Painting by John Gast
American Progress is an 1872 painting by John Gast, a Prussian-born painter, printer, and lithographer who lived and worked most of his life during 1870s Brooklyn, New York. American Progress, an allegory of manifest destiny, was widely disseminated in chromolithographic prints. It is now held by the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California.[1]
Description
American Progress has become a seminal example of American Western art. The painting serves as an allegory for Manifest Destiny and American westward expansion. The 11.50 by 15.75 inches (29.2 cm × 40.0 cm) painting was commissioned in 1872 by George Crofutt, a publisher of American Western travel guides, and has since been frequently reproduced. The woman in the center is Columbia, the personification of the United States, and on her head is what Crofutt calls "The Star of the Empire". Columbia moves from the light-skied east to the dark and treacherous West, leading settlers who follow her either on foot or by stagecoach, horseback, Conestoga wagon, wagon train, or riding steam trains.[2] She lays a telegraph wire with one hand and carries a school book in the other. On the right side of the painting, in the East, New York City can be seen in the background, while farmers who have already settled in the Midwest are featured in the foreground. As Columbia moves westward, indigenous people and a herd of buffalo flee from her and the settlers who follow.[3]
On Westward Expansion
This artwork is a common reference in conversation regarding the American sentiment of expansion in the 1800s. The depiction of Columbia leading settlers and bringing sunlight westward can be identified as a metaphor for expansion signifying positive new beginnings for early Americans. As sunlight and brightness are associated with God, the painting can serve as a metaphor for Americans considering expansion and exploration of the land beyond the states being a God-given right; Manifest Destiny was an often used justification for expansion.
As the railroads were considered a key example of successes in Westward Expansion, Columbia bringing railways and telegraph lines with her to the new West symbolized the cultural advantages to the expansion. Additionally, Columbia is carrying with her a "School Book", which may be interpreted as her bringing education and knowledge with expansion. As most indigenous peoples were illiterate at the beginning of the expansion period, this can be seen as a further justification of expansion as indigenous people began to attend government or church-operated schools in the late 1800s to gain literacy. It is, however, more apt to consider the education of native children[4] at the time to be a cruelty as they were forced to attend boarding schools where they were forbidden to speak their native language.
Significance
John Gast uses this painting to convey the idea of Manifest Destiny that is widely known in America at this time. Much of the west was still occupied by Native Americans in 1872, but Gast portrays the idea that America was destined to expand to this area as part of Manifest Destiny.[5]
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