Award-winning thesis project and illustrations on settlement surrounding the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes: Catalysts of Industrial Evolution is a series of illustrated panels exploring how the Great Lakes shaped the Midwest’s industrial rise in the 19th century. Each piece draws from historic photography, reinterpreted through digital illustration to capture industries such as mining, fur trading, timber logging, heavy manufacturing, and maritime shipping. By pairing visuals with concise historical context, the project highlights both the economic growth and environmental consequences that defined the region, offering viewers a visually cohesive and educational lens into this pivotal era of American history.

Recognized by the University of Michigan for outstanding incorporation of library research and lab use with creative methods, my honors project and accompanying 25-page thesis was completed in just three short months.

2018 Innovation in Research and Creativity Award

When tasked with creating an exhibition piece backed by intensive research for my senior capstone project at the University of Michigan, I decided to capture the role of the Great Lakes in fueling the Midwest’s industrial growth during the 19th century. Each lake was tied to an industry – mining, fur trade, logging, heavy manufacturing, and shipping – that shaped both the economy and the culture of the surrounding region. My challenge was to communicate this layered history in a way that was visually engaging, historically accurate, and educational for a broad audience.

Challenge

Process

I created a series of panels composed of digital illustrations based on historic photographs, carefully redrawn to both preserve authenticity and unify the collection with a consistent style. Each lake highlighted a different theme:

Superior: mining and raw material production
Michigan: fur trade and interactions with Indigenous peoples
Huron: the timber logging empire of old growth forests
Erie: heavy industrialization and the resulting pollution
Ontario: the rise of maritime shipping after the St. Lawrence Seaway

Alongside the visuals, I developed supporting text to summarize each industry’s history and provide context for the archival images.

Outcome

The final series served as both an artistic interpretation and educational tool, using illustration to make complex historical narratives accessible to viewers. By blending research, storytelling, and design, the panels created a cohesive visual journey through the industries that defined the Great Lakes region.

Lake Superior

Pictured: the Calumet & Hecla Shaft No. 9 & 10 in Calumet, Michigan ca. 1869; a group of miners ca. 1906; sluicing (rinsing mined materials with a stream of water) ca. 1884; an unnamed coal miner ca. 1940s.
Lake Michigan

Pictured: – Paper birch trees; Four Bull of the Assiniboine people and a French voyageur ca. 1899, wearing the Hudson’s Bay Company coat; Fort Michilimackinac ca. 1920s; European fur traders in a birch bark canoe ca. 1922; the North American beaver.
Lake Huron

Pictured: a high rigger cuts off the top of a tree while felling timber ca. 1920; a team of loggers returning from unloading their timber into the river in 1853; felling the top of a stripped tree ca. 1859; a logging crew sitting atop a precariously stacked pile of logs ca. 1932; Canadian lumberjacks ca. 1936.
Lake Erie

Pictured: a manufacturing plant on the banks of Lake Erie ca. 1962; tugboat S.J. Christian and steamer Charles B. Hill of Ecorse in the historic shipbuilding yard Great Lakes Engineering Works ca. 1906; a steamboat caught in the Cuyahoga River fire caused by pollution ca. 1952; the Grand Trunk car ferry crossing the Detroit River in winter ca. 1905.
Lake Ontario

Pictured: the Mill District of Niagara Falls in New York ca. 1887; a segment of the St. Lawrence Seaway dividing Canada and the United States, ca. 2001; a cargo ship passes through locks in the St. Lawrence Seaway system ca. 2007; a passenger boat passes under a bridge along the St. Lawrence Seaway ca. 1975.