Workshop at a glance
View the:
- Participant Welcome Letter (PDF file)
- hour by hour agenda daily schedule
- campus map
- helpful quick guide
Before the workshop
In preparation for the workshop participants will be asked to read two books that will provide context for the week Thomas Bell’s novel Out of this Furnace, and Les Standiford’s Meet You in Hell.
Sunday
The workshop will begin on Sunday afternoon with participant registration at the University of Pittsburgh’s Hillman Library. After all participants have arrived, University Archivist Zachary Brodt will lead the group on a tour of the University of Pittsburgh campus.
Sunday evening participants will attend an opening reception at the Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center, the oldest, largest, and most active Bulgarian-Macedonian organization in the U.S. There they will sample traditional cuisine and get to know one another.
Monday
Monday will set the scene for the Homestead Steel Strike by exploring how the steel industry was changing in 19th century America and what the conditions were at the mills. We will spend the morning touring the Carrie Blast Furnaces and learn about steel production.
After the tour of Carrie, we will travel to the Homestead Works Pump House where attendees will eat lunch and Ken Kobus, author of City of Steel: How Pittsburgh Became the World's Steelmaking Capital during the Carnegie Era, will provide a tour of the Pump House and an overview of the evolution of the steelmaking process during the 19th century.
After Ken’s talk, attendees will visit the the Bost Building in Homestead, the same building strike organizers used as their headquarters, which is now a National Historic Landmark that serves as the visitors' center for the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area
Tuesday
Tuesday’s activities are centered on the Tycoons involved in the Homestead Steel Strike, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. In the morning, University Archivist Zach Brodt will share documents from Pitt’s archives that tell very different stories about Frick and Carnegie’s roles in the strike.
After lunch, we will spend the afternoon visiting Frick’s opulent Victorian mansion, Clayton, in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood. There Amanda Dunyak Gillen will provide a lecture about Henry Clay Frick and how he emerged as the villain in the story of the strike.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, we will start off the day in the Czechoslovakian Room, one of the Nationality Rooms in Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning. Dr. Renáta Kamenárová, Director of Pitt’s Slovak Studies Program, and other members of the Heritage Committee will discuss the Slovak immigrant experience in Pittsburgh. After the lecture we will tour all the Nationality Rooms.
After lunch, we will return to the classroom where playwright Mark Clayton Southers, author of the play The Battle of Homestead, will demonstrate and discuss how to use theater to engage students in the classroom. After a brief break, Ryan Henderson from Rivers of Steel will demonstrate an in-school program called “$1.95 a day” about the experience of the mill workers. Finally, Jeff Tripodi will introduce participants to his mock trial materials and assign parts for the following afternoon’s presentation.
Thursday
Thursday’s sessions are all about the strike and its direct aftermath. We will begin the day by boarding the Rivers of Steel Explorer riverboat and following the same river voyage the Pinkerton guards took on the Monongahela River as they traveled to the Homestead Steel Works. Along the way, historian Joel Woller will talk about the events of the strike and the Pinkertons’ journey, as well as sites of significance to Pittsburgh’s industrial past and the role the city’s geography played in the battle.
After lunch, we will return to the campus where Kathy Haines will talk about the music of the strike and demonstrate techniques for using music as a primary source. After a brief break, Jeff Tripodi will run his mock trial, using the participants who volunteered the day before as his witnesses.
Friday
On Friday, participants will explore the aftermath of the strike and the impact it had on the Homestead community and the nation. In the morning genealogist and storyteller Tammy Hepps will once again address how the town of Homestead changed after the strike, touching on her own research on Homestead’s Jewish community. Next Kevin McGuire, a librarian who attended our 2022 workshops, will discuss how to use Out of this Furnace in the classroom and his hard won battle to get a historical marker in Braddock to honor the novel.
In the afternoon, attendees will tour the Carnegie Main Library, near Pitt’s campus, one of the many libraries established by Andrew Carnegie in the years after the Homestead Strike. Following the tour of the Carnegie Main Library, we will travel to Millvale to view the Maxo Vanka murals at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church and learn techniques for using art as a primary source to talk about the aftermath of the strike, industry changes, and the growth of unions.
Saturday
On Saturday morning, University Archivist Zach Brodt will review the primary sources we learned about over the week and demonstrate how to access them after participants return home. Attendees will then break into small groups to share the lesson plans they generated over the course of the week.
