PHOTOS BY KRISTY GRAVER

Update: Due to popular demand, the Heinz History Center is extending Pittsburgh’s Hidden History exhibition through April 4, 2026.  Thanks to the Kamin Free for Kids Initiative, admission to the center, as well as the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum and the Fort Pitt Museum, is free for children 17 and under.

A lot of yinzers have Pittsburgh-centric collections to showcase their black-and-gold pride, but no one can beat the Heinz History Center’s stockpile of Steel City swag.

On Saturday, April 26, the Strip District museum will unveil Pittsburgh’s Hidden History, an exhibition filled with artifacts from the facility’s archives. It’s on view through Oct. 5, 2025.

“We love history, we love Pittsburgh and we love what we do,” says Jeff Brodie, vice president for museums.

That love is evident in the exhibition. Staff members culled more than 300 curiosities from History Center storage, including photographs, documents, clothing, products, toys and even a wreath made of human hair. Ninety percent of the pieces have never been seen by the public. Sounds like my grandma’s attic!

Guests who wander through the past can play interactive games and chat with on-site experts. Relics range from miniature to massive, mundane to amazing, solemn to whimsical.

As a food editor, I was thrilled to see The Original Hot Dog Shop’s iconic sign, a 50-year-old Burnt Almond Torte cake pan from Prantl’s Bakery, bottles of Worcestershire sauce that expired in 1873 and a cookbook written by Bess Grant, a chef, restaurateur, caterer and Pittsburgh Courier journalist who reported on the culinary scene from the 1930s to the 1950s.

I’m also a huge horror nerd, so the Scary Pittsburgh section was right up my dark alley. It features an unsettling amount of clowns and porcelain doll heads, a rare Napoleon Bonaparte death mask and The Vamp, a green figure from the exterior of Le Cachot, a Kennywood dark ride that closed after the 1998 season. I gasped when I saw her in all of her gory glory again!

The History Center, which recently announced major expansion plans, has been amassing noteworthy materials since the 1880s. One of the oldest objects is an unfinished flint tool unearthed at Washington County’s Meadowcroft Rockshelter that dates back 14,000 years.

During my visit, I felt deeply connected to these yinzers of yore.

Centuries from now, I hope Pittsburghers will be oohing and ahhing over plush pierogies, pickle pins and parking chairs with the same kind of wonder.