This Conestoga wagon was made in Pennsylvania in 1840. The average wagon could carry up to 3 tons of goods; however, traveling was still very difficult because the wagons were not watertight, nor could they float. ©SMPA

View a real 1920 Harley Davidson Motorcycle. Read the story of the ‘City of Buffalo,’ a steamboat struck by lightening, or learn about Daniel Drawbaugh, a native Pennsylvanian who developed a telephone device 8 years before Alexander Bell’s telephone invention. The huge Hall of Industry and Technology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania has it all. From trains, stagecoaches and
Conestoga Wagons to Ford Model Ts, airplanes, and fire engines, this exhibit is a catalogue of progress. Along with life-size covered wagons, trolley carts, and motorcycles, visitors will be able to see how Pennsylvania has evolved from a farming society to an industrial society.

The Hall of Industry and Technology is also about power, showing the evolution of electricity from the ‘Fat Lamp’ to the current ‘Electrical bulbs’ we use every day. You’ll see the sparks fly as you explore the various uses of charcoal, soft and hard coal, iron, and steel throughout the ages. The exhibit area includes electrical turbines and steam engines, with a miniature model of a ‘Coke’ factory and its processes.

Your carriage, coach, car, Harley, and, of course, airplane await in the Hall of Industry and Technology.

Click on the thumbnails below to view a few
details from Industry and Technology.

Administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. ®2005 SMPA Terms of Use/Copyright