Inside Bethlehem Steel:The Final Quarter Century

Inside Bethlehem Steel:The Final Quarter CenturyInside Bethlehem Steel: The Final Quarter Century" chronicles the final years of a celebrated American industrial icon. More than 90 full color photos and supporting text, 12" x 9" Coffee table style, hard bound with composite leather, 140 Pages, 92 photos in color and black & white, 16,000 words of text. Two steel industry communications veterans have collaborated to produce a stunning photographic journey with insightful text on the final 25 years

Inside Bethlehem Steel: The Final Quarter Century" chronicles the final years of a celebrated American industrial icon. More than 90 full-color photos and supporting text, 12" x 9" Coffee table style, hard bound with composite leather, 140 Pages, 92 photos in color and black & white, 16,000 words of text.

Two steel industry communications veterans have collaborated to produce a stunning photographic journey with insightful text on the final 25 years of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, their former employer.

'Inside Bethlehem Steel: The Final Quarter Century' is a visual tour of the formerly second-largest domestic steel company's last years as it struggled for survival. Through the photographs of Peter B. Treiber and text of Elizabeth A. "Bette" Kovach, the book celebrates the majesty and might of the late steelmaker and chronicles the long decline of the company that literally built, transported and defended America for nearly 99 years.

Treiber and Kovach were both employees of Bethlehem Steel Corporation's public affairs department in its corporate headquarters in Bethlehem, Pa. Treiber was a staff photographer from 1977 until 1983 and then contracted to photograph the company's facilities and products for its highest-end uses of marketing communications. Kovach worked in corporate and employee communications positions from 1976 until the company's sale of assets in May 2003, serving as the last director of corporate communications and spokesperson.

"Bethlehem Steel was a dangerously beautiful place," said Treiber, now proprietor of Peter Treiber Photography. "The texture of the surfaces fluctuated widely from the rough and tumble to the shiny and smooth. Sometimes brilliantly lighted by the furnace's fire and sometimes dark and dingy, it was always a challenge to work in those conditions."