Heinz History Center's senior curator talks about pioneering Pittsburgh women
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - All month, KDKA-TV will be highlighting Pittsburgh women who've made a mark in the history of western Pennsylvania, and in some cases, the world.
Up first: a visit to the Heinz History Center to learn more about some pioneering Pittsburgh women.
If there was an influencer in the 1940s and 50s, it was Gloria Grate Giddens.
"Gloria Grate Giddens became just a style and fashion icon in Pittsburgh," said Leslie Przybylek, the senior curator at the Heinz History Center.
She says Gloria Grate Giddens is a notable Pittsburgh woman.
"I know there are people who argue now that in a different era, she could very well have been a top model," Przybylek said.
Instead, she found success owning several beauty salons in the Hill District. One of her dryer chairs is on display at the history center.
"For a number of years, she sponsored these great hair shows in Pittsburgh -- fabulous, dramatic compositions. They drew crowds, they drew headlines," Przybylek said, adding, "Eventually, she had her own line of clothing and her own line of Gloria Grate beauty products."
Also on the museum's fourth floor, some may recognize a certain dress.
"This was her inauguration dress in 1990 for her first full term as mayor," Przybylek said, talking about Sophie Masloff, the first female and Jewish mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
Masloff was council president when she ascended to mayor after the sudden death of Mayor Richard Caliguiri. She was 70 at the time.
"A lot of Pittsburghers who remember her, they will remember her as authentic, no nonsense, someone who really focused on fiscal stability at a time when, in the 1980s, Pittsburgh was in terrible shape. It was really struggling," Przybylek said.
She was the first public official to suggest separate stadiums downtown. She remained active after leaving office in 1998 until her death in 2014.
Meanwhile, when it comes to firsts in Pittsburgh medicine, the name is Scantlebury, Dr. Velma Scantlebury.
"She was the first female African American transplant surgeon in the country," Przybylek said.
Born in Barbados, her family moved to the U.S. so that she could pursue her childhood dream of becoming a doctor. Her specialty was pediatric surgery.
"Scantlebury's Pittsburgh specific story started in the 1980s when an interview here at the University of Pittsburgh with the department of surgery and transplantation led to a fellowship with the renowned Dr. Thomas Starzl Institute," Przybylek said.
She went on to perform more than 2,000 kidney transplants before retiring. She remains an advocate for organ donation.
And when it comes to the environment, Springdale native Rachel Carson was one of the pioneers of the environmental movement.
"I think the thing that we tend to take for granted is that it was the combination of her love for science and writing that laid the ground for the modern environmental movement," Przybylek said.
She collected research and studied the harm of the federal government's gypsy moth pesticides campaign. It became her most famous work: Silent Spring.
"In books like Silent Spring, she didn't completely advocate for the eradication of all pesticides, what she said is we need to deeply think about it and use them carefully. So yes, in that respect, she really was the start of what we now think of as the EPA," Przybylek said.
Rachel Carson died from breast cancer in 1964, just two years after Silent Spring was published. And while she never got to see the environmental movement really take off, her work, vision and legacy live on.
