Staff photo / Andy Gray.... Marcelle Wilson, site manager at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor, talks about some of the tools used by steel mill workers that are on display at the center, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor — or the Steel Museum, as most people refer to it — has been telling the story of the Valley’s connection to the steel industry for 30 years.

The center will celebrate that anniversary, which officially occurs June 27, with a lecture series starting this month.

Site Manager Marcelle Wilson, who has been there since 2014, said the museum’s mission has evolved to reflect changes in how history is presented and used educationally.

“We’ve tried to not react but embrace a lot of the changes that have come around in the field of history,” Wilson said.

The educational programming it takes to the schools includes showing off artifacts, but it uses the artifacts to teach real world skills, such as problem solving, creating a budget, math and the use of primary and secondary sources.

Programming also is designed to address those with special needs and reflects the multicultural makeup of the Mahoning Valley, which the steel mills helped foster.

“People of color traveled up from the South,” Wilson said. “A large Puerto Rican community was recruited to come work here in the 1950s and ’60s. We have a lot of Italian and different ethnic groups here who were recruited to work in the mills, and it created a community not only based on personal experiences but on their collective experiences working in the mills.”

There were signs in the mills in multiple languages, and the bosses did little to try to eliminate those language barriers, she said, because they made it harder for the different factions to organize.

Over the decades, the museum collected oral histories from many of the men and women who worked in the mills, and it tries to dispel misconceptions about those workers.

“Almost everyone we talked to loved their job, loved the people they worked with,” Wilson said. “They felt they were working with their family. There was a great deal of camaraderie. The men all wanted to support one another and do a good job.”

At the same time, it was difficult and dangerous work. Everything was so heavy, from buckets to the tools the workers used, in order to withstand the heat, and visitors can feel just how heavy some of those tools were.

“Working in a steel mill took a toll on their physical health — lung ailments, physical disabilities, injuries, death,” Wilson said. “I don’t think we think enough about that today due to the advent of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) in the ’70s. The industry had gone on much earlier than that. We highlight the dangerousness of that and the evolution of protective clothing.”

The building designed by architect Michael Graves has a massive collection of artifacts from the Valley’s steel history, and only about 10 percent of the collection is on display at any given time, but assistant curator John Liana said there are gaps in the collection, particularly U.S. Steel items.

“From what I understand, when they shut U.S. Steel down, they dug a big hole and all the records and blueprints and everything went into this big hole,” he said. “They lit it on fire and pushed dirt over it. They didn’t want any public records at all left over from U.S. Steel. Then they junked the furnaces and everything for scrap and left nothing but a big scar.”

“Some of the guys made off with some things before they did that. I just have to get some of them to step forward or clean out an attic, or whatever their grandkids are doing these days.”

Wilson credited the museum’s AmeriCorps representative Jessica Baloun for proposing a lecture series to mark the anniversary.

The first speaker will be Bill Lawson, director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, on “30 Years of Youngstown Social and Political Identity” at 6 p.m. April 21.

“He’s been in the Valley for so long and has a lot of experience with the social and political identity of the community,” Wilson said. “He was a logical fit to come and speak for us. We respect the work he and his organization do, and he’s a really great speaker.”

Tom Leary, retiring director of the applied history program at YSU, will talk about “Saving Steel History: 30 Years of Industrial Heritage Preservation” on June 23. Members of Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana will speak on “Labor Experiences in the Spanish-Speaking Community of Youngstown” on Sept. 22, and the series will end Nov. 10 with Donna DeBlasio, the first director of the museum, “Reflecting on the Steel Museum’s Creation and Growth.”

“We chose people who could touch on issues we’ve seen occurring over the past 30 years,” Wilson said.

A digital exhibition marking the anniversary will be posted to the center’s website – https://www.youngstownohiosteelmuseum.org

agray@tribtoday.com