We Did It!
A Sherman tank is shown outside the Senator John Heinz History Center. It’s there in conjunction with the exhibit “We Can Do It! WWII,” which will continue through January at the Pittsburgh museum.
“Gramps” the jeep is in the Hall of Industry section of the World War II exhibit at the Senator John Heinz History Center.
A young visitor sits on a jeep on display in the World War II exhibit at the Senator John Heinz History Center.
A Curtiss-Wright airplane propeller on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum
A display about “Rosie the Riveter”
The “Veterans Voices” section of the World War II exhibit at the Senator John Heinz History Center
PITTSBURGH – A tank in the street usually isn’t a portent of good tidings.
It brings to mind ominous images of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Chile in 1973 or Moscow in 1991, when a putsch by Soviet hardliners put the world on tenterhooks for a couple of days.
There’s a tank in front of the Senator John Heinz History Center right now, but it’s not there to repel invaders, intimidate dissenters or otherwise threaten passersby. Rather, it’s there to reel them into the museum’s marquee exhibit for 2015, “We Can Do It! WWII,” which looks back on the conflict that engulfed the world seven decades ago, and the role that the Pittsburgh region played in bringing about the Allies’ triumph.
Mounting an exhibit on World War II “is something we’ve been talking about for a decade or more,” according to Andy Masich, the president and CEO of the history center. Pittsburgh’s role in World War II “was really significant. We were the keystone to the arsenal of democracy.”
“We Can Do It! WWII” looks at the war from worldwide and localized perspectives. It outlines the rise of fascism in both Germany and Italy in the years after World War I, and Japan’s imperial aspirations as the nation attempted to grow into an industrial and continental power. It also examines how Pittsburgh was affected by the build-up to the war, with some German-Americans just a generation or two removed from the vaterland urged to get on the fuhrer’s bandwagon and support the Nazi regime back home, while, at the same time, Jews in Pittsburgh were receiving desperate pleas from their counterparts in Germany for assistance to come to these shores.
There was also a robust “America First” movement that found adherents in Pittsburgh. Its proponents argued that the United States should keep its nose out of the strife spreading through Europe and Asia. In fact, America Firsters poured into Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland for a rally on, of all days, Dec. 7, 1941. That day’s attack on Pearl Harbor decisively took the wind out of the organization’s sails.
Once the country started to ship personnel abroad and build materiel at home, Pittsburgh became a vital centerpiece of both efforts. The region contributed about 175,000 soldiers to the Asian and European battlefronts, and regional manufacturers were rallied to the cause. The American Bantam Car Co. in Butler produced the first jeep, and the Duncan & Miller Glass Co. in Washington crafted eyepieces, among other devices. Both companies are represented in a “Hall of Industry” display, along with items made by such industrial behemoths as Westinghouse, U.S. Steel, Alcoa and others. The history center has several objects on loan from the Smithsonian Institution for the exhibit, including the first jeep and a Curtis-Wright airplane propeller. Other institutions also lent items for “We Can Do It! WWII,” such as the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, the Tuskegee Airmen of Western Pennsylvania and the Fort Pitt chapter of the Association of the United States Army.
“This exhibit is a major collaborative effort,” according to Brady Smith, a spokesman for the history center.
Some well-known and some not-so-well-known people from the region who contributed to America’s all-hands-on-deck war drive are also represented. “We Can Do It! WWII” shows off the U.S. Army Air Forces uniform worn by Indiana native and Hollywood legend James Stewart, and George Marshall, the U.S. Army chief of staff who hailed from Uniontown, gets a moment in the spotlight through a lifelike figure of him sitting behind a desk in full uniform.
“He was always proud of his Uniontown roots, but (Marshall) really became a citizen of the world,” Masich said.
A less celebrated figure who is recalled is Michael Strank of Cambria County, who was one of the Marines who planted the American flag on Mount Suribachi in Japan on Feb. 23, 1945, gaining immortality in the storied Associated Press photo taken by Joe Rosenthal. Strank died less than a week later.
Since it opened in April, public response to the exhibit has been positive, Masich said, particularly to one of its components – a Veterans Voices room that has recordings from Western Pennsylvania veterans of World War II, with 7,000 recreated dog tags hanging from the ceiling.
“There’s a lot more to it than just a nostalgia thing,” Masich said.
As with an exhibit on the Civil War that the Heinz History Center put together in 2011, a condensed version of “We Can Do It! WWII” is expected to travel around the state to libraries and historical societies after its run ends Jan. 3.