Because of their diverse contents, some materials appear in multiple topics and/or multiple collections.

Many of the site’s topics are by accompanied essays. Visitors to the site can search across all materials, browse by topics, or browse within our curated collections. Still others worked outside of the framework of Bethlehem Steel and helped shape the landscape and culture of the Valley. With the company’s shift from iron rails to an emphasis on battleship armor plate and large naval guns, the company became quite profitable and, by the early twentieth century, was the area’s major employer. These materials will aid researchers in understanding the industries in the Valley, the lives of railroad barons and steel titans, and the experiences of workers and families that helped shape the landscape and culture of the Lehigh Valley.Īt the center of the Valley and, in many ways a driving force in the study of industrial dominance and decline, is the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Managed by Lehigh University, the site contains letters, books, maps, reports, essays, photographs, video documentaries, and oral histories from the archives of Lehigh, local partner institutions, and individuals. Beyond Steel: An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry and Culture highlights the Lehigh Valley’s development from the mid nineteenth-century industrial ascendance of the region through the late twentieth century.

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