For 150 years, Matthews International Corp. has been one of the world's leading suppliers of identification products and services.

It's also the oldest continually operated business in Pittsburgh.

If the name doesn't sound familiar, chances are you've seen some of the company's work. Have you been to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.? The bronze inductee plaques are produced by Matthews.

Elvis Presley fans have seen the company's work. Matthews made his memorial plaque at Graceland. They've also made memorial plaques for Hollywood legends such as Liberace, Lucille Ball, Lorne Greene, Jim Henson and Walt Disney.

If you have a Sony PlayStation, you've seen a Matthews product. The same is true if you've brought home a pizza from Pizza Hut. The company makes the boxes for those items and many others.

Matthews makes the letters and numbers for license plates in more than 30 states and was instrumental in developing the UPC bar code used on most consumer products.

The history of the company is told through a display at the Sen. John Heinz Pittsburgh regional History Center. Located on the second floor, the exhibit will be displayed through Labor Day.

For folks with an interest in engraving techniques, the exhibit is a virtual stroll through technological history. Others may find themselves intrigued by what the Pittsburgh-based company has accomplished in the past century-and-a-half. There's even opportunities for persons of all ages to experience first-hand some of the technology devised and used by Matthews.

Each display shows a different stage in the company's history. The story begins in 1850 when John Dixon Matthews arrived in Pittsburgh from Sheffield, England. The skilled engraver began to produce stencils, steel stamps and branding irons.

According to Lynn Illig of the bronze division of the company, "He realized there were a lot of things that needed marked. We have some of the early work receipts, the company's first price book, some old ads and one of the first business cards. These items begin to tell the story of what Matthews is all about today."

Until recently, the company was employee-owned. Matthews' son started profit distribution and offered benefits to employees before most other companies were doing so, she said. There are photos from several company picnics on display as well as photos of early locations including the first store on Wood Street in Pittsburgh.

"We started behind Forbes Field and now we are on the North Shore", she said. "It seems like we go where the stadium goes."

When Matthews started his company, his vision was to be the leading provider of superior identification products and services. He focused on production and distribution of materials for personalization. Items ranged from military stamping dies and branding irons to ornate engravings and stamps for wooden crates.

By 1925, his dream had become a reality. The company was known throughout the country for its quality identification capabilities. Because of an increase in business, three operating units were established in 1957. Each division is dedicated to manufacturing and world-wide sales of materials to identify people, products, places and events. Today, those divisions employ 1,600 people in 25 locations.

Initially, the company's bronze division focused on making signs for buildings. The sign that identified the former Horne's department store was made by Matthews and is part of the exhibit.

The first flush bronze memorial was cast in 1927. Matthews has since become the world's top supplier of bronze memorials - including vases, urns, statuary/features, crypt letters and plates, niche units, cremorials, and adore crypt emblems, vases and lamps.

In the last five years, the division has diversified. It now produces finely detailed statuary, upright granite monuments in unique shapes and colors, cremation equipment, accessories for memorialization and mausoleum design/construction services.

Bronze division also produces cast metal identification letters, plaques, sculptures, monuments and donor recognition products installed throughout the world. These include a memorial for victims of the scud missile attack that killed military personnel from Greensburg several years ago.

Some of the early bronze items Matthews produced were western statues. Now, much of the statuary is produced by a Matthews company in Italy.

During World War II, when bronze was hard to get, Matthews made signs and markers out of asphalt and, when bronze became available, the items were replaced.

"During the war, we marked the bombs, shell holders - anything the military needed marked, we did it," Illig said.

She also noted the exhibit contains a National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum first. One of its plaques - honoring Pirates legend Roberto Clemente - is on display. It's the first time a plaque has been shown outside of Cooperstown. There also is a limited edition bronze statue of Clemente on display.

Another exhibit is a machine that prints and cuts cardboard. There's also an area that explains how the company prints plates for corrugated containers.

Graphic Systems division is the leading provider of pre-press and imaging systems used by corrugated and flexible packaging manufacturers to reproduce text, graphics, logos, bar codes and other details on packaging materials.

Through the years, this division has expanded and its clients range from Anheuser Busch to Proctor & Gamble. Aside from supplying printing plates and cutting dies, Graphic System division provides electronically created art, color separations, films and digital scans called pre-press services.

Marking Products division is used to mark consumer and industrial products, components and packaging containers. Customers include food and beverage processors, metal fabricators, manufacturers of health and beauty products, and producers of textiles, glass, plastic, rubber and building products.

The marking products range from simple steel hand stamps similar to those used by Matthews in 1850 to ink jet printing systems.