Newberry's Midwest Time Machine

Midwest

Time Machine

Travel to the past via first-hand accounts from letters, diaries, and rare books in the Newberry's collections

Witness the Chicago Fire, join the Lewis and Clark expedition, and marvel at the World's Fair through manuscripts transcribed by our online volunteers!

Choose Your Time Traveler

Destination:
1924-1940

The Writer: Sherwood Anderson

Declare strong feelings on holidays, romantic partners, and communism with a great American novelist.

Destination:
1869-1871

The Heiress: Julia Newberry

Celebrate Chicago’s high society and witness the destruction of the Great Chicago Fire.

Destination:
May-June, 1948

The Photojournalist: Esther Bubley

Ride the CB&Q Railroad around the Midwest to document everyday life along its route.

Destination:
1767-1812

The War Chief: Black Hawk

Battle alongside the Sauk leader as he defends his land from rival tribes and white settlers.

Destination:
1893

The Fairgoer: Errett Graham

Delight in the World’s Columbian Exposition’s novelties, including Ferris Wheels, electric lights, and Annie Oakley.

Destination:
1905-1927

The Memoirist: Era Bell Thompson

Explore issues of race and identity growing up in rural North Dakota plains and visiting Midwestern cities.

Destination:
1898-1900

The Military Nurse: Amy Wingreen

Brave scorpions, yellow fever and privations nursing wounded soldiers in the Spanish American War.

Destination:
1839-1864

The Reverend: J.H. Magee

Join in the struggle on a journey from son of a freed slave to prairie farmer to well-educated preacher.

Destination:
1804-1805

The Frontier Soldier: Joseph Whitehouse

Dance with French ladies, hunt bears, and treaty with Indians as a soldier on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Destination:
1839-1851

The Steamboat Captain: Christopher Gardner Pearce

Defy death navigating the Mississippi, while transporting emigrants, livestock, and produce to enable Westward Expansion.

Destination:
1916-1922

The Vacation Photographer: Lenore Raster

Travel with a Chicago-based, German-American family to see the sights on their Mississippi River vacations.

Destination:
???

Discover a new journey!

Help scholars and learn about history by transcribing documents from the Newberry’s collections

Part of What Is the Midwest, a multidisciplinary project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Except where otherwise noted, contextual content on this site is made available under a Creative Commons Public Domain license. Digitized images and other media from the Newberry's collections are made available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to the following terms and conditions: Newberry Rights and Reproductions Policy.

Edited by Jen Wolfe and developed by Nick White of the Newberry’s Digital Initiatives and Services department. Code is available for repurposing: Midwest Time Machine repository. Interactive maps created using the open-source software StoryMapJS. Grateful acknowledgement to WBEZ’s Curious City and the inspiration from their site If you toured Chicago in 1910, what would you do?