Sewickley Valley Historical Society

Perhaps your Thanksgiving day doesn't look the way it normally does or the way you would like it too, so here's some #Thanksgiving ad humor to brighten your day, even if only a little. This ad for a local insurance agency ran in the #SewickleyHerald on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1960 (60 years ago Tuesday!) and can now be found in the #CollectionsAtSVHS. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! #SewickleyValleyHistory

HOURS CHANGE: Please note that the office and #CollectionsAtSVHS will be closed this week for the holiday. Staff will be back in the office Tuesday, December 1, 2020. Until then, we wish you and yours the happiest and healthiest holiday possible in these odd and challenging times. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

"...It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced..." On this day in 1863 Abraham Lincoln delivered those immortal words in his Gettysburg Address. The sentiment is well reflected in this scene featured on the Civil War Quilt from our #CollectionsAtSVHS. The narrative quilt was created sometime between 1889 and 1892 by Pittsburgh resident Sarah Bright Anderson Lea, the wife of Benjamin... Franklin Lea, who served in the Union Army between 1863 and 1865. In its entirety, the quilt's design and symbols indicate that it was made in connection with a celebration or commemoration sponsored by the G. A. R. This section is part of the center motif, and features a soldier and citizen laying flowers at the base of a memorial to fallen soldiers. As one of the most valuable and delicate pieces of our collection, we don't often bring the quilt out, but in rather serendipitous timing it was brought out today for an airing, and was in fact the most perfect post for the commemorate Lincoln's famous, #OTD speech. #SewickleyValleyHistory

All the information you need to join us for tonight's virtual lecture. We hope that you will join us at 7:30 on Zoom!

You might recognize where Washington County Historical Society's latest episode of Laid Back History begins, because it is right here in Sewickley -- up in the Sewickley Cemetery at the Tuskegee Airmen Memorial. The memorial honors the nearly 100 Airmen that called Western Pennsylvania home (8 of which hailed from Sewickley) and went on to become the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces. It is the perfect thing to watch on this #VeteransDay.