In 1864 Abraham Lincoln appointed Elihu Burritt as United States consul in Birmingham. Burritt captured the very nature of the Black Country's unique industrial landscape with his now famous phrase 'black by day and red by night', referring to the smoking chimney stacks turning the sky black with smoke by day to be followed by the red glow from iron furnaces at night.

The Black Country has seen many innovations. Thomas Newcomen came in 1712 to install his first ground-breaking atmospheric steam engine in the shadow of Dudley Castle. James Watt followed later when he installed a steam engine at the Bilston iron works of John 'Iron Mad' Wilkinson, father of the iron industry. Bradley, Foster and Rastrick built the 'Stourbridge Lion' the first railway locomotive in America, Aaron Manby of the Horseley Iron Works built the first iron ship to go to sea in 1822 and Chance Brothers, in 1851, supplied the glass for Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace, centre piece of the Great Exhibition. There are many more.

The Making of the Black Country: a Unique Industrial Landscape brings all industries together, concentrating on the 19th century when the Black Country really was black by day and red by night.