videos + essays
Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.
George Inness, The Lackawanna Valley
Inness captures a tension between industrial progress and its effect on the American landscape.
Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits
One of the most recognized paintings in American history, this painting is an ode to friendship and nature
Edmonia Lewis, The Old Arrow Maker
Edmonia Lewis, an artist of Black and Indigenous heritage, uses a neoclassical style to depict Indigenous subjects from a popular novel around the time of the U.S. Civil War
Thomas Crawford, George Washington Equestrian Monument
Sculpted just before the U.S. Civil War, this monument to George Washington recalls an ancient Roman emperor and represents what the North and South could and could not agree on
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Mount Jefferson, Pinkham Notch, White Mountains
Summer, autumn, a saw mill all provide metaphors about American republicanism in this pre-Civil War landscape
Landscape and the American republic, Frederic Church’s Natural Bridge
This vertical landscape of Virginia recalls ancient Roman architecture, tying the American republic to Rome's
Winslow Homer, Taking Sunflower to Teacher
Painted during Reconstruction, this sentimental watercolor depicts the hope of transformation and possibility
The story of the Oyster Man, a Tlingit totem pole
Learn the story behind this totem pole that no longer stands
Winslow Homer, Army Teamsters
Is this painting of five men, possibly formerly enslaved, working for the Union Army during the Civil War a product of racist stereotypes, or does it humanize its subjects?
Race and self-governance: William Wetmore Story, Cleopatra
What does this marble sculpture of Cleopatra tell us about race and the Civil War in the U.S.?
Bentwood Boxes of the Northwest Coast peoples
The body of this box is made of one piece of wood carefully bent into its four sides
