This program is included with General or Member Admission to the Cleveland History Center on July 31 - no pre-registration is required.
Crossroads of the Midwest: Cleveland in the Industrial Age
This hour-long illustrated program charts Cleveland’s rise from a small settlement to a commercial power through the city’s position in relation to revolutionary networks of transportation and its industrial growth. From the peaks of the city’s wealth and the consequences of its growing pains, “Crossroads of the Midwest” tells the story of Cleveland from the 1830s to the present—its people, triumphs and struggles, and hope for the future.
Our speaker, Drew Baird, completed the research and writing of this program as an intern for the Cleveland History Center's Education Department in 2024-2025.
Speaker Bio: Drew Baird is a recent graduate of the College of Wooster and an incoming graduate student at The Ohio State University. From Twinsburg, Ohio, he has been an intern with both Hale Farm & Village and the Cleveland History Center in recent years. Drew's own research focuses especially on the political and environmental history of railroads and industrial capitalism in the United States between 1840 and 1920. His Senior Independent Study project at Wooster, “A Power in the Land: The First Transcontinental Railroad and the Second American System,” was published in History Matters Undergraduate Journal this spring.
