Johnstown Area Heritage Association

Student Resources

The Great Flood / Telling the Story

Telling the Story

Listed below are links to primary and secondary sources for studying the Johnstown Flood. Your teacher will give you directions for using them in class and on your museum visit. There is a short explanation of primary and secondary sources here, if you aren't familiar with those terms.

Before Your Museum Visit

General Background on the Flood

• Johnstown Flood Story
• Johnstown Flood Timeline
• Path of the Johnstown Flood Map (PDF)
• Historic Map Gallery

Describing the Indescribable/Imagining the Unimaginable

Eyewitness Stories

• Survivor Stories

Mr. George Barbour Mary M. Butler Rev. H. L. Chapman George M. Graham, M.D. Victor Heiser's Flood description (full story) Colonel John P. Linton

Miss J. Louise Mueller Charles R. Phipps Gertrude Quinn C. C. Ramsey Mr. Morrell Swank Mr. W. B. Tice Mr. Henry Viering

• Eyewitness Reports
  • Pennsylvania Railroad employees
  • Colonel Unger's statement to the Pennsylvania Railroad
  • South Fork witnesses interviewed by the PRR
  • Beale's account by Rev. G. W. Brown, South Fork

Flood Destruction Picture Galleries

• Photographers Tell the Story of the Flood's Destruction
• 3-D Picture Galleries (use 3-D glasses to see 3-D effect)
  • The Flood's Destruction
• Stereoviews (visible without 3-D glasses)
  • The Flood's Destruction
• Library of Congress Photos of Flood Damage

Newspaper Illustrations

• Artist-Reporters' Illustrations from Magazines and Newspapers

During your Museum Visit

• Silent Survivors: The Tales I Could Tell (PDF)
• Telling the Flood Story: Message and Medium (PDF)
• Surviving Artifacts Picture Gallery

After Your Museum Visit

Same Flood, Different Stories

Survivor Stories

Mary M. Butler Rev. H. L. Chapman Mr. and Mrs. Fenn Mrs. S. W. Fields George M. Graham, M.D. Alexander N. Hart Victor Heiser's Flood description (full story)

Colonel John P. Linton Miss J. Louise Mueller Charles R. Phipps Gertrude Quinn C. C. Ramsey Mr. Morrell Swank Mr. W. B. Tice Mr. Henry Viering

Eyewitness Stories

• Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) employees
• Colonel Unger's statement to the PRR
• South Fork witnesses interviewed by the PRR
• Rev. G. W. Brown, South Fork

Official Reports

• Engineering and Building Record's Special Report on the Johnstown Flood
• Board of Health Report

Newspapers

• Johnstown Weekly Tribune, June 14, 1889
  • "Before the Reservoir Came"
  • "Our Calamity"
• Harpers Weekly Supplement, June 15, 1889 (Tabloid-size PDF; print at 60% for letter-size)
• The Johnstown Horror
  • Pamphlet (Letter-size PDF)
  • Book selections
  • Ad for book (Letter-size PDF)

Every Picture Tells a Story

Picture Galleries

• Photographers Tell the Story of the Flood's Destruction
• 3-D Picture Galleries (use 3-D glasses to see 3-D effect)
  • The Flood's Destruction
  • Flood Survivors
  • Relief Efforts
• Stereoviews (visible without 3-D glasses)
  • The Flood's Destruction
  • Flood Survivors
• Library of Congress Photos of Flood Damage
• Other Flood Survivor Photos

Heroes and Hoaxes: Sung and Unsung

• Hoaxes and Heroes Picture Gallery
• Fact or Fiction
  • The "Paul Revere of Johnstown"
  • John Parke Rides to South Fork
  • Rev. Beale speaks for Johnstowners
• Real Heroes
  • John Parke Rides to South Fork
  • Hettie Ogle's "Last Message"
  • John Hess's Story: Paul Revere on a Locomotive?
  • A Little Girl Saved by the Family Dog
  • Many of the survivors, whose stories are listed above

Sheet Music: Songs Inspired by the Flood

• Ballad: "The Johnstown Flood," Joseph Flynn | PDF version
• Ballad: "That Valley of Tears," William Thomas | PDF version
• Ballad: "My Last Message," J. P. Skelly | PDF version
• Instrumental: "The Peerless Rider March," Henry J. Lincoln | PDF version
• Instrumental: "The Johnstown Flood," Alberto Rivieri | PDF version

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