'Relic Tales of the Johnstown Floods' on display at Heritage Discovery Center

Yahoo

09-05-2025

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Through an array of personal items, the stories of Johnstown's three floods are being told.
The 'Relic Tales of the Johnstown Floods' exhibition is on display through the fall on the second floor of the Heritage Discovery Center, 201 Sixth Ave. in the Cambria City section of Johnstown.
The temporary display gives visitors a snapshot of Johnstown's three major floods – in 1889, 1936 and 1977 – through more than 200 artifacts and photographs, many of which have never before been seen by the public.
The exhibition opens at a time when the Johnstown Flood Museum, Heritage Johnstown's flagship museum, remains closed due to water damage sustained from a leaky pipe during January's extreme cold weather.
PHOTO GALLERY | 'Relic Tales of the Johnstown Floods' | Heritage Discovery Center
'We wanted to bring some of the flood history to the Heritage Discovery Center so that we could continue to offer tours and tell the story of the three floods,' said Amy Regan, Heritage Johnstown's curator.
She said donations of artifacts, even 1889 flood artifacts, are still being received, and many of the objects come with incredible stories.
'For the most part, these are things in the exhibit that people haven't seen before that we maintain and care for in our permanent collection storage,' Regan said.
'Now, we have them out for people to see.'
She said the exhibition is not a comprehensive retelling of the history of the three floods, but it gives visitors new insight into what people endured.
'I let the artifacts do the talking,' she said. 'I knew what artifacts we had in the collection, so I looked at the story we tell at the Johnstown Flood Museum and the interruption of it and looked at what we have that fits, so I could complement it while still telling the story.'
Relics in the exhibition include a teapot that belonged to Andrew Foster, of Foster and Quinn's Store, who lived at 112 Jackson St. The teapot was in the china cabinet during the 1889 flood. The floor of the dining room fell into the cellar, but the fall was cushioned by the floodwater, so some of the china survived.
There is an 1880s apron with handmade lace, which Jane Armstrong was wearing when she died in the 1889 flood.
There also is an 1884 map of the boroughs of Johnstown and Conemaugh, which was hanging in Alma Hall at the time of the 1889 flood. The building was the town's tallest structure then, and sheltered 264 flood survivors on the night of May 31, 1889.
Other items include a glass rolling pin, a silver platter, a baby doll, cufflinks, a jacquard silk dress, shoes, a shawl, hats, a baptismal gown and a silk-lined fur coat.
There also are items related to the American Red Cross.
'What makes this such a unique exhibit is that these are people's personal items,' Regan said. 'Each has a label, and I tried to tell where they were found and who they belonged to if I knew.'
Items from the 1936 flood include dried flood mud, a shoe from the Glosser Bros. department store, a wrapped teaspoon believed to have been from Penn Traffic Co., a lightbulb and a collection of photographs.
'There also are some survivors' stories from the 1936 flood that add that personal touch on how they watched the water rise and their experiences,' Regan said.
The 1977 flood is represented with a series of photographs by Pittsburgh photographer George Kollar. It also features articles on how different newspapers covered the flood, along with Pepsi cans filled with water.
'Two years ago, we received a calendar from a car shop on Horner Street, and they had left it at Tuesday, July 19, and never pulled off any other dates, leaving it on that date as a memorial,' Regan said.
'It hung on their wall until it was donated to us.'
She hopes viewers of the exhibition will reflect on the meaning of the objects to the people who originally preserved them, as well as what they mean to us today.
'The personal touch is so lasting, and it leaves an impression on you,' Regan said. 'The magnitude of this destruction and how people survived is told in this exhibit, so it forms those personal connections and gives you a better understanding of what people went through.
'It leaves a different impact with names, faces and objects.'
Heritage Johnstown intends to reopen the Johnstown Flood Museum as soon as possible, but is currently waiting for insurance adjusters to approve cost estimates so the work can begin.
'In this interim period, we're excited to bring a quality exhibition on the floods to the Heritage Discovery Center,' said Shelley Johansson, director of marketing and communications for Heritage Johnstown. 'The relics bring these disasters down to human scale, illustrating that every single survivor had a story.'
Johansson said she hopes viewers will have a new appreciation for the personal aspect of the floods.
'It gives you a look back on the past, on what it would have been like,' she said.
Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and children 3 to 18 and free for children 2 and younger, and includes admittance to the Iron & Steel Gallery, Johnstown Children's Museum and 'America: Through Immigrant Eyes' exhibition.
For more information, visit www.heritagejohnstown.org.