'Rivers of Steel' exhibit captures steel's glory days and aftermath
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A photo of Carrie blast furnace No. 7 in Rankin was taken by Point Park senior Erin Price of Mars. It is part of the exhibit "Rivers of Steel at Point Park University." -
"J&L Steel Mill," an oil on canvas by John Shryock, 1974.
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This spring, Christopher Rolinson took his digital photography students to Carrie Furnace so they could photograph the mill that made iron for the Homestead Works across the Monongahela River.
"They seemed overwhelmed by the scale of it all," said Mr. Rolinson, an associate professor at Point Park University.
Mr. Rolinson, who grew up in Freedom, was well acquainted with the Jones & Laughlin mill in Aliquippa, which has been torn down.
As recently as five years ago, he says, pictures of that mill hung inside a McDonald's restaurant in Baden. He wanted his students to realize how much this region's landscape changed when major steel mills disappeared. There was another lesson, too.
Where: Student and Faculty Photography Exhibition of the Carrie Furnace site in Rankin is in the Lawrence Hall Lobby, Wood Street and Boulevard of the Allies.
When: Through Sunday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Where: Art Exhibition featuring works of Aaron H. Gorson, Clyde Hare, Robert Qualters, Frank DeAndrea, John Shryock, Frank Vittor, Ron Donoughe, Mark Perrott and other artists from the collections of Tomayko Arts, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, and The Duquesne Club is in the Lawrence Hall Gallery.
When: Through Dec. 30; 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Information: 412-392-8008.
"How many people went to college because of this site?" Mr. Rolinson mused as he looked again at his students' digital images of the millsite in Point Park University's Lawrence Hall gallery. For more than 70 years, he said, steelworkers forged a work ethic and earned salaries that propelled them into the middle class, a step that helped their children get ahead.
If you can't drive to Rankin and visit Carrie Furnace on Oct. 15, the date for the last official public tour offered this year by Rivers of Steel, you can get a sense of what remains by looking at the students' images. Through this weekend, the pictures are on exhibit in Lawrence Hall at Wood Street and the Boulevard of the Allies.
First Published October 7, 2011 12:00 am
