top of page

Kaufmann's: From Peddlers to Prosperity

Join Rodef Shalom Congregation's Archivist Martha L. Berg in a conversation with Marylynne Pitz and Laura Malt Schneiderman of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about their new book on the family behind the famed Kaufmann's department store. Also available via live stream on our Facebook and YouTube.

Registration is closed
See other events
Kaufmann's: From Peddlers to Prosperity
Kaufmann's: From Peddlers to Prosperity

Time & Location:

Nov 03, 2022, 7:00 PM

Rodef Shalom Congregation & Online, 4905 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

Details:

This event will take place in person in Levy Hall at Rodef Shalom Congregation and will also be live streamed on our Facebook and YouTube pages:

https://www.facebook.com/rscpgh

https://www.youtube.com/user/RodefShalomPgh

In 1868, Jacob Kaufmann, the nineteen-year-old son of a German farmer, stepped off a ship onto the shores of New York. His brother Isaac soon followed, and together they joined an immigrant community of German Jews selling sewing items to the coal miners and mill workers of western Pennsylvania. After opening merchant tailor shops in Pittsburgh’s North and South sides, the Kaufmann brothers caught the wave of a new type of merchandising—the department store—and launched what would become their retail dynasty with a downtown storefront at Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street. In just two decades, Jacob and his brothers had ascended Pittsburgh’s economic and social ladder, rising from hardscrabble salesmen into Gilded Age multimillionaires.

Generous and powerful philanthropists, the Kaufmanns left an indelible mark on the city and western Pennsylvania. From Edgar and Liliane’s famous residence, the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece called Fallingwater, to the Kaufmann clock, a historic landmark that inspired the expression “meet me under the clock,” to countless fond memories for residents and shoppers, the Kaufmann family made important contributions to art, architecture, and culture. Far less known are the personal tragedies and fateful ambitions that forever shaped this family, their business, and the place they called home. Kaufmann’s recounts the story of one of Pittsburgh’s most beloved department stores, pulling back the curtain to reveal the hardships, triumphs, and complicated legacy of the prominent family behind its success.

Marylynne Pitz is an award-winning journalist covering art, architecture, books, and history. She was a member of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news team that won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Tree of Life shootings in 2018.  She has won five Golden Quills, an Inland Press Association award for investigative reporting, and a Matrix Award. A native of Indianapolis, she has lived in Pittsburgh since 1980.

Laura Malt Schneiderman is a journalist and web developer with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. She has won seven Golden Quills and was part of a team that won the Scripps Howard Edward J. Meeman Award in 2011. Originally from Saint Louis, she has worked in journalism in Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania.

Share This Event

bottom of page