The collection includes annotated postings of playbills, broadsides, handbills, souvenirs, postcards, and after 1848, photographs. These materials touch on the major historical events of the time including abolition, the development of the railroads, and the rise of certain American dramatic icons who made their names playing European heroes -- James O'Neill, father of playwright Eugene O'Neill, among them. Surveyors of the West features diaries, photographs, stereographs, and field notes related to the work of William Henry Jackson, a government photographer influential in the establishment of US parks in the West, and Robert Brewster Stanton, a civil and mining engineer who surveyed the Grand Canyon between 1889 and 1890, and who was chief engineer for the Denver Colorado Canyon and Pacific Railroad. Together, these three -- or should we say, four -- exhibits constitute a marvelous introduction to Western history via primary documents and images from the era.