Pennsylvania State Archives: Civil War Muster Rolls

View Pennsylvania State Archives in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Project Conservator Lindsay Bergen pieces together
the Muster Out Roll of Co. K of the 71st Regiment.
Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Pennsylvania State Archives:

Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls

North Third and Forster Streets

Harrisburg, PA

Website:  Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission: Civil War Records at the Pennsylvania State Archives

The Pennsylvania State Archives

The Treasure:  A wealth of important historical information is preserved on the Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Out Rolls, which record key details on approximately 362,000 soldiers from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania who served in the Civil War.

Accessibility:  Information on how to research the Civil War documents at the Pennsylvania State Archives is available at the web page Civil War Records at the Pennsylvania State Archives. The Civil War Muster Rolls are being scanned by Ancestry.com and are anticipated to be accessible online by late summer 2013.

Archivist Rich Saylor in the archives
tower stack area with the 135 cartons
of Muster Out Rolls before treatment.
Photo courtesy of the
Pennsylvania State Archives.

Background:  As the Civil War came to a close in 1865, the Pennsylvania Adjutant General’s Office confronted a flood of paper from the field. The Adjutant General’s Office had responsibility for much of the paperwork of war, covering Muster In Rolls (documenting the entry of soldiers into service), Alphabetical Rolls, Lists of Deserters, and Muster Out Rolls (documenting the status of soldiers at the completion of their service). These were the state’s databases, prepared and organized by hand. Many of the Muster Out Rolls date from the war’s end, as companies moved through the business of disbanding.

Ultimately, the Pennsylvania Adjutant General’s Office collected over 2,500 muster-out rolls, recording the exit status of approximately 362,000 soldiers. Only New York State contributed more Union soldiers to the war effort than Pennsylvania. A number of Pennsylvanians became prominent leaders in the cause. Noted generals from Pennsylvania include George Meade, George B. McClellan, Winfred Scott Hancock, John Fulton Reynolds, John F. Hartranft, and John W. Geary. But the Muster Out Rolls are egalitarian—they studiously document the status of the legendary Civil War heroes alongside the common soldiers and even the deserters.

A typical muster roll, before treatment:  Note the damage
on the folds that were mended with pressure-sensitive tapes.
Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives.

As the companies disbanded, the field clerks gathered the information, including the status of company members who were missing or dead. The Adjutant General’s Office provided the oversize forms—unfolding to more than three feet in width and two feet in height. Under the pre-printed masthead, the officers and clerks would fill in the information on the ruled lines. The status of dozens of soldiers could be recorded on each document. Notes provide tantalizing information, now deeply valued by today’s historians and genealogists:  “prisoner at Andersonville,” “wounded at Chancellorsville,” “recovering in hospital,” “deserted,” “lost,” or “died at Antietam.”

For the first half-century of their existence, the Muster Out Rolls were valued primarily for very practical reasons, such as verifying pensions and veteran’s claims. Subsequently, historians and genealogists continued the high level of demand. Time after time, the documents were unfolded then refolded, becoming blemished with dirt and grime. Losses started to occur along the weakening folds. Well-meaning office workers applied highly acidic pressure-sensitive tapes to hold the sheets together. Historians and genealogists loved the accurate and color detail in the documents, but the paper itself was literally falling apart.

Conservator Joan Irving at the Conservation Center for
Art and Historic Artifacts with State Archivist David Haury
and an artillery regiment Muster Out Roll.
Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Notes from the Editor:  With funding from Save America’s Treasures and the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania Muster Out Rolls have received state-of-the-art treatment and rehousing. More than 1,000 of the documents—the ones judged to be in the worst condition—came for treatment to the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) where I work. For more than five years, our conservators and technicians had the privilege to work on this monumental project.

The treatment required surface cleaning, washing, mending, flattening, lining, and encapsulating. All the old acidic mending tapes had to be removed, sometimes loosening fragments of paper that had to be refitted into the document like in a jigsaw puzzle. In 2009, CCAHA Book Technician Valeria Kremser (now Book Conservation Technician at the University of Pennsylvania) produced an informative short video, The Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Roll Project. The time-lapse section offers a nice insight into the challenging work of piecing the documents back together. Multiply this one treatment by more than a thousand and you’ll have some idea of the scope of this work.

Above:  Before treatment image of a folded Muster Roll.
Below:  After treatment image of the same Muster Roll, now unfolded.
Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Other Recommended Sites:  In the Pennsylvania State Capitol complex in Harrisburg, you can visit the Pennsylvania State Archives and the neighboring State Museum of Pennsylvania, and then take a guided tour of the historic State Capitol Building itself.

The Pennsylvania State Archives.
Photo courtesy of the
Pennsylvania State Archives.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  Gettysburg National Military Park

© 2013 Lee Price

Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center

View Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

The museum area at the Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and
Cultural Center showing the archival-quality cabinets, featuring Bulgarian-style
embellishments, built by renowned Japanese woodworking artist Tadao Arimoto.
Photo courtesy of the BMNECC.

Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center

West Eighth Avenue

West Homestead, PA

Website:  Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center

The Treasure:  A large collection of artifacts illuminates the fascinating culture that Bulgarian and Macedonian immigrants brought with them as they settled into a new life in America.  

Accessibility:  The Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center is open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 10 to 1, Saturdays from 9 to noon, and other hours by appointment.  There’s a busy schedule of special events most months.  Check the calendar for what’s going on.

Background:  First, some basic geography: Roughly the size of Virginia, Bulgaria is located is southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea to the east, Romania to the north, Greece and Turkey to the south, and Serbia and Macedonia to the west. Considerably smaller, Macedonia is approximately the size of Vermont and is an entirely landlocked country, surrounded by Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Albania. From 1944 until its independence in 1991, Macedonia was the southernmost republic within Yugoslavia. Nestled on the Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria and Macedonia have maintained a rich cultural heritage in the face of frequent foreign occupations.

BMNECC Chairwoman Emerita Patricia
Penka French standing in front of the
78-year-old Bulgarian Cultural Center. The
building's facade was refurbished in 2005
thanks to a grant from the Pittsburgh
History and Landmarks Foundation.
Photo courtesy of the BMNECC.

In the early years of the 20th century, many Bulgarians and Macedonians left their homelands to find new opportunities in America. It was a time of relative freedom in both countries—between the time of the Turkish Ottoman rule that ended in 1878 and the rise of the Iron Curtain after World War II, but economic conditions prompted many to try their luck abroad. They came to the American heartland looking for steady work, responding to the demand for labor in the factories and mines.

The thriving steel mills of Pittsburgh attracted many immigrants. The new arrivals brought their culture and customs with them, adapting as best they could to their new home. In 1930, a group of citizens founded the Bulgaro-Macedonian Beneficial Association in West Homestead, located southeast of Pittsburgh, across the Monongahela River. Like many immigrant organizations, the Association was formed to help immigrant families succeed in the new American environment.

Fifty years later, with the decline of the steel industry in 1980s, the Association began to look for a way to stay relevant. In 1995, they officially dissolved the original organization and founded a new one—the Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center. The new focus was on celebrating and preserving a unique immigrant culture with strong ties to its Balkan homelands.

At the Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center, you’ll find music, dance, and a Soup Sega! kitchen that specializes in ethnic Bulgarian specialties. The Save America’s Treasures grant contributed to the retrofitting of a new exhibit space where the historic artifacts—textiles and costumes, artwork, icons, photographs, films, audio recordings, musical instruments, jewelry, and metal work—could be displayed in attractive archival-quality cabinets. Looking outward for new ways to share their heritage, the Cultural Center has recently led initiatives such as Opera from Bulgaria—an Audio Encyclopedia Project, providing access to a rich tradition of Bulgarian opera and opera singers for the benefit of classical music fans and researchers.

Other Recommended Sites:  The main museum of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area is located in the neighboring borough of Homestead. Here you can learn about the steel business that once supported so many of the immigrant families.

Thanks to the Save America's Treasures grant, the BMNECC was able
to create a full-service technology center, as well as support for the
cleaning, repairing, and rehousing over 200 historic films in their collection.
Photo courtesy of the BMNECC.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  Civil War Muster Rolls at the Pennsylvania State Archives

© 2013 Lee Price

Atmosphere and Environment XII

View "Atmosphere and Environment XII" by Louise Nevelson in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Atmosphere and Environment XII by Louise Nevelson.
Photo by Joe Mikuliak,
courtesy of the Association for Public Art.

Atmosphere and Environment XII

Philadelphia Museum of Art, West Entrance

Art Museum Drive

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  Association for Public Art: Atmosphere and Environment XII

… and click here for information on the wide variety of Philadelphia’s public art maintained by the Association for Public Art.

The Treasure:  Atmosphere and Environment XII is an 18,000-pound masterpiece of modern sculpture.

Background:  There are two great sculptures in highly visible positions outside the west entrance (that’s the side overlooking the Schuylkill River—not the more iconic side with the Rocky steps) of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As you approach the west museum entrance, Social Consciousness, a 1954 bronze sculpture by Jacob Epstein, is to your left. And to the right is our Save America’s Treasures piece:  Atmosphere and Environment XII by the acclaimed American sculptor, Louise Nevelson (1899-1988).

Deinstallation of Atmosphere and
Environment XII in 2005.
Photo by Joe Mikuliak, courtesy of
the Association for Public Art.

Although labeled XII by Nevelson, this particular sculpture is really the third in a series of four that runs from X through XIII. Each subtly different, the four sculptures were created late in Nevelson’s career, at a time when she was experimenting with monumental size and new materials like Cor-Ten, a recently developed weathering steel. The first, Atmosphere and Environment X, was conceived in 1969 as a commission for Princeton University, followed by XI for Yale University, then XII which was constructed in 1970 and purchased by Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) in 1972, and finally XIII for Scottsdale, Arizona.

“Environments” is a term that Nevelson frequently used to refer to her famous collages. In the 1950s and 1960s, she constructed a wide variety of collages from wood and found objects, creating intricate arrangements and then painting them a solid color—first entirely black, then all white, with a brief “baroque” period of gold.

While the word “Environment” in the Atmosphere and Environment series refered back to her earlier works, “Atmosphere” added something new to Nevelson’s art. “The landscape is the atmosphere that fills the spaces of the steel environment,” she explained. “The two together are the sculpture.” Unlike her earlier collages, this new series of massive outdoor sculptures was created to interact with the changing world around it—in her words, the atmosphere. The large scale of the works may have been partly inspired by her interest in Mayan ruins and theater sets.

Like many modern artists, Nevelson embraced transience with her Atmosphere and Environment series. The atmosphere—the scenery viewed both behind and through the sculpture—would inevitably change over time. The appearance of the steel would change as well, as it developed a distinctive rust patina. But Nevelson would probably not have predicted that the very structure of the sculpture would quickly become threatened by “corrosion jacking,” with the buildup of corrosion materials actually moving the sculpture’s box-shaped elements apart.

"Before treatment" image showing
corrosion jacking on the box elements.
Photo courtesy of the
Association for Public Art.

Funding from Save America’s Treasures, the Getty Foundation, and The Locks Foundation was raised to address the problem of the corrosion jacking. Working with the Association for Public Art, the Conservation Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art developed innovative treatment approaches to restore the disfigured box elements. It was a five-year process, including the challenging deinstallation of the sculpture in 2005, followed by months of detailed restoration work, and climaxing with a rededication service on the Art Museum steps in May 2007.

Objects conservator Sara Creange working on the project.
Photo courtesy of the Association for Public Art.

Other Recommended Sites:  The west entrance side of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a bucolic setting, with a terraced landscape that slopes down to the Schuylkill River and the historic Fairmount Water Works. The Philadelphia Museum of Art recently installed the Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden on the west grounds, featuring works by Isamu Noguchi, Sol LeWitt, Claes Oldenburg, Ellsworth Kelly, and others. Iroquois, a monumental sculpture by Mark di Suvero is located nearby, just around the corner on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Philadelphia can also boast another major work by Louise Nevelson. On the other side of Philadelphia’s Center City, Nevelson’s Bicentennial Dawn is located in the interior of the James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse on 601 Market Street.

Conservators who worked on Atmosphere and
Environment XII at the rededication service in 2007.
Photo by Joe Mikuliak,
courtesy of the Association for Public Art.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Thursday:  Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center

© 2013 Lee Price

Delaware Canal State Park

View Delaware Canal State Park, Sommer's Bridge in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

The restored Sommer's Bridge in Delaware Canal State Park.
Photo courtesy of Delaware Canal State Park.

Delaware Canal State Park

Sommer’s Bridge

The park is located along the historic canal and towpath

paralleling the Delaware River on the Pennsylvania side

from Easton to Bristol.

Sommer’s Bridge spans the canal

in Lower Makefield Township

approximately a half mile south of I-95.

Website:  Delaware Canal State Park

The Treasure:  The Delaware Canal is a national treasure and the restored bridges that cross it, like the Sommer’s Bridge, add to its authenticity.

Background:  Two years after New York’s Erie Canal opened to lots of fanfare in 1825, the Pennsylvania State Senate passed a bill to dig a canal of its own. There were solid economic reasons for states to invest in canals. As the most cost-efficient commercial transportation systems then available, canals were good for business. Large deposits of anthracite coal had been discovered in northeastern Pennsylvania and there were huge markets for the coal in cities like Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia. To get the coal to Newark and New York City, New Jersey dug the Morris Canal. And in Pennsylvania, the Delaware Canal was constructed to transport the coal to the state’s largest city, mutually benefitting the economies of northeastern Pennsylvania and the growing industries of Philadelphia.

View from Sommer's Bridge.
Photo courtesy of Delaware Canal
State Park.

The digging commenced in October 1827. Nearly five years later, the 60-mile-long canal celebrated the delivery of its first shipment of coal, with a loaded barge traversing the distance from Easton to Bristol. During its first forty years, the Delaware Canal more than justified its $1.43 million expense, fueling the growth of industry in eastern Pennsylvania. The engineering required was impressive:  the canal utilized 23 lift locks to control water flow, along with an array of aqueducts, waste gates, dams, and overflows. But in practice, it didn’t look particularly sophisticated. Slow but steady, teams of mules trudged along the towpath, pulling barges loaded with up to 90 tons of coal.

The heyday of the American canals lasted only a few decades. As new railroad lines were built in the middle of the 19th century, the important role of the Delaware Canal slowly diminished. The last commercial barge descended down the canal in 1931. Appreciative of the historic importance and beauty of the canal and towpath, local citizens have consistently fought for its preservation over the years, from its initial establishment as Theodore Roosevelt State Park in 1940 through today’s maintenance of Delaware Canal State Park by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Sign posted during the restoration.
Photo courtesy of Delaware Canal
State Park.

Save America’s Treasures funding was used to preserve one of the original bridges built to span the canal. Dating back to 1831, Sommer’s Bridge is located just 15 miles from the terminus of the canal at Bristol, close to Philadelphia. In the early days, over one hundred small camelback bridges of this type crossed the canal. Today, only six remain. Thanks to the Save America’s Treasures funding, Sommer’s Bridge was the fourth of these surviving historic bridges to be restored.

The best way to see Sommer’s Bridge is to hike the towpath, a National Recreation Trail.

Sommer's Bridge during restoration.
Photo courtesy of Delaware Canal State Park.

Sommer's Bridge, restored.
Photo courtesy of Delaware Canal State Park.

Other Recommended Sites:  A hike along the towpath takes you past one historic site after another, with opportunities for stopovers at several delightful small towns. For iconic national history, Washington Crossing Historic Park is located just three miles north of Sommer’s Bridge. Small towns like Yardley, New Hope, Lumberville, Erwinna, and Upper Black Eddy cater to tourist crowds who come to Bucks County for the scenic riverfront, the antique shops, the bed and breakfast inns, and many fine restaurants.

Delaware Canal State Park.  Photo by Bradford Van Arnum.
Source:  Wikimedia Commons.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Wednesday:  Atmosphere and Environment XII by Louise Nevelson

© 2013 Lee Price

Cliveden

View Cliveden in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Cliveden:  The Chew House.
Image courtesy of Cliveden, a National Trust Historic Site, Philadelphia, PA.

Cliveden

6401 Germantown Avenue (visitor entrance on Cliveden Street)

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  Cliveden

The Treasure:  Dating back nearly 250 years, this handsome Georgian estate encompasses a wealth of stories that illuminate centuries of American history, including a critical role in the Battle of Germantown during the American Revolution.

Accessibility:  Cliveden is open for tours from April through December, Thursday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

Background:  As Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition approached in 1876, the country’s understanding of historic preservation began to change. Previously, preservation was mainly associated with holding onto the family hand-me-downs and treasured items associated with the great men of history. The Centennial Exposition provided impetus for new movements that celebrated American origins through the systematic preservation of our material past. Directly involved with planning the Centennial Exposition, Samuel Chew III became so associated with a commitment to preservation that he earned the nickname “Centennial” Sam.

Cliveden's parlor.
Image courtesy of Cliveden, a National Trust Historic Site,
Philadelphia, PA.

The American heritage of “Centennial” Sam Chew was broad and deep. In 1876, he could trace his American ancestry back more than 250 years to the 1622 arrival of John Chew in Jamestown. A century and a half later, his ancestor Benjamin Chew built Cliveden to serve as the family’s summer retreat, safely distant from the frequent yellow fever epidemics that broke out during Philadelphia’s hottest months. During the Revolutionary War, Cliveden stood at the center of the important Battle of Germantown, an event that led to Washington’s iconic winter at Valley Forge.

“Centennial” Sam and his wife Mary placed a new emphasis on recovering and saving the historic artifacts of the Chew family, from the buildings to the furniture to the paper documents. Part of their effort was family pride but it was also based in the new national interest in claiming and understanding our American identity. Their work was continued by other Chew family members, eventually leading to the decision to transfer ownership of the historic house, 5.5 acres of surrounding parkland, and a collection of artifacts to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1972. Ten years later, the Chew family papers were given to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Thanks to this far-sighted approach to preserving a family’s heritage, Cliveden has become a window onto the past for the public and researchers alike, providing insight into life within a wealthy and influential family, the key role of the house during the Battle of Germantown, and the day-to-day lives of the generations of African slaves and Irish servants who worked on the property. The Chew papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania offer an unusual level of detail concerning the family’s slaves, indentured servants, and the paid staff, with records that supply important genealogical information and letters describing the working conditions.

Through the grant, an enormous
amount of equipment was installed in
the cellar.  Image courtesy of Cliveden,
a National Trust Historic Site
Philadelphia, PA.

The building itself is a classic example of Philadelphia Georgian architecture—stately and symmetrical. The Save America’s Treasures grant was used to install a new climate management system to ensure the long-term preservation of the interior and its collections. To complement this work, drainage and plumbing projects were implemented to reduce water infiltration into the building. With a little help from 21st century technology, the long-standing commitment to preservation at Cliveden continues.

The air handler intalled as part of the new climate
management system.  Image courtesy of Cliveden,
a National Trust Historic Site, Philadelphia, PA.

Other Recommended Sites:  Scroll down the Historic Germantown website to the map of historic sites located either along Germantown Avenue or in the immediate neighborhood. There’s Wyck, Johnson House, Stenton, and many more. Historic Germantown proposes visiting them all with their HG Passport!

New ductwork was run through Cliveden using the closets to hide
the modern climate management system.
Image courtesy of Cliveden, a National Trust Historic Site, Philadelphia, PA.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Friday:  Delaware Canal State Park

© 2013 Lee Price

Brookville Historic District

View Brookville Historic District in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

The restored Jefferson County Court House in Brookville.

Brookville Historic District

Brookville, PA

Website:  Historic Brookville

Jefferson County History Center

The Treasure:  The restored houses and businesses of Brookville Historic District are a welcome reminder of the picturesque hospitality of 19th century small-town Pennsylvania.

Accessibility:  Open year round.

Background:  Small rural towns may look like they’ll last forever but in reality they inexorably change. Maps are dotted with boom towns that dwindle to ghost towns. And, conversely, tiny communities suddenly spring up like mushrooms overnight. In either case, the nature of the town—the way it looks and the way it is experienced—often changes altogether. Towns have a hard time holding onto their pasts.

Victorian details on the facade of a building on Main Street.

Located in the rural northwest portion of Pennsylvania, Brookville has somehow beaten the odds and stubbornly retained its charming late-Victorian-era appearance. A 2006 Save America’s Treasures grant provided some welcome preservation assistance, contributing to the restoration of the facades of eligible homes and businesses located within the Historic District, including the handsome 1869 Jefferson County Court House. Funding also went to the Jefferson County History Center, located in the newly preserved N. G. Edelblute Building (1855-1875) on Main Street, enabling the History Center to address accessibility and energy issues.

Settlers first moved here in the early years of the 19th century, attracted by its strategic location at the confluence of the North Fork Redbank Creek and the Sandy Lick creeks. Bears, wolves, and rattlesnakes retreated deeper into the surrounding woods as the town grew. The completion of the S&W toll road in 1822 provided a further boost to the growing town. The lumber industry flourished, with lumber mills floating timber down the creeks to Pittsburgh. Other businesses established themselves within the town, including hotels, a ladder factory, a glass and tile factory, two breweries, furniture companies, and a carriage manufacturer.

In the early years of the automotive industry, Robert Twyford established the Twyford Motor Car Company in Brooksville. On a ten-acre site, the company produced the Twyford Stanhope, now credited as the first four-wheel-drive automobile. Local historian William McCracken has built a full-scale replica of a Twyford car, which is one of the most popular exhibits at the Jefferson County History Center.

The Marlin Opera House block on Main Street.

While a stroll through the town suggests America’s past, a visit to the Jefferson County History Center provides the historic details of everyday life in this region of the country. The Living on the Land permanent exhibit uses original artifacts to explore the land’s early settlement, as well as its businesses and industries. In addition, the History Center features a recreated Victorian parlor, a model railroad exhibit, and an art gallery, all summoning up the feel of Brookville in the old days.

Historic postcard of Main Street, Brookville, looking west.
Image courtesy of Jefferson County History Center.

Historic postcard view of Main Street, Brookville.
Image courtesy of Jefferson County History Center.

Other Recommended Sites:  The borough of Punxsutawney, famous for its prognosticating groundhog, is located in Jefferson County, just twenty miles southeast of Brookville. Punxsutawney Phil’s annual big event takes place at Gobbler’s Knob on February 2.

The restored N. G. Edleblute Building is now home to the
Jefferson County History Center.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Friday:  Cliveden

© 2013 Lee Price

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

View Carnegie Museum of Natural History in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Allosaurus fragilis:  The razor-toothed Allosaurus as seen in
Dinosaurs in Their Time at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Photo Credit:  Joshua Franzos for Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

400 Forbes Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA

Website:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

The Treasure:  The vertebrate paleontology collections at Carnegie Museum of Natural History are justifiably famous for their magnificent dinosaur skeletons but are just as important for the breadth and depth of their collections, from the early fish of the Silurian seas to cave fauna of the Pleistocene.

Accessibility:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 5, Thursday from 10 to 8, and Sunday from noon to 5.

Andrew Carnegie.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie
Museum of Natural History.

Background:  At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, dinosaurs are the superstar attraction. They were big at the turn-of-the-century when steel magnate Andrew Carnegie decided that the new Carnegie Museum of Natural History needed dinosaur bones—the bigger, the better. And they’re still big today, proudly exhibited in Dinosaurs in Their Time, the museum’s thorough re-imagining of a dinosaur hall for the 21st century.

But a great vertebrate paleontology collection covers a huge spectrum of time, with only a medium-sized wedge for the age of dinosaurs in the middle. The Carnegie Museum’s collections trace the story of vertebrate life over nearly half a billion years, with 103,000 specimens extending from primitive early fish of the Silurian period (about 420 million years ago) to cave fauna of the Pleistocene (within the last couple of million years). While the collections are international in scope, they can boast of a fine representation of North American prehistory. The museum has prime fossils of bony fish from the Mississippian period found in Montana, amphibians and early reptile remains from the Pennsylvanian and Permian periods unearthed in the Mid-Atlantic region, mammal fossils of the Cenozoic era from the American west, and relatively recent (Quaternary epoch) fossils discovered in the Appalachians and Rocky Mountains.

A glimpse of the Big Bone Room, a collection storage area for the vertebrate
paleontology collections. Save America's Treasures funding contributed to
installation of a new climate control system for the collection storage areas.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Starting in 1898, Andrew Carnegie enthusiastically financed the Carnegie Museum’s western fossil hunting expeditions. The director of the museum, William J. Holland, fittingly repaid Carnegie for his generosity, naming the museum’s first great dinosaur find (the nearly complete skeleton of a new species of sauropod) after the museum’s patron—Diplodocus carnegie. Proud of his namesake dinosaur and the museum’s work, Carnegie continued to invest in the hunt for American dinosaurs.

Earl Douglass.
Photo courtesy of
Carnegie Museum of
Natural History.

In 1902, the Carnegie Museum hired Earl Douglass, a resourceful scientist with a trained eye and the fortitude to thrive in the sometimes harsh conditions of the American west. Concentrating on outcrops of the promising Morrison Formation along the Colorado-Utah border, Douglass spied eight Apatosaurus tail bones embedded at the top of a ledge on one of his outings. As Douglass and his crew unearthed this great find, a nearly complete Apatosaurus skeleton, they discovered that the surrounding rock was crammed with many more treasures. The exposed tail bones had lured Douglass to what turned out to be one of the world’s greatest fossil beds, loaded with dinosaur remains.

Over the next 13 years, Douglass shipped hundreds of tons of material back to the Carnegie Museum, comprising nearly forty Jurassic period dinosaur skeletons, including Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, and Camptosaurus. When the Carnegie Museum pulled out in 1924, satisfied with their haul, Douglass stayed on, now working under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Utah. He died in 1931, many years before his ambitious dream of establishing the quarry as a site for interpreting fossil-hunting was fully realized. In 1958, Douglass’ intact quarry wall, a veritable stew of dinosaur bones, was opened to public view as the centerpiece of Dinosaur National Monument.

Historic photo of Douglass' crew packing fossils at
Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, in the early 1900s.
Image courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Tinted postcard of the Gallery of Paleontology at Carnegie Museum
of Natural History in 1907.
Image courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Other Recommended Sites:  The Earl Douglass Workshop Laboratory, built into a hillside near the Utah quarry in 1920, is still standing at Dinosaur National Monument. After he discovered the site in 1909, Douglass chose to make Utah his home, inviting his wife and baby to join him for a pioneer life in the largely unsettled canyon area. He prepared the fossils there—eventually using the resources of this Workshop Laboratory—and then shipped them east by train to Carnegie Museum of Natural History for exhibition to a public hungry for dinosaurs.

Stegosaurus armatus:  Known as one of the
largest plated dinosaurs, the massive Stegosaurus
stands ready to defend itself in Dinosaurs in Their
Time at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
This specimen was found in Utah by Earl Douglass
and crew between 1920 and 1922.
Photo Credit:  Joshua Franzos for Carnegie
Museum of Natural History.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  Brookville Historic District

© 2013 Lee Price