Crossings invites you to take four historic routes across the United States.
Maps, guidebooks, travelogues, postcards, and more from the Newberry’s collection recreate travelers’ experiences along the northern and southern borders of the US, across the continent’s interior, and up and down the Mississippi River.
These cross-country paths have been in use for centuries whether by water, railroad, car, or airplane.
The routes have remained remarkably consistent despite changes in transportation, commerce, and the people who’ve used them. But not everyone has experienced travel and mobility equally. The same paths meant “discovery” to the European explorer, freedom to the enslaved, and loss and removal for Indigenous nations.
Crossings shows how centuries of movement have forged deep relationships between people and places that survive to this day. The journeys we’ve taken determine who we are as individuals as well as where we’ve been and where we’re going as a country.
Mon CLOSED
Tue - Sat 10am - 4pm
Sun CLOSED
Free & open to all
Trienens Galleries
The Newberry
60 West Walton Street
Chicago, IL
41.900162414249, -87.63060135
Crossings: Mapping American Journeys
