ABSTRACT Bridging Solidarity is a digital map that fosters exploration of Pittsburgh’s long labor history. This project introduces audiences to fourteen strikes or strike-related conflicts across Allegheny County from the early nineteenth century to today, by combining secondary literature, newspapers, digital and physical archival material, visual media, and historic maps. Hosted in the platform HistoryPin, Bridging Solidarity promotes engagement with strikes across time and space, inspires an appreciation for local places, and highlights many diverging experiences within Pittsburgh’s labor movement. The article contextualizes this work within three historic subfields: digital humanities, place-based public labor history, and diverse local labor history. This project’s digital inception influenced its design, preservation, and writing, as informed by the insights of digital historians. Place-based history helps audiences better understand local labor history, grounding its interpretation in relevant sites that are publicly accessible and likely familiar to audiences. Additionally, this project centers marginalized people and the ambiguities of strikes past, presenting a complicated narrative that increases public awareness of how women and African Americans have influenced and experienced Pittsburgh’s history. Last, future expansions of this project will prompt further engagement with these historical subfields.
Glenna Van Dyke (Thu,) studied this question.