Search by Keyword
| Browse by
Subject |
Name |
Title |
Theme
The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
consists of 15,000 pages of original historical material documenting the
land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian
West from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. The
collection is drawn from the holdings of the University of Chicago
Library and the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky. Among
the sources included are books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets,
scientific publications, broadsides, letters, journals, legal documents,
ledgers and other financial records, maps, physical artifacts, and
pictorial images.
The collection documents the travels of
the
first Europeans to enter the trans-Appalachian West, the maps
tracing
their explorations, their relations with
Native Americans, and their theories about the region's mounds and other
ancient
earthworks. Naturalists and other scientists describe Western bird
life and bones of prehistoric
animals. Books and letters document the new
settlers' migration and
acquisition of land, navigation down
the
Ohio River, planting of crops,
and trade in tobacco, horses, and
whiskey.
Leaders from
Thomas
Jefferson and James
Madison to Isaac
Shelby, William
Henry Harrison, Aaron
Burr, and James
Wilkinson comment on
politics and
regional conspiracies.
Documents also reveal the lives of
trans-Appalachian African Americans, nearly all of them slaves; the
position of women; and the
roles of churches,
schools, and other
institutions.
The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its
resources available
and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a
universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The
goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to offer broad public
access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to
education and lifelong learning. Digital collections from other institutions
complement and enhance the Library's own resources.
The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past.
These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of
different times. The Library of Congress, the University of Chicago, and
Filson Historical Society do not endorse the views expressed in these
collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers.
Special Presentation:
Encountering the First American West
The digitization and presentation of these materials by
the University of Chicago
Library* and
the Filson Historical Society of
Louisville, Kentucky* was supported by an award
from the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition.
Links marked *
lead to web pages mounted at the awardee institution.
The source materials for this collection are housed at the University
of Chicago and the Filson Historical Society.
Please send electronic mail to specialcollections@lib.uchicago.edu
with any
questions or information about the original materials. Address
requests for reproductions to the owning
institutions.
American Memory |
Search All Collections |
Collection Finder | Teachers
