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videos + essays
Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
The critics at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago noted: "American art has made something of itself."
Teaching guide
Thomas Hovenden, The Last Moments of John Brown
A figure who has polarized political opinion from the Civil War to today
1877 – 1898
A period of technological and commercial success, the Gilded Age was also an era of immense social problems.
John Brown, Martyr or murderer?
John Brown has polarized political opinion from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement.
Lakota life on a beaded suitcase
This one-of-a-kind suitcase tells the surprising story of an artist, a wedding, and a people.
Light of democracy, the Statue of Liberty
Two countries honor their love of democracy with a huge statue of a woman! Neither let women vote, though.
“Leave it as it is”
In order to capture the beauty of America’s national parks, Brown faced the prejudices of the lawless West.
The first African American celebrity artist
Tanner studied in Philadelphia and Paris, and his style combined elements of American Realism and the Old Masters.
How the Other Half Lives
Riis snapped photos of the urban poor during midnight police raids—but only because he cared.
Soaring above politics
Unlike the other monuments on the Mall, this monument tells us virtually nothing about the man it commemorates.
The closing of the frontier
Remington mourns the decline of the cowboy by depicting the very thing that destroyed his iconic lifestyle.
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