Gerontologo Americano

New Blog Diaspora

2010-08-28T21:11:00.000-04:00

Heading up river...migrating all past and future Gerontologo Americano content over to: http://www.gerontologoamericano.blogspot.com If Blogger had a redirect function life would be simpler...

Old Autumn

2010-08-20T23:14:00.002-04:00

Old Long Way Home

2010-08-19T19:50:00.000-04:00

Occupations of Pittsburgh - in 1844

2010-08-16T21:21:00.000-04:00

New to the archive, a book listing all Pittsburgh businesses in 1844, just before the Great Fire. It's from the personal collection of John Quincy Adams. There were as many umbrella makers as there were plumbers and undertakers! AThe list of taverns goes on for another page... There appears to have been more than one African Literary Institute: Not from the book, but an illustration from 1843

Old Deaf Depew

2010-07-12T22:19:00.000-04:00

Another remarkable old Pittsburg find on the archive. "Deaf Depew" wrote for one of the late 19th century newspapers, and apparently was instrumental in advocating for the school district back then to test children for hearing and vision problems early. All kinds of great vignettes in the 221 pages, including the Toy Mission of Pittsburg. His spirited writing on what it was like to be deaf a

Old London Calling - in Color

2010-07-07T22:43:00.000-04:00

From the singular Retroscope:

Old War Record

2010-07-07T21:54:00.000-04:00

From Pittsburgher Charles T. L. Allen in 1918. My friend Miss Elizabeth Parmelee (1905-2004) remembered sewing socks for the soldiers in World War I.

Old Place to Live - the Closing

2010-06-30T23:20:00.001-04:00

"And now, may I ask you a question? What are you doing about it?" Narrator: What are we doing about it?

Old Place to Live - the Middle Part

2010-06-30T23:12:00.000-04:00

"I'm talking about a home, an old people's home"

Old Place to Live - Opening

2010-06-27T10:49:00.000-04:00

Old Artistic Preparations

2010-06-23T21:04:00.003-04:00

In advance of Pittsburgh Potty Month next year....A request for the art/design students in town to follow the lead of the Sunshine State and go to it. Are our Pittsburgh Potties all accessible? Isn't that the great neighborhood question, the first question to be asked when considering the Village idea? Maybe it's a conversation starter among neighbors at least...

Old School

2010-06-17T21:42:00.000-04:00

Why I love Pittsburgh reason #157... Showing up in sequence on archive.org when searching using just "Pittsburgh" and sorting by recent additions are: 1. A fine recording by The State School at Project 53 earlier this month; and 2. From 1907, the Catalogue of books, annotated and arranged, and provided by the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh for the use of the first eight grades in Pittsburgh

Old Three Rivers

2010-06-11T22:37:00.000-04:00

Bob and I are taking to the skies to research the Three Rivers mystery. We went up for a spin using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 tonight. Three Rivers had been dust for three years by 2004, but its ghost lived on at Microsoft. No sign of PNC Park, but we didn't get a real good look inside the old concrete castle either. And who knew...Google Earth has a flight simulator now.

Old Duke and Dutch

2010-06-05T22:16:00.001-04:00

Old Ike Moment on Memorial Day Weekend

2010-05-28T20:38:00.000-04:00

Old Movie Night

2010-05-20T23:43:00.000-04:00

Old Guard

2010-05-17T21:51:00.003-04:00

For a different kind of guard named Bob...because why wait until Memorial Day weekend to observe and report.

El Chico

2010-05-15T09:44:00.000-04:00

Viejos ambiente español de Pittsburgh!

Old Double Decker

2010-05-15T09:35:00.000-04:00

Long ago there was an old list, a list of the largest capacity street cars. And Pittsburgh was first on that list. 110 people! What was its route?

Old Oily Burgh

2010-05-13T16:44:00.000-04:00

The spill over Pittsburgh.

Old City of Immigrants

2010-05-04T19:46:00.000-04:00

Census data above from 1910, in "The Challenge of Pittsburgh" (1917) Immigrants were the first Pirate fans down at the old Exposition Park.

Old Man River

2010-04-30T22:48:00.000-04:00

Miracle of Pittsburgh

2010-04-26T22:11:00.002-04:00

Old Bucs

2010-04-26T20:56:00.000-04:00

Old Ballpark Blues

2010-04-22T20:42:00.000-04:00

Old Crossing

2010-04-19T21:49:00.002-04:00

When Detroit Made Postcards of Pittsburgh

2010-04-13T23:35:00.000-04:00

Is that the Strip to Hill incline way off in the distance? (click to enlarge) I still think we could build a 21st century green incline to reconnect the old arena site to the Strip. Put a grocery store up there, and ask the hip flatlander residents of the strip to go up the hill for groceries. And if there's still any talk of burying the crosstown, we should just replace the Igloo with a big

Old Writing Machine

2010-04-12T22:30:00.000-04:00

Simplicity is superiority!

Old Pittsburgh Gas?

2010-04-11T11:28:00.001-04:00

Below is an excerpt from "The Story of Gasoline" (1927) produced by the Bureau of Mines "Pittsburgh Experiment Station." This clip is about 3 minutes, with ragtime music added. The entire film is 43 minutes. I wonder if the filling station in this clip is the Pittsburgh original -- the world's first? It doesn't match the image from 1913, but that one doesn't look like it would have lasted into

Old Europe

2010-04-02T22:54:00.000-04:00

My friend Bob's color photography...Europe in the early 1950's:El Retiro is my favorite...it's as though one of the guys sitting on the top row just said something funny, and the others are looking back to laugh with him.Almost looks like these guys are checking their phones.Here's the car he drove all over Europe...when he wasn't flying Bob Hope and Danny Kaye and various ingénues around as head

Ghosts in the Old Poetical Machine

2010-03-27T23:32:00.002-04:00

Hard to believe it has been almost six years since Billmon's old Whiskey Bar closed. Thought of it for some reason while reading sketches of old Pittsburgh men for clues to questions of the day. The individual sketches appeared in The Pittsburg Leader on a regular basis, and were compiled into a book in 1892. (click to enlarge if need be) Reading through them, I'm struck by

Old Trolley Time

2010-03-27T08:04:00.000-04:00

Old River Footage

2010-03-15T22:38:00.000-04:00

Old Smokey Burgh

2010-03-14T23:01:00.004-04:00

From a July 1949 National Geographic feature on Pittsburgh titled, Workshop of the Titans. The accompanying text reads: "These city inspectors study heavy clouds billowing from a steel mill's chimneys. Smoke is viewed with special glasses and through a hole in a Ringelmann Chart. Density is graded by matching it with shades ranging from light gray to black on the card."Here's a vision for

Old Allegheny Arborists

2010-03-13T22:50:00.000-05:00

This is a great story about 15 volunteer crews helping to heal trees on the old Allegheny Commons. They're carrying on a tradition of public stewardship going back 140 odd years.

Old Spicey

2010-03-06T21:38:00.004-05:00

Here are a few ads for newspapers in an 1887 illustrated guide to Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities: Then there's this one from the Centennial History of Allegheny County (1888):

Arriba!

2010-02-21T20:18:00.001-05:00

Are there any baseball monuments in Pittsburgh featuring a player fielding a ball? Where is our appreciation of the glove? Could it be created so his lit form completes a sun dial on the street?

Old Pride in Pittsburgh

2010-02-14T21:26:00.000-05:00

Olé @ PNC Park

2010-02-14T12:46:00.000-05:00

Someone at Microsoft must think watching the Bucs at PNC Park is like watching a bloody bullfight -- either that or they're nostalgic for Three Rivers. Here's how the park appears from 250 feet up in Bing Maps:

Meals on Wheels in the Pittsburgh Snow

2010-02-11T22:41:00.004-05:00

Back in the early 90s (the 1990's), my time volunteering as a runner for a Meals on Wheels program in Oregon helped inspire my passion for gerontology and what has come to be known as "aging in community." Today, six days into a prolonged snow event in Pittsburgh, I engaged the 21st century and volunteered to deliver Meals on Wheels in the East End...Lincoln-Larimer to be specific. I

Tribute to 1902 and the Gunner

2010-02-09T23:01:00.000-05:00

Old Snow

2010-02-08T17:08:00.000-05:00

Pittsburgh Perrito Productions

2010-02-02T18:30:00.000-05:00

That's the world's largest green wall off in the distance, and the oldest dog in the foreground.

What Constitutes Pittsburgh - 1857 Edition

2010-02-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

From: Read the whole thing here:

La Femme D'Argent

2010-01-27T12:43:00.000-05:00

This film from 1905 was made to promote San Francisco (a year before the earthquake). To give the streets some extra bustle, a car full of guys drove in and out of the shot. Around 4:10 a car loops in and out for the next minute, kids tagging along behind. I'm glad half a million people have viewed that on YouTube.

From Here

2010-01-25T22:29:00.001-05:00

For me personally, this is a little of what it means to be from Pittsburgh (okay, Bethel). Lots of these businesses from 40 years ago are still around...

The Pittsburgh Market Place

2010-01-25T00:31:00.001-05:00

In 1794 there were 13,000 emigrants who passed through the city of Pittsburgh. The population in 1800 was 1,565. Must have been an interesting mix of cultures and people on the go, borrowing a little from Pittsburgh along the way. If they just would have had a good source for Mission Tile Roofs back then, I bet they would have used them instead of wood.

Returning to Pittsburgh for 154 years now...

2010-01-22T22:46:00.001-05:00

More from J.B. Corey, news of early return migration to Pittsburgh (from California, no less).

Angels & the Ancienne Frontière

2010-01-21T00:06:00.001-05:00

Did you know Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi (1883) is said to be the first book submitted to a publisher as a typewritten manuscript? I traveled with it recently; made it fun to go back and read about J.B. Corey's world as a flat boat pilot on the river, circa 1849. Next week is JB Corey Week here...

256 Years Ago Today

2009-12-29T08:45:00.001-05:00

The river photographs on this blog were taken from the Washington Crossing Bridge on the evening of December 29, 2006 - 253 years after George Washington and his guide Christopher Gist spent the night on a small island in the Allegheny, just below bridge. From Gist's Journal:

The Romance of the Here and Now

2009-12-26T23:06:00.002-05:00

I hope others who ponder the questions of the day on local blogs will take some time and dig more into James Hall's story and his writings, to help make connections between Pittsburgh in its early 19th century frontier days and our nueva frontera of today. Our history -- our human, lived history in this place -- should be a source of energy and shared purpose. Pittsburgh was once the place

Almost poetical, if it be not really so

2009-12-26T11:23:00.005-05:00

From vol. 2 of James Hall's "The Western Monthly Magazine" (1833). click to enlarge >snip< UPDATE 12/27/09: From the source, Mary Austin Holley's "Texas : observations, historical, geographical and descriptive, in a series of letters ; written during a visit to Austin's Colony with a view to permanent settlement in that country in the autumn of 1831 (1833)" It was apparently

Pittsburgh's Literary Start

2009-12-25T22:36:00.000-05:00

Was James Hall's "The Billiard Table" the first short story to be set in Pittsburgh...in addition to being one of the first American short stories? And was James Hall really the inventor of the newspaper editorial section?! James Hall was born on July 29, 1793, to John and Sarah Hall. John Hall was a wealthy Maryland landowner. His son was exposed to many intellectual discussions that

Christmas and New Year's Gift - 1829

2009-12-22T21:53:00.005-05:00

A souvenir from Pittsburgh (by way of Cincinnati), some old west stories... For a future post maybe...the contribution "The Last of the Boatmen" was composed by "N_____." The whole thing is worth the read...embedded for your viewing pleasure below - am I the only one who uses the embed feature from the archive?!:

The Challenge of Pittsburgh

2009-12-15T22:29:00.000-05:00

I came across "The Challenge of Pittsburgh" on archive.org. The City of Pittsburgh's population in 1916 was about 550,000. Now it's hovering around 300,000. The City had 812 police officers in 1916. Now we have about 858. Prorating the arrests through the rest of 1916, there were likely about 50,000 arrests that year, half for drunkenness. It looks like there were about 48,000

City of Friends

2009-12-13T22:17:00.001-05:00

I didn't know where Reedsdale St. was until I looked it up: From Harrison Mason's 1924 Some Pittsburgh memories; incidents and reminiscences, with a little history intermingled, of seventy years residence in the city at the forks of La Belle Riviere.

Cheer Up Pittsburgh

2009-12-11T20:59:00.006-05:00

I'm not giving up on the canal boat idea. Destination Cleveland. And then there's Smithfield St. and 6th Avenue. In German. The view here: Standing in across from Mr. Simonds' mountain glade (Mellon Square), looking down up 6th Avenue. In 1787 A little later (circa 1815) Later still. Is that a green roof on that building in the foreground? (Note: corrected angle inserted):

Old Mad Men - and Women

2009-12-01T22:42:00.002-05:00

Last week in honor of the National Day of Listening I got my friend Bob talking about his experiences in New York City in the late 1940's. He spent three years as the Public Information Officer for the First Army headquartered in New York. I looked through the Library of Congress and found some old photos of the "Federal Advertising Agency," which may or may not have been involved with his

To Hear Your Banjo Play (1947)

2009-11-30T21:04:00.000-05:00

Old Pittsburgh James Brown

2009-11-25T21:05:00.002-05:00

Flem's Views of Old Pittsburgh (1905)

Our Lincoln

2009-11-24T23:57:00.002-05:00

The Lincoln program on "Nat Geo" last night covered the way Lincoln managed his public image. Here is our Lincoln: The program also explored how he personally commanded troops in the field. It brought to mind this from J.B. Corey's memoir: J.B. Corey, 1860: Remembering the newspaper editor's introduction to his memoirs: More from the editors in Corey's own introduction: Continued

St. Clair Lost and Found

2009-11-22T16:09:00.002-05:00

This old Bethel kid has new respect for the St. Clair neighbors. Dennis Roddy's piece in the Post-Gazette on Arthur St. Clair was fascinating. It's sad that St. Clair could be all but forgotten, but thanks to Roddy and the PG for telling the story. This jumped out at me: "As important as he was, there is no biography of him today," said Martin West, director of the Fort Ligonier Museum.

History of Old Braddock Hospital

2009-11-07T23:04:00.000-05:00

The Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) contains the story of Braddock Hospital's founding. Interesting that the idea for the hospital was first championed by a local newspaperman (his editor was not happy with it). It took almost 12 years from the first donation until the opening. They quickly realized it was way too small, so they set out to raise more funds for 2 more wings. Here

Lest we forget...

2009-11-05T23:26:00.000-05:00

Hotel Radio - Health Care Edition

2009-11-04T22:29:00.001-05:00

More from Mayor Lawrence circa 1950: A population of 1.5 million in the county supported: There were 70 hospitals in the county back then, but just 1,800 physicians and 1,000 nurses. That's amazing. A quick check of the government's Hospital Compare site shows 17 hospitals in Allegheny County now (UPMC Braddock included) for our population of 1.2 million. How many physicians are there in the

Pittsburgh Veterans on Election Day

2009-11-02T21:46:00.002-05:00

I am not a city resident, so I have no say in the Mayoral race. But I did like this video that Franco "Dok" Harris put up featuring his visit to a senior center in Brookline. He talks about the potential to harness for good the experiences of "Pittsburgh Veterans" to develop "senior living technology." Cool vision, but I hope for a low tech approach too -- promoting new ways to organize

A Few General Facts

2009-11-01T00:01:00.000-04:00

Old Health Care

2009-10-30T23:28:00.000-04:00

More handy numbers from Mayor Lawrence. Pittsburgh hospitals circa 1948:

Why I love this town reason #1492

2009-10-28T22:16:00.005-04:00

Because there's an 81 yr old in Plum named Dominic who does Zumba with his wife: The next patient is Dominic, 81, of Plum, who has been accompanied by his wife to the appointment, a four-month checkup. "He said I'm doing good, I'm doing great," Dominic said afterward. No wonder: Dominic is a model senior patient. Slim but fit, he goes with his wife to a gym for a senior citizens' workout

Miss not the discourse of the elders

2009-10-26T21:54:00.000-04:00

I have had the 1987 book "The Grand Generation" for a few years. It's a treasure. I didn't realize that a companion video was created in 1993 out of the same project. Below is an excerpt on YouTube. The entire video is available at FolksStreams.net

City of Miracles

2009-10-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

They were on the ball -- even including a quick survey for visitors to fill out and mail back. Has anyone done a post G-20 survey of visitors?

Next Founder's Day

2009-10-10T23:10:00.001-04:00

Do we still honor Founder's Day here in Pittsburgh? A quick search yielded not much, but it did bring up an event held in 1907 to celebrate Founder's Day at the Carnegie Institute, which produced the following document (yes, that is the actual title): I propose we celebrate Founder's Day in Pittsburgh again next May, and invite President Obama to attend to share some mojo with the Bucs

Old Burgh Album

2009-10-08T23:42:00.000-04:00

I got a copy of "A Pittsburgh Album" for nine bucks on Ebay. What a deal. It was published in April 1959 (and sold for $1.50) by the Post-Gazette, Radio Station WWSW, Television Station WIIC, and Herbick & Held Printing Company. It was compiled, written and edited by Roy Stryker and Mel Seidenberg, with Art Director George Plataz. In the spirit of looking into the future of our city,

Honoring Honus

2009-10-07T23:53:00.002-04:00

I am reading Ted Kennedy's great True Compass now. He writes of his grandfather Honey Fitz in Boston rooting on the Red Sox with a song, Tessie: "Tessie" may sound a little quaint to today's ears, but Grandpa's rendition of it was good enough to cause the great Pittsburgh third baseman Honus Wagner to commit three errors in one inning during a World Series game. Third baseman? I checked and

Old Burgh Mayoral Matters - circa 1850

2009-09-30T17:37:00.000-04:00

And I thought Providence had a lock on odd mayors of old; the "elevation" of Joe Barker to Mayor of Pittsburgh in 1850-1851 was pretty crazy. Here is Jimmie Owens' take on it, looking back from 1903:

Old 'Burgh Balls

2009-09-26T15:43:00.000-04:00

I didn't realize Pittsburgh supplied the balls for the War of 1812....from Volume 4 of the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine (1920), Reminiscences of Early Pittsburgh:

Grab a Broom & Get Back to Work

2009-09-25T22:32:00.001-04:00

Pittsburgh's original G-20 RSC in the lead cleaning up... Do you think they threw all that litter on Fifth Avenue for the photo op, or was it really that bad?

G-Pittsburgh...1908

2009-09-21T20:23:00.001-04:00

From 150 years of unparalleled thrift : Pittsburgh Sesqui-centennial chronicling a development from a frontier camp to a mighty city; official history and programme (1908)" The capital and surplus in Pittsburgh banks was greater than the combined capital in the Bank of England, Imperial Bank of Germany, and the Imperial Bank of Russia. Doesn't seem possible... And the city got an arch for

Old German

2009-09-18T19:04:00.001-04:00

I'm looking for the first instance in recorded history of visits to Pittsburgh from G-20 nation reps...Here is maybe the first visitor from Germany: I found no trace of "Diamond, East" on the North Side...

Old Writer's Block

2009-09-16T21:50:00.000-04:00

From the long view of history department, a different perspective on Pittsburgh's current moment in the creative sun: Clearing the skies (sort of) helped to clear our heads (sort of)? From "Psychological Aspects of the Problem of Atmospheric Smoke Pollution" (1913)

Old Soho

2009-09-16T20:25:00.002-04:00

Who knew Pittsburgh once had our own Soho? If we ever get around to creating a new transit line between Downtown and Oakland it should be called the Soho Line... From Early Land Marks and Names of Old Pittsburgh (1923) Photo of the "Soho Curve" in 1893 from Flem's Views of Old Pittsburgh (1905) (click to enlarge)

Old Runaway Finds a Home in Pittsburgh

2009-09-13T00:13:00.001-04:00

I came across another remarkable old Pittsburgh memoir on archive.org, this one written in 1903 by then 76 yr old James Owens. He ran away from home in Ireland at age 6 (!) and at the age of 18 ended up in Pittsburgh (by way of Jamaica and Cuba). Lots of incredible stories about Pittsburgh in the 1850s and during the Civil War (check out page 101 for the story of how Mayor Joe Barker got

Old Funicular

2009-09-06T20:57:00.005-04:00

Who knew? Looks like there was an incline from the Strip up to the Hill District in 1902.Image excerpted from T.M. Fowler's drawing of Pittsburgh.

Ghosts in an Old Terrestrial Room

2009-09-03T21:15:00.023-04:00

Speaking of haunted houses in Pittsburgh: Can we get copies of Martin Aurand's The Spectator and the Topographical City into the hands and minds of every G-20 visitor? From Charles Rosenblum's review in the City Paper three years ago:And the spectacle is both historic and cosmic. The Point is not simply a convenient site to fulfill military or transportation needs; it is Pittsburgh's omphalos, a

Old Back to School Moment

2009-09-01T17:32:00.001-04:00

Old man for a' that

2009-08-31T20:57:00.014-04:00

Pittsburgh and Allegheny, 1854

The world was so recent that many things lacked names

2009-08-31T05:59:00.003-04:00

Interesting article on aging immigrants and their isolation. I'm sure it's on a much smaller scale here in Pittsburgh, but I have observed it as I'm out and about the city with a gerontological eye. Reminded me of an old post, "Where the Grandparents Cohabitate"

Making Old Trains Run on Time

2009-08-30T20:03:00.004-04:00

From the Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917):Things were done in a much more simple manner in those days than at present. An incident which happened on one occasion shows the absence of red tape in the management at that time.While Andrew Carnegie was Superintendent, Mr. J. B. Corey, a coal operator, who still lives in Braddock, went to Mr. Carnegie and asked for some coal

Old Government Job

2009-08-30T09:09:00.009-04:00

More from J.B. Corey's memoir. It was just put on archive.org last week, not sure how long it has been on Google books. In the previous post, I said he was from Pittsburgh. He was from Braddock, his parents being among the earliest settlers there. Here is his house, which I presume is long since gone (no sign of it anywhere along Jones Ave on Google street view). Here he is at 82,

Old Memory ATM

2009-08-29T21:52:00.017-04:00

I came across this remarkable memoir by Pittsburgh native J.B. Corey (published by the Pittsburgh Printing Company). He wrote it in 1914, at the age of 82. Here is what some newspaper editors said in their introduction:Here is his second encounter with Abe Lincoln during his time as a government clerk in DC:

Old Center of Everything

2009-08-29T07:20:00.005-04:00

In the run up to the 'Burgh being the center of the world for a few days, it's worth remembering from whence we came. This from the 1899 Historic Towns of the Middle States:

Old G-20 Commons

2009-08-26T22:38:00.012-04:00

I hope Pittsburgh can be a model for all things good and lasting during the G-20. I know hope is not a plan.I came across the above print in the catalogue accompanying A Panorama of Pittsburgh: Nineteenth-Century Printed Views, a Frick Art & Historical Center exhibition in 2008. The September 22-25, 1857 date caught my eye, but when I read the description it got me thinking about ways we build

Like Being There

2009-08-24T14:18:00.002-04:00

Old Paralysis

2009-08-20T12:55:00.001-04:00

A preview of the G-20 downtown experience?A city waits relief!

Old 'Burgh Traffic...

2009-08-19T23:24:00.002-04:00

...same as it ever was.

Old Netroots & New Sprouts

2009-08-14T23:13:00.005-04:00

That's the title of the last page of the 1936 "Civic Pittsburgh" publication detailing reasons to rationalize local government (found on archive.org and originally contributed to the web for free download and perusing by EveNDon.com - where they have archived a bunch of old Pittsburgh publications). After attending Netroots Nation today and pondering what Pittsburgh can learn from Netroots Nation

Old Motley Population

2009-07-23T22:37:00.004-04:00

A canoe trip passing through Pittsburgh by G.W. Featherstonhaugh. Journal entry from July 24, 1835:

Old Pete and the 'Burgh

2009-07-20T16:51:00.000-04:00

Old Honus

2009-06-30T21:33:00.002-04:00

In honor of the Bucs beating the Cubs on the North Shore tonight, a shot of an older Honus Wagner (1916) sliding back into first base at Weegham Park.The image comes from the Library of Congress collection, featuring hundreds of great shots from the Chicago Daily News.I made this old Dead Ball Era movie about three years ago using many of those shots...55K views, Holy Cow!

Old Burgh Ephemera

2009-06-11T22:04:00.008-04:00

There were 13 daily and weekly newspapers in 1864 Pittsburgh.And five street passenger railways.