Enormously Affected the City
Pittsburgh History, Summer 1990 mental collapse shortly before Artand Library Committee's ear- Inmany ways the Duquesne Club World War Iuntil his death in lier success, Paintings and Sculp- is, as the authors aver, "a micro- 1941, Idabore the burden ofcar- tureoftheDuquesne Club,byDavid cosm of the social history ofPitts- ing for the family. Thus, itisironic G. Wilkins. It also results from that the spinster found relief from Mark Brown's organization of the Decisions made the pressures of family life only Club's archives, to which he and when she died in1944 at the age the other authors were apparently within the club's of86. givenunlimited access. Since their While Brady's biography cap- efforts inevitably produced three walls have tures the paradoxical nature of distinct writing styles, the com- TarbelPs life experiences, it falls mittee decided to engage the tal- enormously short ofplacing those experiences ents of Robert Alberts as editor. withinthe complexities ofher time, The book is an all-Pittsburgh affected the city. ofexplaining whythat which seems undertaking, the authors being enigmatic about TarbelPs life locals. Brown is a graduate stu- burgh and of the United States" might also express some of the dent, Donnelly is a historical con- (ix).Typical ofPittsburgh and the tensions ofthat period. Neverthe- sultant and Wilkins is the chair- United States? Hardly, but deci- less, Brady provides a thoroughly man of the Fine ArtsDepartment sions made within its walls have insightful narrative ofTarbell, the at the University of Pittsburgh. enormously affected the city and writer,and Tarbell, the woman! Alberts's books on the history of even thenation.
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