Coal & Coke Heritage Center

Coal & Coke Heritage Center is focused on the coal and coke industries Connellsville Coke Region in the roughly hundred year span of 1870-1970 the captains of the sector whose vision, determination, tactics and resources were responsible for the emergence of industrial behemoths and the amassing vast fortunes, and the ordinary workers and their families, and their lives within the environment created by the coal and coke industries.

Located on the ground floor of the campus library, the Center's exhibit area is open to the public free of charge. The Center also serves as a resource center for lectures, presentations, and workshops. The Center's specialists are happy to offer tours for groups of all ages, including educational programs tailored for schools and community groups.

The Coal & Coke Heritage Center makes its resources accessible to researchers, the educational and business communities, and the general public. They are offering lectures, tours, and a speakers bureau.

The collection includes:

• A variety of mining and coking artifacts, photographs, maps, blueprints, documents, and newspapers;
• A special library collection of coal mining literature, manuscripts, essays, poetry,y and journal articles;
• An array of music, videos, and slide presentations;
• More than 625 hours of taped interviews with people from the coal and coke era;
• An art collection featuring regional artists' depictions of life experiences, places, and events;
• Music, video, and slide presentations.

The Center can place on display only a fraction of the total collection at any given time.

Among the items you'll find on display are:

• Artifacts from industry, such as tools, clothing, safety equipment, and other devices;
• Artifacts from everyday living,g like a coal stove of the period, cooking utensils, apparel, even children's toys and games.
• Many period photographs
• An art collection featuring regional artists' depictions of life experiences, places, and events;
• Maps, blueprints, and technical documents;
• Models used to illustrate industrial workings

The Connellsville Coke Region

Tucked along the base of Chestnut Ridge of the Allegheny Mountains in southwestern Pennsylvania is the Connellsville Coke Region, famous for its abundant, high-quality bituminous coal and the coal and coke industries that resulted. Geographically, it is a long, narrow strip of land averaging three and a half miles wide and nearly 40 miles long, running from Latrobe in Westmoreland County to the area around Smithfield in Fayette County.

The heyday of the region spanned roughly the century from 1870 to 1970. During this period of phenomenal industrial growth in the US, the Connellsville Coke Region fueled the blast furnaces of the steel industry in nearby Pittsburgh.