Object Details
Across the Continent. "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way."
1868
Object Essay
The printing firm of Currier & Ives billed itself as “printmakers to the American people,” and ever since collectors and scholars have also used that label to describe their work. Currier & Ives issued two kinds of prints: “rush” prints that were pictorial reporting on current events, often sold as newspaper extras, and stock prints intended for decoration. The rush prints were quickly replaced by other hard news, but the aesthetically pleasing and inspirational stock prints were produced for many years after their copyrighted, first appearance. These latter prints continued to inform and impress Americans for a long time.
This print showing immigrants crossing the plains with the Rocky Mountains in the distance was issued one year after the Civil War and was sold for the rest of the century. The end of hostilities enabled great resources to be turned toward occupying western lands. Some Indian tribes had initiated uprisings in hopes that the United States and Confederate States governments could not divert military resources to the West, but those plans were dashed when the war was over.
Fanny F. Palmer of Brooklyn, New York, drew this picture for Currier & Ives to express an idealized image of the multitude of Americans (in a wagon train stretching as far as the eye can see) marching through rivers and woods and over plains and mountains to build farms and cities. Outnumbered and looking on passively are two Indian men on horses. The scene reflects the history of the West and how Americans saw it then and subsequently.
Donald H. Cresswell
Excerpted from Jonathan L. Fairbanks. Becoming a Nation: Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State. New York: Rizzoli, 2003.