Immigration

Lewis Wickes Hine, American, 1874-1940. Topping the mast, Empire State Building, 1930. 

One of Pittsburgh’s treasures is The Frick Pittsburgh Museums and Gardens located in the city’s East End neighborhood of Point Breeze.  While best known for the stately “gilded age” mansion, Clayton, where Henry Clay Frick and his daughter Helen made their home for so many years, the property is also home to The Frick Art Museum.  

The museum which opened in 1970 houses Helen Clay Frick’s personal art collection which include outstanding examples of early-Renaissance Sienese painting, 18th-century French paintings, furniture, and decorative arts. The museum was designed to exhibit her collection in an atmosphere of intimacy.  While never a personal residence, many of the galleries are designed in such a way as to display the art in a setting where it would reside when on display in Ms. Frick’s home.

In addition to the permanent exhibits, throughout the year The Frick also features rotating exhibits from around the country.  The current exhibit Lewis Hine Pictures America is on display through May 17, 2026.

Lewis Wickes Hine is considered our country’s, “father” of documentary photography.  The exhibit exposes the harsh realities faced by immigrants, children, and the working class in their everyday lives during the early decades of the twentieth century.

As I toured the exhibit, I was overwhelmed by a range of emotions as the exhibit caused me to reflect on the impact so many people who immigrated to our country had on building our great nation.  

The exhibition transported me back in time to photographs of my own ancestors who immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s seeking a better life for themselves and their loved ones.

Sadly, today our country seems to have forgotten the role so many of our ancestors played in building our great nation.