A. For background information on your topic, to begin a bibliography and to find experts in the field, consult:

Encyclopedias and Handbooks

By time period
American Eras, 1850-1877 and 1878-1899. R.R. E 169.1.A471979 1997 [For the twentieth
     century, use American Decades R.R. E 169.12 .A419 1994]
United States in the Nineteenth Century E 169.1 .E626 2001

By Location
The American Midwest R.R. F351.A534
Encyclopedia of Rural America R.R. E 169.12.E5 1997

Topical
Handbook of North American Indians, Plains R.R. E76.2.H36 vol. 13-14
Prairies and Boreal Forests R.R. GF75.B5613 2000 vol. 8
Deciduous Forests R.R. GF75.B5613 vol. 7

B. To identify books, videos, journals, etc. owned by St. Olaf and Carleton, consult:

Bridge

BRIDGE will offer subject access to materials on your topic (but not individual journal articles -- see below for that). Try beginning with a keyword search, finding a good item, and then using the Subject links at the bottom of the record to link to more materials on those topics. Specific headings include:

Historic Sites -- United States
Cities and Towns -- Middle West -- History -- 19th century
Land Settlement -- Middle West -- History -- 19th century
Flour mills -- Middle West
Private universities and colleges -- Minnesota -- History

C.  For subject access to scholarly journals, consult:

Databases

For Scholarly Journals in Specific Disciplines
America: History & Life
Reader's Guide Retrospective
MLA International Bibliography    The major index to literature journals.
Art Index
Music Index  

Multidisciplinary Indexes to Scholarly Publications
Academic Search Premier
Expanded Academic ASAP

Indexes to Newspapers and Magazines of the times
Minneapolis Tribune (1867-1922)
New York Times (1851 - 2005)
American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900
International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP) , 1874 - present. Indexes a wide variety of international music periodicals, some back to the late 1800s.
Reader's Guide [to popular magazines] R.R. AI3.R 48 1890 to date

D. For other sources of information, search:

Websites

There are many ways now to access the web. You have all done Google searches by now but the results are often overwhelming or unsatisfying. There's a better way to start -- by following time honored routes applied to new technologies:

Librarians' catalogs of websites:
Scout Report Reviews of web sites; searchable by keyword and Library of Congress Subject Headings
Infomine Websites "collected" by academic librarians -- full descriptions and subject headings
Librarians' Index to the Internet Aimed more at public library patrons but still useful for many topics

Gateways to Digital Collections
OAIster is an catalog of digital collections. You can choose text or image and search by keyword. It will tell you about the responsible party (authority).
Best of the History Websites
Google -- Search google with your keywords AND add "digital collections" (with quotation marks) to your search. This phrase is used by authoritative sites so it will bring up useful items. This is a better strategy than using google images.

Suggestions for Websites to access:
Life Magazine Photo Archive
American Memory (Library of Congress)
Historic American Buildings Survey <http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/145_habs.html>

As always, you must take care to evaluate your material . Who wrote/posted it? What are their credentials? Is the material from an academic source (scholarly publisher or .edu site on the web) or proprietary source (commercial publisher or .com site)? Is the material current for the topic? If a website, when was it last updated? Is that important? Etc. For more suggestions for evaluating websites, consult the list on the libraries' page:  Evaluating Web Sites

F. For guides and samples of citations in Turabian style, consult the Library's Citation Guides page.