The purpose of the Iron and Steel Heritage Forum (ISHF) is to create and maintain a lively community of people interested in the heritage of iron and steel, as well as organizations that preserve artifacts, documents, and other items from the iron and steel industries.
Membership Classes
ISHF has two types of members: individuals and organizations.
Individual members come from diverse backgrounds including
(a) managers and workers from the steel industry,
(b) the academic community,
(c) professionals in museum management, cultural resources management, environmental consulting, and
(d) anyone with an interest in iron and steel.
Organizational members are museums and historic sites that have a focus on iron and steel.
Focus of the Iron and Steel Heritage Forum
The topics of interest include:
- Metallurgy of iron and steel
- Archeology of iron, steel and slag
- Mining of iron ore, metallurgical coal, limestone)
- Iron making technology: iron furnaces, Bessemer converters, open hearth furnaces, electric arc furnaces, DRI
- Steel processing technology: hot and cold rolling, continuous casting, casting, forging
- Transportation networks: railroads, fresh and salt water shipping
- “Interesting” users and uses of iron and steel
- Business history
- Labor and union history
- Steel and iron museums and historic sites
- Art & photography of iron and steel industry
The time period we’re interested starts with the earliest iron furnaces in North America and continues through today into the future. Our geographical range is North America: Canada, United States and Mexico.
We welcome anyone with an interest in iron and steel to join our community.
ISHF Activities
Our activities began with a mailing list and monthly talks on iron and steel. Our talks started in July 2024 and are new scheduled through early 2026. Most our talks are open to anyone with an interest in iron and steel.
We are always looking for potential speakers.
We encourage members to deliver papers on iron and steel related topics at the SIA’s annual conference.
A group of volunteers is developing an online database of all iron and steel sites in North America. It has grown into a database of industrial heritage sites of all types. This will make it easier to discover industrial sites for researchers and travelers.
We are planning additional activities and will announce them here.
Keeping Up with Iron and Steel
We encourage anyone interested in iron and steel, whether you’re a member or not, to join our mailing list to receive announcements of monthly talks and other news. You can sign up for our mailing list by sending an empty email to Iron-Steel-SIG+subscribe@groups.io or by contacting our chairperson directly.
For more information about ISHF please contact the ISHF Chairperson, Anthony Meadow at tmeadow@ferrumwest.com.