Iron and Steel Heritage Forum Talk:
Sloss Furnaces: Finding Identity and Staying Relevant in the 21st Century
The next monthly talk from the Iron and Steel Heritage Forum is happening on Wednesday, Oct 9th at 5pm. For those of you in other time zones, the starting times are:
Newfoundland 6:30 pm
Eastern 5 pm
Central 4 pm
Mountain 3 pm
Pacific 2 pm
Sloss Furnaces played a vital role in Birmingham’s industrial triumphs, which in turn built the foundation for the successes of the city for decades. As the second blast furnace built in the city’s history, and the longest continuously running furnace site, Sloss Furnaces is largely responsible for the birth of Birmingham, and it’s rise to becoming the foremost industrial city in the South. When Sloss Furnaces ceased making iron in 1970, it took ten years of debate to finally preserve and interpret the site as a museum of industry. This decision was spearheaded in the main by the citizens of Birmingham. In the 41 years since Sloss Furnaces reopened as a museum, public perception of the site changed many times – sometimes driven by decisions made by museum leadership. Today, Sloss Furnaces is grappling with its own identity, both past and present, and how to stay relevant in the modern world. This presentation will cover the changes Sloss Furnaces has experienced as a museum, the difficulties of preserving the structures as well as the history, and where Sloss Furnaces fits within modern Birmingham.
If anyone wants to get ahead of the curve, check out Sloss Furnaces website at:
https://www.slossfurnaces.org
Speaker: Tyler Malugani
Ty Malugani is the Education Coordinator and Historian at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. He began as an intern in 2011 at Sloss Furnaces while getting his undergraduate and master’s degrees in History from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has been full-time at Sloss Furnaces since 2017. He primarily focuses on Birmingham industrial history with a focus on iron-making.
OLIVER EVANS CHAPTER 