Title
American Progress
Subject
Weatward expansion, Manifest Destiny
Description
This painting is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. Here Columbia, a personification of the United States, leads civilization westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she sweeps west; she holds a school book as well. The different stages of economic activity of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation.
This painting has come to represent the ideal of Manifest Destiny.
Creator
John Gast
Source
Museum of the American West
Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA
Date
1872
Rights
Public Domain
Format
Oil painting
12 ¾” x 16 ¾”
Language
English
Type
Still Image