Before Pittsburgh’s towering steel mills and bustling riverfronts, the land where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River was home to humans for thousands of years. The first known evidence of human habitation in the region comes from Meadowcroft Rockshelter, located about 30 miles southwest of modern Pittsburgh. This remarkable archaeological site has provided some of the oldest evidence of human activity in North America, dating back to around 16,000 BCE.

Few events in American labor history carry the weight and lasting impact of the Homestead Strike of 1892. A brutal clash between steelworkers and industrialists, this strike was more than just a labor dispute—it was a battle over power, wages, and the future of organized labor in the United States. Taking place at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Works, the strike pitted thousands of workers against Carnegie’s ruthless business partner, Henry Clay Frick, resulting in bloodshed, a national spectacle, and a turning point in American labor relations.