Pittsburgh's Fort Pitt Museum to close for annual maintenance

Friday is the last day to see the “Pittsburgh,Virginia” exhibit at the Fort Pitt Museum and the final time to visit for the next month.

The museum, located Downtown Pittsburgh in Point State Park, will temporarily close, beginning Saturday for its annual exhibition maintenance and updates.

A Feb. 1 opening is planned.

The “Pittsburgh,Virginia” exhibition focuses on the turbulent events of 1774, when the two colonies fought for control of Pittsburgh. The exhibit was installed at the end of 2019. It was extended into this year because of the pandemic in 2020, said Mike Burke, assistant director at the museum.

Courtesy of the Fort Pitt Museum

During the temporary closure in January, employees at the Fort Pitt Museum will icllean the diorama, an exhibit that depicts 18th-century Pittsburgh in miniature.

Curators will update exhibitions, perform routine maintenance, and clean the museum’s diorama that depicts 18th-century Pittsburgh in miniature. The diorama has been on display in the first-floor gallery since the museum opened in 1969.

“I am always impressed by the employees who deep clean the diorama,” Burke said. “It is so time consuming, because it requires the staff to climb inside it. They clean the roof of every building with Q-tips.”

During the closure, the museum will install new artifacts, including a rare powder horn made and carried on the Bouquet Expedition in 1764. The intricately carved horn, used to carry gunpowder, was owned by Jacob Willhelm, likely a soldier on the expedition.

Another object to be installed in January is the G.Biler/ Fort Duquesne powder horn. The horn, which was part of the “Pittsburgh, Virginia” exhibit, will be part of the museum’s permanent exhibition, “Fort Pitt: Keystone of the Frontier.” The Biler powder horn dates to the British capture of the French fort in November 1758 and might be the oldest surviving object made in Pittsburgh.

Both powder horns are on display courtesy of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Explore the Fort Pitt Museum’s "Pittsburgh, Virginia" exhibit before it closes tomorrow to see artifacts like a bison horn collected in 1775 by Englishman Nicholas Cresswell. https://t.co/obsvgXIwew. #FortPittMuseum #PittsburghVirginia #Pittsburgh #PittsburghHistory

— Heinz History Center (@HistoryCenter) December 30, 2021

The Fort Pitt Museum, built in a recreated bastion of the British fort originally constructed in 1759, focuses on the critical role that Western Pennsylvania played during the French & Indian War, the American Revolution, and the founding of Pittsburgh.

The Fort Pitt Museum is operated by The Senator John Heinz History Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.