgh at the 1893 Columbian Exposition
The first world's fair exhibited the latest advancements in technology, food production, and the arts. Pittsburgh was represented by Westinghouse, Heinz, Brashear, and Ferris.
Arthur Glaser
36
Charles Russell: Art of the American West
<p>Charles Russell brought the west alive with his paintings and sculptures of western life. His authentic depictions of Native Americans allow the viewer to appreciate the dress and life of the plains Indians. Also skilled in sculpture, Russell depicts cowboys and wildlife in action settings. This lab provides samples of Russell's best work.</p>
Arthur Glaser
17
Liquid Gold: The Discovery of Oil in Pennsylvania
Oil existed in shallow pools and was discovered both oozing from the soil and as a contaminent in salt wells.
Arthur Glaser
19
Runaway in an Unknown Land: The Underground Railroad in Western Pennsylvania
Prior to the Civil War, enslaved people had little chance of securing their freedom. There were rare cases of freedom being purchased by the enslaved individual or by some benefactor. Even rarer was the granting of freedom papers by the master. For those who desired to taste freedom, the choice of running was often the only viable choice. Runaways faced incredible dangers en route including the possibility of capture.
Arthur Glaser
29
Glass: One of America's First Industries
America's first colony, Jamestown, initiated glass production with the hope that it would be an important product in the mercantile trade with the mother country. Although, the production of glass was successful, the quality did not measure up against that of British producers and the glass business soon waned in Jamestown. At the end of the eighteenth century, Pittsburgh found that it had all of the raw materials to make high quality glass and imported skill glass blowers from England to begin full production. So glass preceded the production of steel and became Pittsburgh's first large scale industry.
Arthur Glaser
40
Copley & the Art of Revolutionary Figures
<p>This learning lab consists of portraits painted by John Singleton Copley, one of America's first painters. The subjects included all played a role either prior to or during the revolution.</p>
Arthur Glaser
14
Jamestown: Challenge for Survival
<p>The early years in Virginia's first colony were fraught with starvation and illness. Many of the Jamestown colonists were not "survivors". Most were gentlemen searching for gold and riches and had no experience living in the wilderness. America was a challenge: the forest primeval had never been cut, there was no available farmland, few had experience at fishing or hunting and gathering. Our story about tells about the ultimate in desperation.</p>
Arthur Glaser
31
Rodman's Guns
<p><br /></p><p>The five years of the Civil War are quite rightly considered a period of ordnance and artillery experimentation, development, and transition. The work of one man led, in fact, to the casting of one of the biggest guns ever built, even to the present day--a monstrous 20-inch muzzzleloader that fired a 1000 pound solid shot</p>
Arthur Glaser
16
Sorting through astronomical nebulae.
<p>At the turn of the nineteenth century, astronomers using basic telescopes recorded the existence of an amazing collection of nebulae. These appeared as different types of fuzzy gray material. At that time, technology did not exist to separate the nebulae into different categories. This mini lab has selected representative types of each nebulae and the characteristics of each.</p>
Arthur Glaser
8
Voyage of Discovery: Lewis & Clark explore Louisiana.
Images related to the Corps of Discovery. Most people think of the Lewis and Clark Expedition as one of geographic exploration. However, President Jefferson charged them to study ethnography, biology, zoology, meteorology, botany and geology. They were required to make detailed maps of their travels and keep a journal about their experiences. Sculptures, paintings and other forms of artwork have been included to illustrate the many interpretations of Lewis and Clark.<br />
Arthur Glaser
38
George Washington's First Military Encounter
Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent George Washington and a contingent of Virginia militiamen to secure the forks of the Ohio from the French. Before the Virginians arrived at the forks, they encountered French and Indian allies in the wilderness of southwestern Pennsylvania. The encounters there sparked what eventually became a continental war and later a world war.
Arthur Glaser
29
American Whaling Industry
<p>In the early nineteenth century, America demanded a clean burning fuel that would supplant the candle as the primary tool for lighting in homes and businesses. Whale oil proved to be the answer. It was clean burning, odorless and more economical than candles. Hunting whales was adventurous and dangerous and it lured many young men to a life at sea. Whaling remained an important industry through the Civil War and began to decline with the discovery of oil and its by products at Drake's well and other sites in Western Pennsylvania.</p>
Arthur Glaser
30
President Washington's First Challenge:The Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania
The story of the first serious challenge to the new federal government. A focus on economic principles prevalent on the frontier during the formative period of the American government.
Arthur Glaser
20
Albert Bierstadt and the Lure of the West
<p>Easterners heard many stories about the dangers of traveling to the American west. Accounts of the great American desert as an almost impossible place to cross caused many to rethink leaving home. Albert Bierstadt and painters of the Hudson River School traveled the west and sent back their impressions of the landscape and wildlife.</p>
Arthur Glaser
13
