“The Jewel on the Hill” and “Spring Dusk on Main Street”
The Jewel on the Hill, Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall
Walking home through Carnegie on this date in 2005, carrying just my little 2MP digital camera that didn’t even have a zoom and a small lightweight tripod, I managed to photograph two of my favorite photos of all the photos I’ve taken, above, “The Jewel on the Hill” and below “Carnegie at Dusk”. Though I’ve got plenty of photos to share, and even newer ones from Carnegie, today I’ll celebrate these two, two of the photos that convinced me to take another, closer look at my photography.
So we call this treasure in our town so named for its builder, the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. This is actually an older photo but with a story, plus I recently installed an exhibit of photos of this facility at this facility, which is also one of my favorite places to go and which is also one of my regular customers for freelance design work. Quite a lot of connections.
Anyway, this photo is one we’ve used repeatedly as the signature image for the facility, and was a real stroke of luck and timing. I was walking home on a clear, warm spring dusk in late April, 2005, April 24 to be exact, and arrived at the bottom of Library Hill at just this moment. The sky was fading from brilliant turquoise to cobalt, the still-bare trees were etched against it in silhouette, and the grand building itself stood partially lit by the sunset but with all interior and exterior lights on, solid and stately, serving its public in its 104th year. By the time I had snapped a half dozen or so shots the light had changed completely and the moment was gone. That was part of the timing, the other part that they had only temporarily installed the foundation lighting but never used it again, and this was part of what gave the building that lovely definition against the dark hilltop. A few minutes earlier or later, the previous or following week, and this photo would never have existed. And it was taken with my first little point-and-shoot 2MP digital camera—I don’t know how it came out as clearly as it did!
Read about the exhibits and find links to slideshows of the images at “Of Harps and Fig Leaves” and “Carnegie Photographed”.
A little background on the names…in 1894 the leaders of two small communities on either side of Chartiers Creek, Mansfield and Chartiers, decided to merge in order to provide better services as one community instead of two individual administrations. Andrew Carnegie, who had owned a mill in Carnegie, had by then sold off his mills and begun spending off his worldly wealth by building libraries. These town leaders had a proposal, that he build a library and a high school for the new community and they’d name it after him. He did build the library but said they were on their own with the high school; nonetheless our town is named “Carnegie” in his honor.
He also set up the Library itself a little differently from the others he’d had built. Where others are named “(name of town) Carnegie Library” or “Carnegie Library of (name of town)” and were built with his expense but maintained by the community, this Library bears his full name and given an endowment for its maintenance. Also, more than just the Library space, a Music Hall was incorporated into the design along with a gymnasium in the full basement.
You can read all about this unique facility on its website at www.carnegiecarnegie.org. I’ll also mention that the website design is mine, and you’ll see many more of my images in the photo album.
Spring Dusk on Main Street
Book Stacks
Book Stacks
There’s just something about browsing books this way that I find so much more enjoyable than browsing titles on a computer, even if I’m looking for recorded volumes…each book on each shelf seems to hold a treasure, and walking sideways down the aisles is so much more fun than scrolling. At Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall.
Vintage Pattern
Don’t look at this vintage cast-iron grate for too long, or your eyes will hurt as much as mine. It’s found covering an air duct in the Victorian-era Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie.
Christmas Celebration in the Midst of War
Enjoying the Music
A musician enjoys others’ performances from the back of the orchestra.
Performed by the Pittsburgh Historical Musical Society and referring to the Civil War, we are still in the midst of war and celebrating Christmas today.
They played timely folk, classical and holiday music as would have been played in a Christmas concert during the Civil War, many of the musicians in period dress, as seen in the spectacular Victorian dress the multi-talented vocalist wore.
The Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall houses the Capt. Thos. Espy Post 153 which in turn houses the reenactors of the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves of the GAR who maintain the collection and meet and host events in the post and at ACFL&MH. One of the musicians read letters written at Christmas by members of the 9th Pennsylvania as they were on the battlefields of the Civil War. One thing that was important to them, to make them feel closer to home, was music. In this case it was a mix of Pittsburgh-themed music, songs of Stephen Foster, short classical pieces popular at the time and Christmas hymns.
The photo below shows the vocalist’s entire dress, and if not for a few wires dangling here and there it could be mistaken for another time.
The Victorian Dress
Awaiting Their Cue
Awaiting Their Cue
The first performers wait in the wings.
I attended and photographed a holiday concert at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall featuring students form Duquesne University’s Mary Pappert School of Music and The Opera Studio performing short works from opera on a holiday-themed stage set. Opera is not easy, and the talent, the voices, the acting made it hard to believe these were students. I found it hard to remember to photograph as I listened to the performances.
ACFL&MH is my local public library, one of the original Carnegie Libraries, and they are also one of my customers for commercial art and design. I’ve photographed that place inside and out. Visit my website’s gallery of my favorite images of this place, or visit the facility’s website photo gallery to see more photos of this inspiring place.
Autumn Scene With Piano, 2009
Autumn Scene With Piano
The stage is ready and it’s just a few moments before the musicians, who had just been rehearsing and goofing off about 30 minutes earlier, would arrive on stage in their dress black for the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall’s 2009 benefit performance of Daphne Alderson singing “All Judy, All Heart”. Here the concert grand is ready, with a colorful cluster of mums and sunflowers.
I love photographing performances and still stage scenes like this are rare to get. While the overall tones are autumnal with orange and yellow and bronze bathed in the yellow of the dimmed lights, yet the piano, the drums, microphone, even the floor and the post on the left are touched by a gentle wash of the red and blue stage lights ready for the performance, above.
It’s also in my exhibit “Of Harps and Fig Leaves” featuring images of this place, where it’s called “Autumn Expectations”.
The Jewel on the Hill
The Jewel on the Hill, Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall
So we call this treasure in our town so named for its builder, the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. This is actually an older photo but with a story, plus I recently installed an exhibit of photos of this facility at this facility, which is also one of my favorite places to go and which is also one of my regular customers for freelance design work. Quite a lot of connections.
Anyway, this photo is one we’ve used repeatedly as the signature image for the facility, and was a real stroke of luck and timing. I was walking home on a clear, warm spring dusk in late April, 2005, April 24 to be exact, and arrived at the bottom of Library Hill at just this moment. The sky was fading from brilliant turquoise to cobalt, the still-bare trees were etched against it in silhouette, and the grand building itself stood partially lit by the sunset but with all interior and exterior lights on, solid and stately, serving its public in its 104th year. By the time I had snapped a half dozen or so shots the light had changed completely and the moment was gone. That was part of the timing, the other part that they had only temporarily installed the foundation lighting but never used it again, and this was part of what gave the building that lovely definition against the dark hilltop. A few minutes earlier or later, the previous or following week, and this photo would never have existed. And it was taken with my first little point-and-shoot 2MP digital camera—I don’t know how it came out as clearly as it did!
Read about the exhibit and see a brief slideshow of the images at “What’s New in Bernadette’s Studio?” or just visit the slideshow on my website.
A little background on the names…in 1894 the leaders of two small communities on either side of Chartiers Creek, Mansfield and Chartiers, decided to merge in order to provide better services as one community instead of two individual administrations. Andrew Carnegie, who had owned a mill in Carnegie, had by then sold off his mills and begun spending off his worldly wealth by building libraries. These town leaders had a proposal, that he build a library and a high school for the new community and they’d name it after him. He did build the library but said they were on their own with the high school; nonetheless our town is named “Carnegie” in his honor.
He also set up the Library itself a little differently from the others he’d had built. Where others are named “(name of town) Carnegie Library” or “Carnegie Library of (name of town)” and were built with his expense but maintained by the community, this Library bears his full name and given an endowment for its maintenance. Also, more than just the Library space, a Music Hall was incorporated into the design along with a gymnasium in the full basement.
You can read all about this unique facility on its website at www.carnegiecarnegie.org. I’ll also mention that the website design is mine, and you’ll see many more of my images in the photo album.
Stage Set, 2011
Building the Set
Members of The Pittsburgh Savoyards begin building their set for “Ruddigore” on stage in the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. I love to think of a stage as a blank canvas of sorts, where the set is laid down as an underpainting or basic sketch, then the work is performed on that base. Here it is, waiting for the artists.
The Magic Flute: 2010
Pamina and Pamino with Papageno in the background.
Duquesne University Opera Workshop will be performing Mozart’s The Magic Flute this weekend at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. I photographed the dress rehearsal and I can tell it’s going to be a great production. It’s hard to believe these voices are students, and they are so serious about their art and about Mozart opera.
On the surface, the story looks like just another silly Mozart opera with a thin plot and lots of repeated lyrics, but underneath that colorful layer is an immense amount of symbolism.
Of course this is from two years ago and the performance was fantastic! View the photo gallery of The Magic Flute on the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall website.
Living History 2012
A father and young son dressed as bucktails, denoted by the buck's tail attached to their hats which marked them as sharpshooters.
I had always wondered about reenactors of various wars. Hadn’t we done our best to end them, to heal and move forward? I can see dressing up in clothing from another era, but why would anyone want to reenact a bloody battle?
After meeting and getting to know at least one group of Civil War reenactors, the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves based at the Capt. Thos. Espy Post No. 153 of the G.A.R. at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, I’ve come to understand that for most it’s not the battles, but respecting and learning from the history of the events, of spending a day or a few days literally in the shoes of someone—often an ancestor—who lived and may have even given their life more than a century before, to understand their decisions and maybe a little more about life in that era, and how it led to where we are today.
Mixing Metaphors, from last year's event.
So it’s more about history for many, about being an expert in how things were, and a perspective on how we are. It’s also about wearing neat clothes and living life as someone else for a while. And about adding your personality to that character, reacting to your surroundings as that person might have, as the two ladies on the swings did—had they been dressed like that and walking through a park and seen the swings, of course they would have hopped on and gone for a ride.
Four reenactment groups camped at Carnegie Park from a frosty 35-degree Friday night, through a misty, cold and sleeting Saturday. Both Union and Confederate reenactors participated, pitching their tents among the trees.
Their realistic setups showed us how Civil War camps were organized and what they actually carried around with them before the days of easy communications and even carbon copies. In addition to setting up and hanging around in period clothing, reenactors also participated in Artillery Demonstrations and a reenactment of skirmishes.
But this event wasn’t all about reenacting battles with guns as another two groups met on another field to play Civil War-era base ball. And back at the Library & Music Hall people enjoyed a Victorian Tea, an impressive fashion show narrated with letters from an ancestor, tours of the Espy Post and more activities.
Below is a slide show from events this year which I attended; this includes the tea, fashion show, reenactment, baseball and tours of the Post. I will use these in the future when I design the newsletter and promotional materials for the Library & Music Hall.
Carnegie: 2011
Inside Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall
The man himself looks benevolently down from a portrait as a Library patron relaxes on the couch by the fireplace with a good book.
This was taken in the main reading area of Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, PA.
Public Library: 2011
Public Library
The public computers in the public library provide just as much an opportunity as the books on the shelves ever did. Decades ago, my grandparents learned to read at this library along with other immigrants and then used the library in the midst of all the other dozens of nationalities residents in Carnegie. Now generations of people are still visiting the library, still representing the variety of people in our community, still taking advantage of what it offers, free to the people.
Stage Set
Building the Set
Members of The Pittsburgh Savoyards begin building their set for “Ruddigore” on stage in the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. I love to think of a stage as a blank canvas of sorts, where the set is laid down as an underpainting or basic sketch, then the work is performed on that base.
Reenacting For the Sake of History
Mixing Metaphors
I had always wondered about reenactors of various wars. Hadn’t we done our best to end them, to heal and move forward? I can see dressing up in clothing from another era, but why would anyone want to reenact a bloody battle?
After meeting and getting to know at least one group of Civil War reenactors, the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves based at the Capt. Thos. Espy Post No. 153 of the G.A.R., I’ve come to understand that for most it’s not the battles, but respecting and learning from the history of the events, of spending a day or a few days literally in the shoes of someone—perhaps even an ancestor—who lived and may have even given their life more than a century before, to understand their decisions and maybe a little more about life in that era, and how it led to where we are today.
So it’s more about history, about being an expert in how things were, and a perspective on how we are. It’s also about wearing neat clothes and living life as someone else for a while. And about adding your personality to that character, reacting to your surroundings as that person might have, as the two ladies on the swings did—had they been dressed like that and walking through a park and seen the swings, of course they would have hopped on and gone for a ride.
Four reenactment groups camped at Carnegie Park from a frosty 38-degree Friday night, April 29, through a misty, drizzly Sunday morning, May 1. Both Union and Confederate reenactors participated, pitching their tents among the trees and turning the familiar park into a convincing scene from 150 years ago, only the occasional anachronism like a car or the mowed grass or tennis shoes jarring your attention back to the future.
Their realistic setups showed us how Civil War camps were organized and what they actually carried around with them before the days of easy communications and even carbon copies. In addition to setting up and hanging around in period clothing, reenactors also participated in Artillery Demonstrations and a reenactment of skirmishes at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg.
I’ll be posting a series of photos I took from this weekend on a site I set up for the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, the first entitled Living History Weekend: The Encampment featuring a dozen images (out of over a hundred) of just reenactors living the life for the afternoon.
Orchestra
Orchestra
In photographing a performance I caught this angle of the 70-piece orchestra; the final timpanist with all the fun noisemakers is out of the frame at the bottom, but I caught the kettle drums.
This orchestra is students from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, accompanying performers from the Duquesne University Opera Workshop as they act their final dress rehearsal for their two-part performance of Puccini one-act operas Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi at Andrew Carnegie Free Library in Carnegie. Their performances are amazing, and it’s difficult to believe they are students.
Relic No. 48: Cotton
Relic No. 48: Cotton
This is one of the relics in the Capt. Thos. Espy Post No. 153 of the Grand Army of the Republic at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall.
Among other things, I’ve been photographing the artifacts for documentation and to use the images for the newsletter, for signage, to accompany press releases and many other purposes to let the public know the room exists and holds treasures.
And while I do this for the Library & Music Hall at other times, this week it’s in recognition of the first shot fired in what would become the American Civil War, 150 years ago yesterday, April 12, 1861.
Why is some dirty old cotton a cherished relic in this historic room? Luckily, the Post members published a Catalogue of Relics in 1911, naming and describing each of the exhibits held in the room. Not all of them are relics from the war itself; many of them are simply things the members found interesting or particularly moving, as with this cotton boll:
48—COTTON
Was picked from the cotton bushes in 1881 by W. H. H. Lea, late Lieutenant of Co. I, 112th Reg., Pa. Vols., while on a visit to the Virginia battlefield, from the narrow strip of ground between the Union and rebel lines and directly in front of the rebel fort at Petersburg, Va., blown up July 30, 1864. Over this ground the charging columns passed. Almost every foot of this ground was covered with Union dead or stained by as brave blood as ever flowed from the veins of American soldiers. Has been in possession of W. H. H. Lea for 25 years. Secured from him January, 1906, for Memorial Hall.
He was so moved by his visit to this battlefield, and his memories from the war, that he picked this handful of cotton from the battlefield, brought it home and held onto it for 25 years until he felt he had a safe place to keep it, tacking it to velvet-covered cardboard. Such are the things that carry memories.
“Memorial Hall” was their name for the Espy Post as they saw the room to be the holding place for “the paraphernalia, books, records and papers belonging to said Post and all relics of the late Civil War now in possession of said Post, or hereafter acquired; …”.
Carnegie
Inside Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall
The man himself looks benevolently down from a portrait as a Library patron relaxes on the couch by the fireplace with a good book.
This was taken in the main reading area of Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, PA.
Public Library
Public Library
The public computers in the public library provide just as much an opportunity as the books on the shelves ever did. Decades ago, my grandparents learned to read at this library along with other immigrants and then used the library in the midst of all the other dozens of nationalities residents in Carnegie. Now generations of people are still visiting the library, still representing the variety of people in our community, still taking advantage of what it offers, free to the people.
Book Nook
Book Nook
This window looks into the library from the elevator lobby; when the elevator was added, a large corner of the reading area was taken from the library area. The elevator was such an asset to the elderly and disabled who hadn’t been able to visit the building at all without a great amount of help that no one minded losing this quiet corner. But to allow the flow of light this window was added between the two areas and a little private reading area established with a really comfy chair and a lamp as if you’re reading at home.
A Holiday Party
"Ha, what joy, what a night of delight."
Raise a glass to Prince Orlofsky who throws a heck of a party!
Students from Duquesne University’s Opera Workshop perform scenes from nearly a dozen different operas ending with the finale from Act 2 of Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus on stage at Carnegie Carnegie Hall, no that’s not a mistake, it’s the stage of the Music Hall at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie.
This is an annual event, “Songs for the Season”, free and open to the public for the holidays. The voices are unbelievable and the costumes are stunning, all performed with the backdrop for the Carnegie Performing Art Center’s annual ballet performance of The Nutcracker.
The Jewel on the Hill
The Jewel on the Hill, Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall
So we call this treasure in our town so named for its builder, the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. This is actually an older photo but with a story, plus I recently installed an exhibit of photos of this facility at this facility, which is also one of my favorite places to go and which is also one of my regular customers for freelance design work. Quite a lot of connections.
Anyway, this photo is one we’ve used repeatedly as the signature image for the facility, and was a real stroke of luck and timing. I was walking home on a clear, warm spring dusk in late April, 2005, April 24 to be exact, and arrived at the bottom of Library Hill at just this moment. The sky was fading from brilliant turquoise to cobalt, the still-bare trees were etched against it in silhouette, and the grand building itself stood partially lit by the sunset but with all interior and exterior lights on, solid and stately, serving its public in its 104th year. By the time I had snapped a half dozen or so shots the light had changed completely and the moment was gone. That was part of the timing, the other part that they had only temporarily installed the foundation lighting but never used it again, and this was part of what gave the building that lovely definition against the dark hilltop. A few minutes earlier or later, the previous or following week, and this photo would never have existed. And it was taken with my first little point-and-shoot 2MP digital camera—I don’t know how it came out as clearly as it did!
Read about the exhibit and see a brief slideshow of the images at “What’s New in Bernadette’s Studio?”
A little background on the names…in 1894 the leaders of two small communities on either side of Chartiers Creek, Mansfield and Chartiers, decided to merge in order to provide better services as one community instead of two individual administrations. Andrew Carnegie, who had owned a mill in Carnegie, had by then sold off his mills and begun spending off his worldly wealth by building libraries. These town leaders had a proposal, that he build a library and a high school for the new community and they’d name it after him. He did build the library but said they were on their own with the high school; nonetheless our town is named “Carnegie” in his honor.
He also set up the Library itself a little differently from the others he’d had built. Where others are named “(name of town) Carnegie Library” or “Carnegie Library of (name of town)” and were built with his expense but maintained by the community, this Library bears his full name and given an endowment for its maintenance. Also, more than just the Library space, a Music Hall was incorporated into the design along with a gymnasium in the full basement.
You can read all about this unique facility on its website at www.carnegiecarnegie.org. I’ll also mention that the website design is mine, and you’ll see many more of my images in the photo album.
The Magic Flute
Pamina and Pamino with Papageno in the background
Duquesne University Opera Workshop will be performing Mozart’s The Magic Flute this weekend at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. I photographed the dress rehearsal and I can tell it’s going to be a great production. It’s hard to believe these voices are students, and they are so serious about their art and about Mozart opera.
On the surface, the story looks like just another silly Mozart opera with a thin plot and lots of repeated lyrics, but underneath that colorful layer is an immense amount of symbolism.
A Lincoln Portrait
Reading "A Lincoln Portrait"
David Conrad read the spoken portion of Aaron Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait at Andrew Carnegie Free Library Music Hall in Carnegie as well as a poem by Samuel Hazo, Jr. accompanied by Their Blossom’s Down.
David also composed his own detailed and moving tribute to libraries, including comments on the good and bad of Andrew Carnegie and the strength and character of the immigrants who gave Carnegie his wealth and therefore built his libraries. David is actually from Pittsburgh and knows the stories of the region like those of us who grew up here. I was particularly moved because my mother’s parents, particularly her father, learned to read at that very library, taught by his daughter, my mother’s older sister, who graduated salutatorian in her class at Carnegie High School…in a ceremony held on that very Music Hall Stage. Oh, the connections.
A Lincoln Portrait has long been one of my favorite pieces of music, brief though it is, but hearing it live, spoken by Conrad’s rich, sincere voice, music performed by the Duquesne University Wind Ensemble conducted by H. Robert Reynolds was almost more than I could take. I always tear up during the piece whenever I hear it, but hearing it live was a totally new experience. I photograph events for my local public library, this among them, and almost forgot to take photos during this. Interesting considering that is what I typically do when I am moved by something—photograph it!
You can see more photos of this performance in the photo gallery on the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall’s website under A Lincoln Portrait with David Conrad and H. Robert Reynolds. Also please browse the entire Photo Album on this facility’s website—I maintain this gallery and all the photos are those I’ve taken at events and just on daily visits. This is “my” library which I’ve been visiting since I was a child, and while they are one of my customers for commercial art I also visit for the sake of books and attend performances in the music hall.
Treasures Left Behind
Treasures Left Behind
I’ve been immersed in the re-opening of the Capt. Thomas Espy Post No. 153 of the Grand Army of the Republic—yes that’s really its full name—at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, and most of the photos I’ve taken in the past few weeks have been of the room or of the Lincoln Photos Exhibit. This is one view of the room including the cases with the uniforms and small artifacts collected by post members so long ago.
G.A.R. posts were formed by veterans of the Civil War as a fraternal organization for social meetings and assistance and support to veterans and their families. At one time there were about 7,000 of them around the country, now there are about a half dozen still in existence. This newly restored room now has the distinction of being perhaps the most intact of these posts in the country.
It was installed in an existing room in the Library in 1906 an members met there until the last one died in 1937, at which time the door was simply left locked until sometime in the mid-1980s when the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves re-enactor unit undertook to care for it. Water damage, vermin, dirt and time took its toll on the munitions, uniforms, books and various artifacts, but surprisingly, much of the content was still in the room and could be restored.
Read more about the room by visiting www.CarnegieCarnegie.com, and plan a real visit to the room. I’m not so interested in military matters, but I do love history. All this was left for us to learn.
