Encountering the First American West

With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Filson Historical Society is excited to announce the re-launch of the First American West, an online collection of letters, financial records, maps, and objects relating to the Ohio River Valley in the mid-1700s through the early 1800s. Originally a collaboration with the Library of Congress and the University of Chicago, “The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820 (FAW)” was an early digitization project that launched in 2000. While it was an early standard bearer for digital history, it became unavailable in 2016 when the Library of Congress ended support for the project.

In our relaunch, an NEH-funded research team has expanded the project to highlight the experiences of those originally excluded, including the voices of women, those enslaved, and the Indigenous communities that called our region home.

We’re so excited to share this digital project with you, and we invite you to explore!