About

Howdy! My name’s Felix Strater and I’m the founder of Vintage PGH.

I launched this project while I was a junior at Pitt after stumbling upon Pitt's digital archives one day. After spending hours going down rabbit holes and being fascinated, I decided to visit Instagram to find accounts that I could follow for similar content. To my surprise, there wasn't much out there - so, I decided to make my own! In July of 2018, Vintage Pitt was born.

At first, I wasn't expecting many people to follow - I figured that if anything, since I wanted to work in marketing, it would help me gain experience managing a social media account. I started spending a few hours every week doing research and browsing collections, posting the coolest photos I could find. Most of the content I post to Instagram is directly from of the city's digital archive collections - see here for more information on the sources of our content! 

Over the next few years, I continued to regularly post on the account - and before I knew it, I had hit 20k followers. Because of this unexpected success (and the fact that I had recently graduated), I decided it was the perfect time to expand to the rest of Pittsburgh. I settled on a new name, Vintage PGH, commissioned a local designer to create new branding, and got to work.

Over the years, the account continued to grow, leading to a bunch of cool opportunities - from getting interviewed for Pittsburgh Magazine, to winning a "Best Of" award from the Pittsburgh City Paper, and more. I decided to launch this website in January of 2025; my goal moving forward is to continue to expand my brand so that more people can learn and appreciate our great city and its history. So, a sincere thank you to everyone who follows or supports the brand - and stay tuned for what's to come!

-Felix

Copyright Information

We do not own the rights to any of the original images used in our print products.

Almost all of the original photos (unless otherwise noted) used in our products are credited to the Detroit Publishing Company and are sourced from the Library of Congress. Every image used is in the public domain, meaning they are free for anyone to use and have no copyright restrictions. This means that anyone who wants to can download the images for free and use it however they'd like. 

While we don’t own the rights to the photos, we do spend countless hours browsing hundreds of sources to select the best images - then, restore and edit them using professional software - select the best printing partners to work with - and perform quality checks on our products to make sure they meet our quality standards. Products are priced as low as possible to allow more people to enjoy them while still allowing us to run this site. Prints start as low as $10, with some products even running at a slight loss. Our goal is not to profit off work that's not ours - but to share our love of Pittsburgh's history and allow everyone the opportunity to own a piece for themselves.

Outside of print products, all Vintage PGH logos and other graphics used on this site are copyrighted by us and are prohibited from use.

FAQ

  • Where else do you find your photos (besides the sources above)?
    • See here for more information on how we find our images and other common sources.
  • How do you ship your products?
    • All products are printed and shipped out of Delaware by our partner, Printify.
  • How long will it take for my order to print and ship?
    • Production times may vary - the average time is around 3 business days before products are shipped, but larger prints (especially canvas) can take a bit longer
  • How can I track my order?
    • You will receive a confirmation after purchase and then another after your order has shipped
  • Can you ship outside of the United States?
    • No
  • Can I request a refund if I'm not satisfied?
    • While we can't guarantee refunds due to the drop shipping process we use, if you're unhappy with your product in any way, send us an email at classicpittsburgh@gmail.com
  • What's the difference between the print paper options?
    • All prints have the option of being printed on semi-glossy paper (180g; lighter and shinier), and matte paper (200g; similar to poster paper)

For all other questions, send us an email at classicpittsburgh@gmail.com.