The vast lingering remnant of an ice age that came to a close more than 10,000 years ago, Lake Michigan has shaped the history of the settlements along its surrounding shores for centuries. Its storied waters have seen schooners, luxury steamships, and modern freighters, its lakeshores the rise of the railroads that helped to carve a way of life into the surrounding wooded wilderness for the Americans who called the region home. Through high times and lean, the lake’s 1,640 miles of coastline have clung to their untamed beauty even as bustling harbor hamlets and booming cities like Chicago and Milwaukee rose in their midst.

Historic Photos of Lake Michigan chronicles portions of two centuries on and around Lake Michigan—the only great lake entirely within United States borders, the third-largest of the five Great Lakes, and the fifth-largest freshwater lake in the world—showcasing the ever-changing life and landscape along its quartz crystal coast.