These Indigenous men sat for this portrait during a forced tour of U.S. eastern cities after they were incarcerated as political prisoners
Seeing America – Periods: 1800-1848
This life-size painting of a wild turkey is a copy of the first page in Audubon's famous book Birds of America
John James Audubon, The Wild Turkey
Learn the story behind this totem pole that no longer stands
The story of the Oyster Man, a ...
Enslaved artist David Drake inscribed a poem onto this jug at a time when literacy among enslaved people was outlawed
Literacy and slavery: David Drake, Double-handled jug
What is a potlatch? And how is it related to this totem pole?
Haida potlatch pole
The body of this box is made of one piece of wood carefully bent into its four sides
Bentwood Boxes of the Northwest Coast peoples
Learn about two types of totem poles from the Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest Coast that memorialize individuals who have passed
Tlingit mortuary and memorial totem poles
A 2004 plaque is the only marker of burial grounds of enslaved people who died while enslaved by the University of Alabama and its faculty
Slave Burial Ground, University of Alabama
Historians celebrated these compromises as valiant efforts to save the union, but recently historians have questioned whether they should instead be seen as appeasements of slaveholders.
The Missouri Compromise and the dangerous precedent ...
There is no memorial to the Mexican-American War in Washington, D.C.—a war in which more than 15,000 American soldiers lost their lives.
The Mexican-American War
Perry's painting of the Battle of Lake Erie celebrates the U.S. victory in the War of 1812, but it doesn't depict the aftermath's devastating effects on Native Americans.
APUSH: KC-4.3.I.A.ii
APUSH: KC-4.3.I.A.ii
Teaching guide
Thomas Birch, Perry’s Victory on Lake ...
Top American bucket list destination in 1821
Clean water for a young Philadelphia
The battle that turned the tide during the War of 1812
The battle that turned the War of ...
Americans looked to define the nation’s identity, independence, and their ideals in the nineteenth century.
1800–1848
Cole, the great American landscape painter, looks across the vast history of Western architecture
Dreaming big
In his Peaceable Kingdom series of over 60 images, Hicks depicts a visionary scene of peace on earth that extends back to include William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania.
The Peaceable Kingdom as Penn’s parable
How a portrait of an African Muslim came to hang side-by-side with the founding fathers in one of America's earliest museums.
A Muslim among the founding fathers
Not content to merely paint the land, Cole elevated the landscape to approach the status of historical painting.
Settling the American Eden, The Oxbow
The creation of a beloved landmark destroyed a thriving community of African Americans and Irish immigrants.
A lost history of African Americans in ...
Though at first glance this nude seems plucked from classical antiquity, it actually alludes to modern politics.
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