Thanks to our partnership with the Heinz Center Affiliates Program and other Allegheny County libraries, the Peters Township Public Library can offer FREE ADMISSION for up to four people to several museums and historical sites around Pittsburgh! Each pass has virtual access to educational information, itinerary ideas, and other fun content.
Our kits this year include:
~ Duncan & Miller Glass Museum
~ Heinz History Center (includes admission to Fort Pitt Museum and Meadowcroft Rockshelter)
~ Historic Fort Steuben
~ Merrick Art Gallery (Pass used instead of suggested donation; check with the site about ticketed events.)
~ Old Economy Village
~ Somerset Historical Center
~ West Overton Village Museum & Distillery
The Heinz Affiliates Program Memberships for Washington County are paid for by “Share the Love” funding from Budd Baer Subaru.
Peters Township Public Library cardholders can place a hold on an Experience Kit by searching for “museum pass” in the WAGGIN catalog at waggin.polarislibrary.com. Kits can be picked up at the library and are loaned to you for seven days.
Using the Peters Township Public Library Experience Kit program, visit THREE different museum sites before October 31, 2022, and be entered to win a prize! Visit https://forms.gle/wFjGXMvSh1LMfN4w6 for more information and to complete the raffle form.
Learn more about each of the museums/historical sites participating in 2022!
Duncan & Miller Glass Museum
Before the Pittsburgh area became known for its steel, it was once known as the glass manufacturing center of our country. Opened in 1893, the Duncan & Miller Glass Company became famous for its workers’ skills, the artistry of designs, and the glass colors. The National Duncan Glass Society was formed in 1975 to keep alive the history of glass companies, study their impact on the region’s economic development, and celebrate the men and women who made it possible.
Fort Pitt Museum
The Fort Pitt Museum tells the story of Western Pennsylvania’s vital role during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. Through interactive exhibits, life-like historical figures, and artifacts, visitors can discover the vital role that our region played in shaping the country.
Senator John Heinz History Center
The Heinz History Center is one of Pittsburgh’s oldest cultural organizations. An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum contains six floors of long-term and changing exhibits with hands-on activities and many events and programs.
Historic Fort Steuben
Historic Fort Steuben was built in 1786 by the First American Regiment to protect surveyors who the Continental Congress had sent to map the Northwest Territory. Visitors can tour the reconstructed fort to see the soldiers’ quarters, guardhouse, hospital, commissary, and the Federal Land Office. Historic Fort Steuben’s many exhibits, tours, and events tell the story of the daily life of the men who helped open the territories to settlement.
Meadowcroft Rockshelter & Historic Village
Meadowcroft, a National Historic Landmark, offers a variety of tours and educational experiences. Investigate archeology and the prehistoric people who lived in the area 19,000 years ago; travel 400 years into the past to explore a re-created 16th-century Indian village; explore an 18th-century frontier trading post; visit a 19th-century rural village while learning from re-enactors; and more!
Old Economy Village
Old Economy Village tells the fascinating story of the Harmony Society, a 19th-century religious community. Visitors can tour the Visitor Center and many of the settlement’s buildings, such as the George Rapp House, Carriage House, Mechanics Building, Wine Cellar, Store, Post Office, Baker House, Bake Oven, Community Kitchen, Cabinet Shop, Blacksmith Shop, and Granary. In these buildings, visitors can observe artifacts on display and learn about the daily life of the Harmonists.
Somerset Historical Center
The Somerset Historical Center is a 150-acre rural history museum that preserves the history of life in southwestern PA through a wide range of exhibits, workshops, and educational programs. At the Visitor Center, learn the stories of the people through objects of everyday frontier life. Visitors can see a 1770’s farmstead on the grounds with sparse furnishings, a more permanent 1830’s farmstead, an early 19th century covered bridge, a cider press, and a maple sugar camp from 1860.
The center offers workshops on traditional skilled crafts and trades, like cottage craft coopering, tinsmithing, decorating Pysanky eggs, blacksmithing, rug hooking, and folk toy making.
West Overton Village Museum & Distillery
West Overton Village is the only pre-Civil War village intact in Pennsylvania. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a stop on the American Whiskey Trail. The Village represents the transformation of American culture from an agrarian society with the production of the coverlets and the distilling operation to a more industrial society with the excavation of coal and ultimately the production of coke, a necessary ingredient for steel.
Merrick Art Gallery
The Merrick is home to a collection of French, German, English, and American paintings from the 18th and 19th Century, featuring examples of romantic, realistic, and impressionistic art by prominent American and European artists. In addition, a piano played by the composer, Stephen Foster, is on display.
