The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
Related
Resources
In American
Memory
Other Collections Featuring Migration
- "California as I
Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900
- This collection consists of the full texts and
illustrations of 190 works documenting the formative era of California's
history through eyewitness accounts. The collection covers the dramatic
decades between the Gold Rush and the turn of the twentieth century. It
captures the pioneer experience; encounters between Anglo-Americans and the
diverse peoples who had preceded them.
- History of the American West,
1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection of the Denver Public Library
- Over 30,000 photographs, drawn from the holdings of
the Western History and Genealogy Department at Denver Public Library,
illuminate many aspects of the history of the American West. Most of the
photographs were taken between 1860 and 1920. They illustrate Colorado towns
and landscape, document the place of mining in the history of Colorado and the
West, and show the lives of Native Americans from more than forty tribes
living west of the Mississippi River.
- Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from
Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910
- This collection consists of first-person accounts,
biographies, promotional literature, local histories, ethnographic and
antiquarian texts, colonial archival documents, and other works. The
collection's 138 volumes depict the land and its resources; the conflicts
between settlers and Native peoples; the experience of pioneers and
missionaries, soldiers and immigrants reformers; the growth of local
communities and local cultural traditions; and more.
- Prairie Settlement: Nebraska
Photographs and Family Letters, 1862-1912
- This digital collection integrates two collections
from the holdings of the Nebraska State Historical Society, the Solomon D.
Butcher photographs and the letters of the Uriah W. Oblinger family. Together
they illustrate the story of settlement on the Great Plains. Approximately
3,000 glass plate negatives crafted by Butcher record the process of
settlement in Nebraska between 1886 and 1912. The approximately 3,000 pages of
Oblinger family letters discuss land, work, neighbors, crops, religious
meetings, problems with grasshoppers, financial problems, etc.
- Westward by Sea: A
Maritime Perspective on American Expansion,1820-1890
- This selection of items from Mystic Seaport's archival collections includes logbooks, diaries,
letters, business papers, and published narratives of voyages and travels. The unique maritime
perspective of these materials offers a rich look at the events, culture, beliefs, and personal
experiences associated with the settlement of California, Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, and the Pacific
Northwest. A number of photographs, paintings, maps, and nautical charts are also included to
illustrate the story of Americans’ western seaborne travel. Various themes are touched upon,
including whaling, life at sea, shipping, women at sea, and native populations.
Other Collections Related to the Early History of the
Ohio Valley Region
- The African-American Experience in Ohio:
Selections from the Ohio Historical Society
- Drawn from the collections of the Ohio Historical
Society, this collection illuminates the history of black Ohio from 1850 to
1920. In particular, search the keyword with the terms 'Henry Clay', 'Ohio
River' and 'Kentucky'.
- America's First
Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1862
- The Library's daguerreotype collection consists of
more than 725 photographs dating from 1839 to 1864. Portrait daguerreotypes
produced by the Mathew Brady studio make up the major portion of the
collection. Search the keyword with the term 'Kentucky' to see portraits of
prominent Kentuckians of the time.
-
America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets
- For most of the nineteenth century, before the advent
of phonograph and radio technologies, Americans learned the latest songs from
printed song sheets.These were songs being sung in music halls or new lyrics
to familiar songs, like "Yankee Doodle." Song sheets are an early example of a
mass medium and today they offer a unique perspective on the political,
social, and economic life of the time. The collection spans the period from
the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1880s. In particular, use the
keyword search with the terms 'Kentucky' and 'Ohio River'.
- Map
Collections: 1544-1999
- The focus of Map Collections is Americana and Cartographic Treasures of
the Library of Congress. See especially: The
American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West
Indies, 1750-1789 and Civil War
Maps. In particular, use the keyword search
with the terms 'Kentucky' and 'Ohio River'.
- Southern Voices:
Texts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- These two collections from the libraries at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill each won an award in the Library of Congress/Ameritech
National Digital Library competition. First-Person
Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920 includes the diaries,
autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and narratives of prominent individuals and also of
relatively inaccessible populations: women, African Americans, enlisted men, laborers, and Native
Americans. The Church in
the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925, traces how Southern African Americans experienced and
transformed Protestant Christianity into the central institution
of community life. In particular, for both of these collections, use the keyword search with the
term 'Kentucky'.
Other
Collections Featuring Politics Relating to the Ohio Valley
Region in this Period
- A Century of
Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates,
1774-1873
- This collection brings together the records and acts of Congress from
the Journals of the Continental Congress through The Congressional
Globe, which ceased publication with the 42nd Congress in 1873. In
particular, search the keyword with the terms 'Burr Conspiracy', 'Henry
Clay', 'Kentucky Resolutions', 'Daniel Boone', 'Ohio River' and
'Kentucky'. Also, see
the United
States Serial Set Number 4015 Indian Land Cessions in the United States
and search for Kentucky Indian tribes such as
'Shawnee', 'Cherokee' and 'Chickasaw'.
- George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
- The complete George Washington Papers collection
consists of approximately 65,000 documents. Document types in the collection
as a whole include correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace books, diaries,
journals, financial account books, military records, reports, and notes. In
particular, search on the terms 'Lord Dunmore', 'Aaron Burr', 'Burr
Conspiracy', 'Kentucky', 'Ohio River', 'Cherokee' and 'Shawnee'.
- The Thomas Jefferson
Papers at the Library of Congress
- The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers consists of
approximately 27,000 documents. Document types in the collection as a whole
include correspondence, commonplace books, financial account books, and
manuscript volumes. The collection ranges in date from 1606 to 1827. In
particular, use the keyword to search the terms 'Aaron Burr', 'Burr
Conspiracy', 'Kentucky', 'Ohio River' and 'Cherokee'.
- Words and Deeds in American History: Selected
Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
- Ninety representative documents spanning from the fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth century
including the papers of presidents, cabinet ministers, members of Congress, and other prominent
Americans whose lives reflect our country's evolution. In particular, use the keyword to search the
terms 'Henry Clay' and 'Kentucky'.
Other
Library of Congress Resources
- Exhibit: Religion and the
Founding of the American Republic
- This exhibition demonstrates that many of the colonies
that in 1776 became the United States of America were settled by men and women
of deep religious convictions who in the seventeenth century crossed the
Atlantic Ocean to practice their faith freely. That the religious intensity of
the original settlers would diminish to some extent over time was perhaps to
be expected, but new waves of eighteenth century immigrants brought their own
religious fervor across the Atlantic and the nation’s first major religious
revival in the middle of the eighteenth century injected new vigor into
American religion. See especially,
Section 7, the Camp Meeting that discusses the Kentucky Revival.
Return to The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820