Frontier

The American frontier period of the Midwest encompasses the time (circa 1780-1840) when Euro-American farmers and merchants first settled the lands between the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. Moving into ancient forests at the edges of vast grassland prairies, these settlers brought with them the goods and furnishings of a dawning industrial age.

Their first homes, built of simple log construction, echoed the medieval lifeways of Europe. Inside, however, residents of the frontier accumulated a surprisingly rich and diverse hybrid of traditional folk goods and mass-produced products. These were eventually broken, lost, or discarded, and became part of the archaeological record. Nearly 200 years later, they tell stories not found in the written record of the American past.