Duo produces Scottdale-area history video blog
Aaron Hollis and Travis Keller, two local amateur historians, have started a video blog titled “Looking Back,” in which they set out to explore the forgotten history of southwestern Pennsylvania.
Since posting a trailer for their series in April, the two have released three videos focusing on Carpentertown, Alverton and Smithton and Jacobs Creek. “Looking Back” has explored coal and coke ovens, as well as structures that were previously general stores or mining operational buildings that are now apartments or private homes.
“A lot of it is learning as we go along,” Hollis said. “Neither of us has any experience making videos like this, so we've got our camera and our voice recorder and we're working it out for ourselves. The video, the audio, the research — we do it all ourselves.”
Hollis, 23, of Scottdale and Keller, 24, of Fayette City have known each other since they were students at Southmoreland High School. In 2014, Hollis graduated from the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg with a degree in anthropology, with an emphasis in archaeology.
“We compare old maps that we find in our research with new maps to find where we should be looking,” Hollis said. “The types of ovens that we look for needed to have been near water and railways, so we use that knowledge as well as the maps to track down the remaining structures.”
Hollis and Keller film and photograph the sites during their free time and update the “Looking Back” Facebook page frequently with pictures and notes from their explorations.
Hollis's interest in local history began when he started volunteering at the West Overton Village & Museums in East Huntingdon. For the last three years, he has worked at the museums as a docent.
“Working at the museums is a good way to meet people who can lead us in the right direction,” he said. “The people we see here tend to be people who are interested in the same type of local history we're looking at.”
Many of the archival photographs and maps used in these videos are pulled from resources like the Library of Congress, the National Park Service and the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). However, some materials have surfaced thanks to the work of other local amateur historians and genealogists.
“We're really appreciative of the work that a lot of other people with similar interests in local history have done and have made available online,” Hollis said. “We feel that what makes our work really unique is that we're two young guys who are doing this in hopes of getting other young people interested in this history that a lot of people our age have forgotten or never learned about in the first place.”
Moving forward, “Looking Back” has plans to release more videos that focus exclusively on local history in southwestern Pennsylvania. A full website is currently under construction, which Hollis hopes can be a resource for those looking to learn about the history of the coal and coke industry in this region. Until then, the duo's videos can be found on “Looking Back”'s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Kaidia Pickels is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
