Research
Episodes
Biographies
Visualizations & Maps
City Maps 14›
The Convergence Week: April 3–24, 1848 → Hubbard’s Journey to Chicago (1818) → The Chicago Portage → Hubbard’s Trail → Laflin’s Chicago Infrastructure (1837–1889) → The Iron Road: Ryerson’s Journey to Chicago → Ryerson’s Chicago: The Iron Thread → Same Ground: Laflin’s Chicago Then & Now → Why Chicago Won Meatpacking: Railroads Beat Rivers → The South Side Meatpacking District → Swift’s Geographic Journey (1839–1903) → Cold-Chain Architecture: Then & Now → The Catalog Triangle → The Reach: 1872 to 1913 →Network Maps 5›
The 82 Merchants: CBOT Founding Network → The Laflin-Smith Dynasty Network → One Man’s Network: Ryerson’s Institutional Web → The Grand Trunk Workaround & Swift’s Branch House Network → Rosenwald’s Network →Other Infographics 10›
The Ryerson Dynasty Timeline (1813–2026) → Capital Transmission Timeline (1840–2026) → The Dressed Beef Economy: Profit by Waste → Cold Chain: The System That Shipped Beef 1,000 Miles → Three Refrigerator-Car Designs (1868–1882) → Swift Capital Stack & Lineage Timeline → The Capital Arc: 1872 to 2024 → The Rescue of Sears → The Grant Matching Machine → A Fortune Built to Vanish →
Coming 2026
Research in progress
Coming 2026
Research in progress
Coming 2026
Research in progress
Coming 2026
Research in progress