Plate, Commemorative
Object number2018.66.1
ManufacturerPossibly
Houze Glass Company
Date1958
Possible OriginPoint Marion, PA
MediumGlass; Paint
Credit LineGift of Angela Toriello
DescriptionCommemorative platter. Circular transparent black glass platter with sloped walls. Front of plate features opaque white background and double gold border around perimeter. Center of plate has black-and-white aerial view of downtown Pittsburgh with Point State Park in the foreground; gold border surrounds central section. Outer section has fourteen (14) historical scenes; each scene has banner with text at top and illustration below.DimensionsHeight x Diameter: 1.875 × 14.063 in. (4.8 × 35.7 cm)InscriptionsText above Pittsburgh image "1758" and below "Pittsburgh - The Renaissance 1958 City of the Twentieth Century".
Historical scenes have text, from top center, moving clockwise around platter:
"PITTSBURGH 1758-1958 BICENTENNIAL" at top and "The English, after defeating the / French at Fort Duquesne, erected / new fort named for William Pitt" at bottom;
"1786 Founding of the first / newspaper in the town / of Pittsburg, "The Gazette" ";
"1787 The first church, con- / stucted of logs, was / erected on Sixth Avenue";
"1797 Gen. O'Hara & Maj. / Craig erected the first / glass factory in Pittsburg.";
"1803 Pittsburg Foundry, / the first in the town / was put into operation.";
"1816 Pittsburg received its / charter as a city.";
"1817 Thomas Jones made / the first shipment of / coal downriver by barge.";
"1833 Johnston & Stockton / install first steam print- / ing press West of Alleghenies";
"1835 The first public school / was opened with only / five students, all boys.";
"1845 Large part of city ruin- / ed in blaze started by / washerwoman's backyard fire.";
"1852 Pennsylvania Railroad / provided first direct / through line to Philadelphia.";
"1864 Andrew Carnegie be- / gan his steel empire / with the Cyclops Iron Works";
"1877 Duquesne Heights was / the scene of the first / electric light demonstration"; and
"1886 Charles Hall electro- / lytically extracted alu- / minum. A new industry began."
Historical NotesPlatter commemorating the Pittsburgh Bicentennial. It depicts various historical scenes from the region around the outer edge with the “Golden Triangle” in the center. Possibly made by Houze Glass in Point Marion, Pennsylvania, but it is not marked.
Related person
William Pitt
(British, 1708 - 1788)
Related institution
Pittsburgh Gazette
(founded 1786)
Related person
James O'Hara
(1752 - 1819)
Related person
Major Isaac Craig
(Irish, 1742 - 1826)
Related institution
Pittsburgh Foundry
Related person
Thomas Jones
Related institution
Johnson and Stockton
Related institution
Pennsylvania Railroad
Related person
Andrew Carnegie
(1835 - 1919)
Related institution
Cyclops Iron Company
Related person
Charles Martin Hall
(1863 - 1914)
On View
Not on view
1934-1936
1933
1984
