Mound Builders of Ohio

Charles Whittlesey (1808-1886)
Plan of the Ancient Works at
Marietta, Ohio
Ink and graphite on paper, 1837
Gift of Frank Squier, 1905 (114A.2)
Manuscript Division

Charles Whittlesey (1808-1886)
Fortified Hill, Butler Co., Ohio
Ink and graphite on paper, 1836
Manuscript Division
Gift of Frank Squier, 1905 (114A.13)

Content

This Plan of the Ancient Works at Marietta, Ohio, was sketched in 1837 by Charles Whittlesey, geologist, engineer, and student of ancient North American cultures. It depicts a huge earthwork shaped by so-called Mound Builders, prehistoric Indians who lived in the Ohio Valley. Such mounds, varying greatly in size and built for purposes that are still not fully understood, once numbered in the thousands throughout the Midwest. Many have been eradicated by the spread of settlement and and the expansion of farmland.