Skip to Main Content

Course & Subject Guides

Resources on the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike @ Pitt Archives: Carnegie Steel & Pinkertons

This guide provides information on archival resources pertaining to the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pouring a 90 Ton Ingot

Carnegie Steel Resources

William Martin served as the Chief of the Bureau of Labor for the Carnegie Steel Company during their contract negotiations with the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Homestead Steel Strike.

His collection of papers includes information on competing steel companies' wage scales, which were used to create the scales proposed to the union. These scales were cited during Congressional testimony as being one of the more objectionable portions of the company's proposed contract.  In addition to the wage scales, this collection also includes complete contract proposals presented to the Amalgamated Association just prior to the Battle of Homestead.

This material can be found in Box 3, Folders 1-3, William Martin Papers, 1866-1933, AIS.2005.06, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Frick - Carnegie Correspondence

 

Thumbnail
"Let grass grow over works" - Andrew Carnegie


The Henry Clay Frick Business Records contain the business papers and correspondence of Henry Clay Frick, chairman of Carnegie Steel Company during the 1892 Homestead Strike. Below are some records found within this collection that describe the company's perspective of the events surrounding the Battle of Homestead.

Eyewitness Testimony

On July 8, 1892, John T, McCurry gave testimony to an Allegheny County coroner regarding what he witnessed from a barge and the tug boat Little Bill during the Battle of Homestead. McCurry describes how he was hired by Captain William Rogers to serve as a watchman on one the barges and his voyage with the Pinkertons from Bellevue to the Homestead Steel Works.

Deceased Pinkerton Guards


Shot on barge during riot

These are Allegheny County Coroner Inquest Case Files for three Pinkerton guards that succumbed to injuries sustained during the Homestead Strike.  The case files are comprised of a Request for Inquest that provides a summary of the cause of death; a page of biographical information; and a statement by the jury that describes how the deceased suffered their injury and who is at fault. In each case the blame is placed on an "unlawful assembly" of locked out steelworkers.