No city in the United States is more romantically situated, or can boast of finer scenery in its immediate neighborhood. Situated on the banks of the two rivers, the Monongahela and Allegheny, whose junction at this point form the Ohio River, the City of the Three Rivers, clouded as it is in endless smoke from its numerous factories, possesses advantages not often met in a manufacturing town. A walk of a quarter of an hour in any direction places you above the smoke, so much complained of by strangers, and presents to the view landscapes in which the eye of an artist revels with delight, and shady retreats upon its hills, where, free from observation, they can wander and ponder upon the endless source of wealth which the coal mines beneath their feet pour daily into this city of industry.

Francis Courtney Wemyss, a touring actor
 

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Staffordshire Platter
c. 1830
Historical Society of Western
Pennsylvania
Transfer from the South Carolina
State Museum