A testing vehicle from self-driving technology company Argo AI, a vial of Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine and a special section on the Freedom House Ambulance Service — the nation's first emergency medical service staffed by paramedics with medical training beyond basic first aid — all now have two things in common: They were developed in Pittsburgh and, as of this year, are on display together at the Senator John Heinz History Center.
The showcasing of these advancements alongside nearly a dozen others made in Pittsburgh is part of the History Center's latest expansion of its "Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation" exhibit space. It marks the latest substantial update for the downtown-based museum's flagship exhibition, which includes new sections that aim to offer visitors dynamic and immersive experiences starting with Pittsburgh's industrial emergence to the prolific growth of the region's modern-day technological, educational and medical-based innovations.
Support from UPMC and UPMC Health Plan made these expansions possible, the History Center said.
“Western Pennsylvanians have changed the world through hard work, ingenuity and a ‘We Can Do It’ spirit that defines our region,” Andy Masich, president and CEO of the History Center, said in a prepared statement. “From the polio vaccine to liver transplants and from robots to self-driving cars, the expansion of the Innovation exhibition includes much-needed updates to the ever-changing Pittsburgh story.”
The History Center provided the following information on the additions that have been added to the space:
- A vial of Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine, signed by Dr. Salk, is featured in an updated section with archival images and video
- A special section on the Freedom House Ambulance Service, a trailblazing agency that trained Black men and women as paramedics to deliver desperately needed emergency medical care to the Hill District, Pittsburgh’s largest African American neighborhood
- The white physician’s coat, surgical glasses and other objects used by Dr. Thomas Starzl, and the team that worked with him, who helped to build the largest organ transplant program in the world at UPMC
- The “Andy” lunar rover, designed by 50 students at Carnegie Mellon University in 2014, which won Google’s Lunar XPRIZE Milestone Prize in the mobility and imaging subsystem categories, with the rover sharing its name from CMU founders Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon
- Objects and images that document the groundbreaking discoveries of two of the seven known viruses that cause cancer by Dr. Yuan Chang and Dr. Patrick S. Moore at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
- An Argo AI car, made by the Ford Motor Co. in 2016, that was one of the first self-driving automobiles tested on Pittsburgh’s streets
- Objects that document history happening right now: The region’s response to the global Covid-19 pandemic has artifacts including a respirator made by MSA Safety, personal protection equipment worn by doctors and nurses, and Covid-19 virus models and research equipment from the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research
