The countdown is on, as the NFL Draft comes to Pittsburgh and America turns 250 years old.<\/p>\n
While the city prepares to welcome the football world, one spot Downtown is making sure visitors remember exactly where we came from.<\/p>\n
For a couple of months, the Fort Pitt Museum has been closed, but for a good reason. They’ve been doing renovations for America’s 250th anniversary and the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
The new exhibit has been dubbed “Pittsburgh’s Revolution.”<\/p>\n
“This is history we can all unite around. This is our origin story and the beginning of this American experiment,” said Michael Burke, assistant director of the Fort Pitt Museum.<\/p>\n
That experiment had a western headquarters in this region, long before the city we know now.<\/p>\n
As Pittsburgh prepares to host a major moment in football history, the museum is making sure visitors see the history beneath our feet before it’s made on our streets.<\/p>\n
“We really wanted to go big,” Burke said.<\/p>\n
Go big, they did.<\/p>\n
From artifacts belonging to soldiers at Fort Pitt to pieces that connect the whole story.<\/p>\n
“You’re going to see an exhibit that covers Fort Pitt during the American Revolution, both the military aspect of it, and all the things that changed in Pittsburgh forever.”<\/p>\n
From rare horns, muskets, fine china, and cannons, these are pieces that connect Pittsburgh directly to the birth of our nation.<\/p>\n
“Pittsburgh is extremely important to the American war effort. It is the headquarters of the Continental Army in the west and oversees a frontier that stretches from the forks of the Ohio River all the way to the Mississippi and beyond.”<\/p>\n
The new exhibit is open as of March 1, and in June, another one will open.<\/p>\n
All of it timed perfectly for a year that Pittsburgh wouldn’t just be welcoming football fans, but the country back to its roots.<\/p>\n
“People from far, but also people from here in this region, to get a sense of how important this part of the country was to the American Revolution.”<\/p>\n