Zoom Back – Now Then, Pittsburgh

1907 Halloween, Illegal Crossdressing, General Mischief

Posted on November 1, 2018December 8, 2018 by nowthenpgh@gmail.com

Halloween can be a terrible time for defenders of order and morals. Has it always been so? Let's pick a date and go back. How about 1907 in Pittsburgh ? The Pittsburg Press can take us back. Oh my! It is much worse then than now. The newspaper reported scores of men arrested for dressing as women. Similar numbers of women were arrested for donning ...

Zoom In, Zoom Back

Posted on October 5, 2018December 11, 2018 by nowthenpgh@gmail.com

It may not look like much from a distance, but there's plenty to see here, if you zoom in -- into Pittsburgh's past. Go ahead. You are a spy satellite from the future. Click on the photo twice and when you come back, I'll tell you what I see. What I See We are on Monument Hill looking out over Exposition Park toward downtown Pittsburgh. According ...

How Pittsburghers Misplaced a Diamond

Posted on October 3, 2018December 11, 2018 by nowthenpgh@gmail.com

Shhhhhh! Be vewy, vewy quiet.We're hunting a diamond.Once again, it's time to zoom in and zoom back in time.Click on the high-resolution photo below until it enlarges to its maximum. Then, scroll around like a spy drone from the future.After that, come back and I'll tell you what I saw.You'll be going to downtown Pittsburgh in 1909.Nothing unseemly is going on through the offi...

Exploring the Belly of the Burgh in 1866, Part 2

Posted on October 1, 2018December 11, 2018 by nowthenpgh@gmail.com

We are accompanying James Parton, a well-known author in his day, as he explores Pittsburgh 149 years ago. He has already experienced a day with only about 30 minutes of daylight. Parton's fame as a biographer would fade with time, but he is about to go to the Hill District where he will be inspired to write one line remembered to this day. Let's join him. Parton...

Odd Bits

Posted on September 25, 2018December 11, 2018 by nowthenpgh@gmail.com

Don't be evil-eying my guns! Many Americans see government regulation of guns as a curse. There was a time when they thought witches controlled their weapons with curses. Thomas Mellon, father of Andrew Mellon, explains such peculiar habits of German farmers in his 1885 memoirs, "Thomas Mellon and His Times": "The old and wise men among our Dutch...