Social media can complement historians' efforts to keep alive hometown memories

People all over the world are using sites like Facebook to share bits of history that otherwise may have been lost or forgotten

Carol Peterson used her iPhone to photograph a drawing of a Lawrenceville building she found on microfilm.

She then posted the slightly grainy image to her Facebook page, Pittsburgh House Histories, and asked if any of the roughly 300 people who follow the page knew where the building used to be and what "horrible event" had happened there in the mid-20th century.

In less than two hours, one of her followers, Colleen Gribbin of Churchill, had the answer:

"I believe this was originally Turner Hall, at the intersection of Home and Plummer," she wrote. "It was purchased in 1905 by the Salvation Army when they ran out of space at their 4507 Butler St. location. The building was the site of the great pancake horror of 1940 (powdered insecticide was accidentally mixed into the batter), which killed 12 men and sickened 43 others."

A quick search of Google news archives shows that Ms. Gribbin's answer is correct -- the story made national news.

People here -- and all over the world -- are using sites like Facebook to share bits of hometown history that otherwise may have been lost or forgotten.

In McKees Rocks, the Internet is all hometown historians have. While the McKees Rocks Historical Society would like to open a brick-and-mortar location in the next few years, its members rely on a Facebook page to keep in touch for now. Documents and archives collected by the society are kept in members' homes, said Tracey Pedersen, the society's president.

About 10 to 30 people meet on the third Tuesday of every month at Rocky's II in McKees Rocks to discuss the historical society's operations, but Ms. Pedersen said the group has more of an electronic presence.

"We have 265 members on our Facebook page, and some of the discussions go on and on," she said. "There are so many threads of different topics.

"There's more presence on the Internet, sharing this information," she said. "It seems like people are more comfortable."

Ms. Pedersen said Facebook is great for getting the word out, but sometimes the printed page still beats the Web page.

She said a Nov. 19 story by Post-Gazette staff writer Marylynne Pitz about the inaugural McKees Rocks house tour drew 125 people from throughout the area to the Dec. 3 event.

"The house tour was a huge success," Ms. Pedersen said, crediting the print article.

But Facebook helps keep McKees Rocks memories alive. Ms. Pedersen said some of people who follow the Facebook page now live out of the area, including in Michigan, Maine, Florida and even Korea.

While the borough's population has decreased by more than 50 percent in the past 60 years, a lot of people want to talk about what it was like in the booming 1950s.

"A lot of people grew up here," Ms. Pedersen said.

On her Pittsburgh House Histories Facebook page, Ms. Peterson, of Lawrenceville, a house historian, posts "whatever is going to get people intrigued.".

She started the page to share information as she researches the histories of Pittsburgh houses.

"It's just a way to say, 'Hey, look what I found! It's neat! Do you think it's neat, too?' " she said.

"There's all kinds of neat little connections and facts that come to light in doing this," she said.

For Margaret Jackson, president of the Historical Society of Mt. Lebanon, Facebook can do everything from research to marketing.

The historical society often receives donations of photographs or other documents, and she'll post "mystery pictures" to see if any of the nearly 600 followers of the Mt. Lebanon History Center page know the location of the house or building.

"We did not know where the photograph was taken," Ms. Jackson said. "We weren't even positive it was taken in Mt. Lebanon."

But within a half hour, she said, followers can either confirm a house's location in Mt. Lebanon or debunk it as an Upper St. Clair residence.

Otherwise, she said, the photographs would have sat in the history center, unidentified.

Oral history on YouTube

The Pitcairn Historical Society has a small museum in a long-closed church in the borough, open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays and "occasionally" on Saturdays, said historical society president Carl Howard. The group also has a website, Facebook page and YouTube page, he said.

The society has begun to compile video interviews of Pitcairn natives, and the goal is to compile an oral history of the borough, Mr. Howard said. The videos can be watched in the museum, on YouTube and on the historical society's website: pitcairn-historical.webs.com.

The society is looking for more people to contribute toward the oral history, Mr. Howard said, and society members also are working to digitize some of their archives.

"We've gone digital on quite a few of our photographs," he said.

McKeesport has a very active Facebook page dedicated to the history of the city. Nearly 6,000 people follow the McKeesport Memories page.

No one affiliated with the page returned an email seeking comment, but the page is a hotbed of historical chatter. Facebook users comment on everything from long-forgotten trolley tracks to images of old newspapers to upcoming events in the city.

Some communities, however, aren't quite on board with the Internet.

The Historical Society of Carnegie is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and relies on six to eight volunteers to keep the society running.

Two Facebook pages are potentially affiliated with the Historical Society of Carnegie. One has six followers and one has three. There's also has a bare-bones website: www.carnegiehistory.org.

But the historical society's Marcella McGrogan doesn't manage those pages.

"One of our young people is supposed to be putting us on Facebook," she said, noting that she needs a volunteer to handle the society's Internet endeavors.

"We're not on the Internet because I don't have anyone that will do that," she said.

"We're not technically efficient," she added. "I sort of place importance on the fact that we need to keep the building open."

The building that houses the Historical Society of Carnegie was damaged in a 2005 fire, and Mrs. McGrogan said her dream is to restore the second, third and fourth floors to hold offices and a museum. She estimates it would take at least $3.5 million to renovate the building and repair the damage from the fire.

The historical society's crown jewel -- a 100-foot-long replica of Carnegie's Main Street -- wasn't damaged in the fire, but Mrs. McGrogan isn't exactly sure how much was lost.

"We didn't lose everything," she said. "We haven't been able to figure it all out yet."

She said someone was paid to look through the damaged items, and they're all in boxes and marked, but that task isn't completely done.

And, much like setting up an online presence, Mrs. McGrogan needs volunteers to complete the job and look into digitizing the archives.

To volunteer with the Historical Society of Carnegie, call 412-276-7447.

For most historical society leaders, though, it seems like the mix of museum archives and Internet nostalgia helps keep people interested in their hometown's history.

"Facebook is a really nice complement to the old-school museum thing," said Ms. Jackson of the Historical Society of Mt. Lebanon. "It reminds people that we're there, it gets some information out that might not have gotten out, and it really allows people to share their history.

"I don't think anyone likes to think of themselves as part of history. ... I always like to say, 'if it happened yesterday, it's history.' "

But it's more than history, she said. It's nostalgia and sharing knowledge and learning about things that might otherwise be forgotten.

"They might not realize the impact that something like Facebook can have."

First published on January 12, 2012 at 12:00 am

Correction/Clarification: (Published January 13, 2012) The McKees Rocks Historical Society holds its meetings the third Tuesday of every month. An incorrect day was listed Thursday in a story about how historians use social media.