High School Partners With University Archives to Teach Local History, Give College Credit
High School Partners With University Archives to Teach Local History, Give College Credit
The archive center, located on Thomas Boulevard, sits just outside of Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood where the Westinghouse high school is located. On Jan. 25, Westinghouse U.S. history teacher Sean Means brought students from his course to the facility. Students wandered through a temperature-controlled warehouse stacked with boxes of paper documents. They placed rare photographs in custom sleeves for preservation — including photos of renowned jazz pianist and Westinghouse alumnus Erroll Garner. They also studied historic maps of Homewood going back as far as 1872.
While items such as an antique book-binding vice and a book made entirely of glass were designed to highlight the variety of items being stored in the archives, the maps and street view photos allowed students to make direct connections between the past and their current experiences
In 2017, a student expressed a desire for history coursework that would lead to college credit, something that wasn't offered at Westinghouse. Means, looking to create a more challenging study opportunity for his students, reached out to the Pitt-Assisted Communities and Schools program, which is housed in the School of Social Work and uses Pitt resources to support schools and institutions in Homewood.
