- Last Updated on Monday, 04 January 2021 04:19
The Donora Historical Society and Smog Museum was contacted recently by Cynthia Gorney, a Contributing Writer for National Geographic Magazine and former professor from the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Gorney hails from San Francisco and recently learned about Donora’s 1948 Smog after researching air quality and pollution related to the California wild fires. After numerous emails, phone calls, and even a lengthy Facetime tour of the Smog Museum, Gorney featured our smog event from 72 years ago on October 27, 2020 with the National Geographic online in an article titled, “Decades ago, this pollution disaster exposed the perils of dirty air.”
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| 1948 Donora Smog Featured in National Geographic |
Click on the link to read the story. (To read the entire story, you may have to submit your email address.)
Annual Membership and Fund Drive
Started in 1946, forward-looking thinkers in Donora had the presence to start collecting artifacts related to our town and assembling them into a collection that we are proud to display to this day at the Smog Museum of the Donora Historical Society. January marks the start of our annual membership and fund drive that helps preserve that collection.
If you were a Historical Society member in 2020, we thank you for your support. If you haven’t been a recent member, we are reaching out to you to see if you might be interested in supporting some of the new and exciting things that we have planned at the Smog Museum in 2021 once the virus has left us.
Visit our website and click on the “About Us” page to read about our past accomplishments -- all completed by a volunteer staff, and information about how to join the Society ($15/person or $25/family), to simply make a donation or to become a volunteer. You can request a formal membership/donation form by sending us an email or call us and leave a voice message. Or you can simply make a check out to the "Donora Historical Society" and mail it to:
Donora Historical Society
P.O. Box 522
Donora, PA 15033
If you have any questions about past accomplishments, future projects, or anything else at the Historical Society, feel free to stop by, send us an email or give us a call and someone will be more than happy to return your message and talk to you in depth about anything you might like to discuss. Your continued support goes a long way in keeping the Donora Historical Society and Smog Museum up and running and preserving Donora’s past.
Smog Museum Visitation Update
As an all-volunteer unpaid organization, we are not under pressure to open the museum despite the level green status of Washington County. We do not have the means to do temperature checks, etc. for our visitors. We are still in a ‘wait-and-see’ mode on the virus and will re-evaluate our position each month so that we don’t put our volunteers in any unnecessary situations. We don’t anticipate opening with our normal Saturday hours in 2021 until the virus is brought under control, but we will be open by appointment for small manageable groups. When we do open, we'll be practicing safely first for our volunteers and guests and enforcing that both wear facemasks and that we social distance. Your patience and understanding are appreciated. If you send us an email or leave a voicemail, we can contact you to arrange your visit. Others have already scheduled and visited without issue. Check our website for updates on our home page.
The SMOG MUSEUM will remain CLOSED for now, but...
- We can still be reached daily by email.
- All voicemail messages will be returned within a few days.
- Any research inquiries can still continue electronically.
- Any merchandise orders will continue.
- Artifact donations can be arranged.
Additional Info
If you have additional questions about the subjects mentioned above, the historical society, museum, presentations or possibly volunteering, feel free to stop by on Saturdays or by special appointment (with at least a week’s notice), email us at DonoraHistoricalSociety@gmail.com, call us at 724-823-0364 and leave a message, visit us on the web at www.DonoraHistoricalSociety.org, or follow us and Like Us on Facebook at “Donora Historical Society and Smog Museum.”
