The expansion of the United States and the displacement of Native Americans were bound up in the idea of Manifest Destiny.
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Envisioning Manifest Destiny
Pioneers and frontiersmen, creating an American mythology amidst the Civil War
The business (and art) of seeing the American west
Business or pleasure? Watkins could photograph both beautifully.
American brilliance at the St. Louis World’s Fair: Libbey’s Punch Bowl
This dazzling, prismatic, brilliant cut glass creates a universe of pattern and reflection.
Settling the American Eden, The Oxbow
Not content to merely paint the land, Cole elevated the landscape to approach the status of historical painting.
Custer’s Last Stand — from the Lakota perspective
What most American students learn about as Custer's Last Stand was the last great victory for the Lakota people.
Dignity in the face of injustice: The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas
This dignified portrait of a Native leader belies the cruel treatment he endured at the time of its painting.
The Trail of Tears, Titus Kaphar’s The Cost of Removal
Kaphar takes a violent history and renders it visible in this modified portrait of Andrew Jackson.
The closing of the frontier and The Fall of the Cowboy
Remington mourns the decline of the cowboy by depicting the very thing that destroyed his iconic lifestyle.
Wilderness, settlement, and American identity
Cole feared for the American landscape as his country expanded westward.
