Making History in Central North America

Based on the world-renowned collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago, “Frontier to Heartland” offers access to historical primary sources, scholarly perspectives on the past, and resources to help you use the site.

Perspectives

Essays with a point of view

In words and pictures Perspectives explain how central North America came to be known as a "frontier" and then a "heartland." You can trace the history of the region over 400 years, consider the cultural power of images, or learn how to read historic maps.

Galleries

Thematic collections of images

Galleries are a quick way to view a range of themes in Frontier to Heartland.  Each gallery presents eight related images and links to the image collection.

Browse Archive

Farm woman gathering eggs

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company
Although tending poultry was considered "women's work" on midwestern farms, it was a profitable enterprise that brought in much needed cash for farm families.

I Await the Devil's Coming

MacLane, Mary
Nineteen-year-old Mary MacLane from Butte, Montana, may have been the original flapper. She wrote "I Await the Devil's Coming" and sent it to Chicago's Stone and Kimball Company. When it appeared in…

Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in 1830

Lewis, Henry, 1819-1904
Artist Henry Lewis sketched and painted scenes along the upper Mississippi River between 1846 and 1848. He compiled them into a panoramic painting nearly half a mile in length, which was a popular…

Grain elevators, Central Illinois

Higbie, Tobias
Two grain elevator facilities west of Champaign, Illinois. On the left, the larger facility is that of The Andersons Grain and Ethanol Group. On the right, the much smaller Rising Farmers Grain…

Capture of Louis Riel by the Scouts Armstrong and Howie, May 15, 1885

Louis Riel was a Métis leader who headed a provisional government in opposition to the Canadian government in 1885. The "Riel Rebellion" was defeated militarily and Riel was convicted of treason and…

Haymarket Monument, Waldheim Cemetery

Weinert, Albert
A monument to four anarchist labor leaders executed in Chicago on November 11, 1887. After a trial that is generally considered a miscarriage of justice, the men were convicted of killing police with…

College of Complexes curriculum, June 1963

Slim Brundage had been a bouncer at the Dill Pickle Club in the 1920s and the manager of a short-lived open forum known as the Knowledge Box in the 1930s. In the 1950s he opened his own club known as…

Photograph of Elizabeth Packard

As a result of disagreements over religion and money, Theophilus Packard committed his wife of twenty-one years, Elizabeth Ware Packard, to the Illinois insane asylum in 1860. Three years later,…
Four more random images