Gold and Steel: The Edgar Thomson Works

On this day in 1890, Martha Frick, the oldest daughter of Henry Clay Frick and Adelaide Howard Childs Frick, lit a new Bessemer furnace at the Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock, PA.

Less than two decades earlier, with the construction of one of the first Bessemer process mills in the United States, Andrew Carnegie transformed Pittsburgh into the largest producer of steel in the world, and laid the basis for some of the greatest fortunes in the United States. 

View at Braddock's Field. At the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, 1876. Published by Armor, Feuerhake & Co.

In addition to installing Bessemer furnaces at Edgar Thomson, Carnegie constructed a mill that was larger, more sophisticated, and more vertically integrated than any previous enterprise. The Edgar Thomson plant stood out as a technological and organizational wonder. The sprawling series of buildings, switchyards, sheds, and smokestacks was one of the most awesome spectacles in the industrial world. When it reached its production peak a few years after opening, the Edgar Thomson plant could make 3,000 tons of steel daily, as much as a typical Pittsburgh iron puddling mill could supply in an entire year in the 1830s.

Edgar Thomson Works, Braddock, PA,  Furnaces F and G, 1886.

Unknown maker, Locket with watch and scent bottle, 1890.

This gold locket was presented to the Fricks’ daughter Martha in 1890 as a gift for her participation in the lighting of the new furnace. It is inscribed, Presented to/Martha Howard Frick/to Commemorate/Her Lighting Furnace/H/Edgar Thomson/Steel Works/Feb. 28. 90.

The Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette described the event, “At 9 o’clock this morning, with very little nervousness, Miss Martha Frick, daughter of H.C. Frick, Chairman of the firm of Carnegie Bros. & Co., reached out the match that put the blast, in one of the greatest blast furnaces in this country…”  

Edgar Thomson works. Braddock, PA, 1908.

Mr. Frick was present at the ceremony with his daughter, who was four and a half years old at the time. Martha would die at the age of six in July of the following year. The Edgar Thomson plant, minus a few Bessemer furnaces and plus a couple of blast furnaces, is still operational today as part of U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works, which also includes the Clairton Coke Works, a similarly awe-inspiring industrial marvel opened by Henry Clay Frick in 1901, and the subject of a striking charcoal drawing recently acquired by the Frick. Do come in and wonder at the technical feats for yourself.

If gold lockets are more your thing, don’t miss Maker & Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry, also on view at The Frick Art Museum.