The Frick Pittsburgh Museums & Gardens
Pretty! I guess! Didn't get to go inside! Saw old cars!
Okay, that subhead is not strictly true. I did get to walk inside the building, but I was ducking to the side to use the bathroom.
The Frick Pittsburgh Museums & Gardens is the only museum I’ve been to that you apparently REALLY HAVE TO buy a ticket before you get there. I’ve visited museums where I was slightly disappointed not to get to see a special exhibit. But this one was JAMMED with people and there were no tickets that day. I was kind of bummed by this.
(I don’t want to stereotype, but it was all rich white old people; and those people can be FIERCE when they want to get a parking place or into the building ahead of you. I speak form experience. Eek!)
(Although to be fair, if you looked at the group of everyone standing outside and were asked to pick out the one person living in their car all summer, AKA road-trip-trash, yeah. It would have been really easy to identify me. I did not look my going-to-a-fancy-art-museum best that day. But I had a credit card and I was ready to spend money! Oh well.)
So, this is the sign and the free parking lot! I drove through it, and it seemed fine. But full. And then I headed back out and down a couple of blocks. The museum is across the street from a nice park, and the neighborhood was filled with pretty homes; so it was a great place to look around while I was strolling back to the museum. And yes, I identify as an old lady now (I’m officially a senior citizen!), but I was easily 30 years younger than most of the other people and could definitely walk around more easily. No problem. I have credit cards. Let’s do this.
Nope! Not doing this! There were assorted QR codes you could scan to buy tickets, but when you did they all said they were sold out. So, that was disappointing.
But! There is a whole estate to walk around and enjoy, and I decided to do that.
(And honestly, I was getting a lot of side-eye at that point, so was happy enough to head outside. Have you ever dressed up to go to the museum? I was casual, plain pants and plan t-shirt, not terrible looking. But everyone else was really dressy. Is that a rich person thing? I’ve belonged to and visited fancy art museums all over the country and that’s never been the case. But I really missed the boat on this one. Oh well.)
And! It’s like a sign! The Car and Carriage Museum was free to visit and didn’t need tickets! It’s like they know that I’ve been to a bunch of car museums and exhibits across the country, and am becoming a car person!
I may have been slightly peeved with this family (who are dead? alive? living in an attic somewhere? I have no idea), but I admit I did do a little stomping inside and immediately defaulted to my “these people had/have way to much money if they are this frivolous” stance.
Okay, I just looked it up because I had to know. So, yes: the robber baron with the money was Henry Clay Frick. (“Industrialist” is shorthand for “stole money out of the mouths of the employees and their families.” Just an FYI for your own historical reading.) He was…not a forward-thinking soul in terms of the workers who made money for him.
This is from the Frick’s website:
“In 1892, a labor dispute between Homestead Steel—the nation’s largest producer of steel, owned by Frick and Carnegie—and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers—its largest craft union—escalated into a major, violent event.
That summer, with Carnegie out of the country and the dispute still unresolved, Frick closed the mill, locking out 3,800 workers and intending to replace them with non-union employees. The union workers then seized the mill. Frick, in return, arranged for 300 armed Pinkerton detectives to travel by boat down the Ohio River, enter the mill on the river side and reclaim the building.
Almost as soon as the detectives arrived, fighting began between both sides, resulting in loss of life for both steelworkers and Pinkerton detectives. It lasted for 12 hours, and eventually the Pennsylvania National Guard was ordered by the governor to intercede. The mill was secured and Homestead was placed under martial law. “
So. He was just great. And that’s how you become wealthy enough to buy all of these cars and the houses and all the land on this property.
Sigh.
At least his daughter, Helen Clay Frick, seems to have done some better things with their ill-gotten gains.
Again, from the website: “The Frick Pittsburgh is Helen Clay Frick’s legacy to her hometown. As benefactress, she gave us all a place to experience art, history and nature. It was her vision that the Frick would be a place that encourages and develops the study of fine arts, and of advancing the knowledge of kindred subjects through the exploration of social history of the nineteenth century and choice exhibitions of fine and decorative art.”
“Perhaps her greatest achievement, was the development of the Frick Art Reference Library in New York, which she began in the 1920s as a research library and photo archive dedicated to the study of western art. Helen Clay Frick oversaw the operations of the library until the year before her death, and it continues to be one of the top research institutions in the country.”
I feel torn here. One one hand: sure. All of that is great. I like fine arts, and it’s great to have a place people can be part of that. And, obviously, I like libraries. Good ones, with good funding. So that’s also great. Could she have instead built better housing for the people of Pittsburg who were beaten and starved by her father? Sure. But it’s easy to spend other people’s money I guess. Everyone makes choices.
So, I guess - if you can get in to the museum to admire the fine art: great. And maybe also it’s a good opportunity to loan out some money to Kiva.org, or make a donation to a classroom in need at DonorsChoose.org. (I just gave money to a local school, and it was actually really fun to browse around and see what all the teachers are planning for this Fall semester! Go! Give them a couple of dollars, even if you don’t get into the Frick. Good education for all is the key to a better society!)
Okay, and now I’m being a jerk for ignoring the display recap here - because I did enjoy looking at the carriages, and then as they moved forward in time, the cars. If you are a person who likes old cars - these are lovely! And it’s wonderful they were able to be preserved for all of us to enjoy - for free. (I assure you, I gave over zero dollars in my entire visit.)
As I’m now practically an expert at admiring car museums and exhibits, I really like when they are set up to do that. Starting with the carriages, which were quite fancy and all looked like they would be comfortable, and moving into cars is such a nice historic step. It was awesome to see the progression! Oh! They even had a sleigh, and I could just envision being pulled through the Pittsburgh streets late on a snowy night, with horses carefully selected to match the sleigh. It all really was nice, and I hope my ranting on the evils of men who steal from everyone else to become wealthy does not dissuade you from visiting.
For more information on the cars and carriages, and everything else that I didn’t get to see, you can browse their online collection material here!
After I left the building with the cars, I visited the greenhouse. It was very nice, with a lot of interesting plants. There were also a lot of groups of little old ladies who wanted me to get the hell out of there and let them do their thing.
But look at that! I love greenhouses. Do you think that if I show this to The Husband when he gets home, that he can build me one of these??? That would be extremely nice of him! And I’m not exactly holding my breath waiting on it. I should probably just keep working on my garden.
And this was the Clayton. It really does look beautiful, and honestly - it was hot that day, and they were giving out heat warnings about the building being warm. I’m a complete wilting flower in the heat, so it’s probably just as well that I didn’t managed to grab a ticket that day.
Their tour is called “Gilded, not Golden” all about the Gilded age. “The Gilded Age was an era not only of immense wealth and progress, but also rapid industrialization, unprecedented immigration, and labor strife. Explore this pivotal time in our nation’s history at Clayton, the only remaining fully preserved Gilded Age mansion in Pittsburgh. Join your guide and other visitors for a conversational experience that shares the stories of the Frick family and other Pittsburghers, and considers how the legacy of the Gilded Age continues to affect us today.
“Content advisory: 1892 was a tumultuous year for the Frick family and the Pittsburgh steel industry. For this reason, tours of Clayton deal with potentially challenging subject matter, including discussions of violence, grief, and child loss.”
I confess that I’ve been on a few tours of fancy robber baron homes where I have really struggled not to insert additional commentary on what an evil bastard the house’s owner was. So I am pleased that it seems like they insert those comments themselves. People are complex and multifaceted, and a lot of things are true all at the same time. So maybe don’t refuse to go to these places; but also remember that they didn’t happen because the builders were nice people.
Well, I didn’t get to go inside, but maybe it was for the best. I read somewhere recently that only a small percent of Americans visit museums, and it’s mostly upper class white people. “According to Cynthia Robinson’s article, “Into the Future: Adult Professional Groups and the 21st Century Museum,” the majority of museum visitors are over the age of 50, white and female.” (I’m waving to the crowd, being all three of these things! But, to be fair, I’ve gone to museums my entire life, and I’ve always loved them. I’m just old now.)
If you haven’t been to a museum lately - drop by! Look around you, and see if you can find some fun, oddball, interesting museums! It’s not all fancy rich people’s stuff - there are museums for every interest. Go and enjoy something today!