Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Introduction: A series of lessons from the WWII Heritage Cities Lesson Collection

“Pittsburgh and Suburbs. Greetings from the Steel Center of the World” - a postcard with a copyright of 1937 and postmarked in 1945.

Pennsylvania State Digital Archives

Introduction

The three lessons, and culminating fourth lesson, support the development of understanding the significance of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as an American World War II Heritage City: its impacts to home front efforts with its contributions to war manufacturing and industry, with accompanying economic, social, geographical, and environmental changes. The lessons highlight specific contributions but connect to larger themes and understandings of the U.S. home front during wartime.

The standards listed beneath the lesson links are a collection of standards covered in the lesson collection. Objectives for each lesson, materials, and resources are listed within the lesson.

The first three lessons listed can be taught individually or collectively, in any order. The final lesson is to support students in combining learning across the three lessons, and/or comparison to other World War II home front cities in a culminating activity.
These lessons are part of a larger series of lessons connected with the World War II Heritage City Program. Also, visit Teaching with Historic Places to see more lessons about World War II.

Lessons (with World War II home front topics):

The Development and Contributions of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, WWII Heritage City

• Home front city development and changes, manufacturing and industry, civilian workforce, Double V Campaign, propaganda posters, environmental impact, civics connection

Women’s Contributions to the Home Front in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, WWII Heritage City

• Social change, women in the workforce, manufacturing and industry, workplace safety for women, Women’s Army Corps (WAC), civics connection

African American Contributions on the Home Front in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, WWII Heritage City

• Workforce, mining, manufacturing and industry, Hill district, Pittsburgh Courier, Executive Order 8802, Double V Campaign

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Comparing and Connecting WWII Home Front cities

Positioning these lessons in the curriculum

Curriculum Standards

Time period: World War II 

Topics: World War II, women’s history, African American history, workforce migration, science and technology 

United States History Standards for Grades 5-12 

This lesson relates to the following National Standards for History from the UCLA National Center for History in the Schools: 

Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945) 

Standard 3: The causes and course of World War II, the character of the war at home and abroad, and its reshaping of the U.S. role in world affairs 

Curriculum Standards for Social Studies 

This lesson relates to the following Curriculum Standards themes for Social Studies from the National Council for the Social Studies: 

Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change 

Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions  

Theme 8: Science, Technology, and Society 

Theme 9: Global Connections 

Relevant Common Core Standards  

These lessons relates to the following Common Core English and Language Arts Standards for History and Social Studies for middle and high school students: 

Key Ideas and Details 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-12.1 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY. RH. 6-12.2 

Craft and Structure 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-12.4 

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-12.7 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-12.9 

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH. 6-12.10 

Part of a series of articles titled Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania World War II Heritage City.

The lesson series was written by Sarah Nestor Lane, an educator and consultant with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education, funded by the National Council on Public History's cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.