Transcontinental Railroad across the Great Plains. Manifest Destiny colonization of the American West. Famous print Fanny Palmer
1868 Currier & Ives hand-colored lithograph by Frances Flora Bond (Fanny) Palmer. Palmer created "Across the continent, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" during the construction of the nation’s first transcontinental railroad, which established a route from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1869. A locomotive follows the mountain peaks West as it divides log cabins from unsettled wilderness. In the lower left, construction continues on a flourishing, well-populated town, promising renewal to a nation recovering from war. In the lower right, American Indians sit on horseback in the train's fading smoke, hinting at the old ways of life that are destroyed to make way for the new. A spectacular image of the West from the best known lithographic printers of the 19th century. 'A paradigm of the Old West. In the foreground, the populace of a small settlement of log buildings turn out to see a railroad train whose cars bear the legend "Through Line, New York, San Francisco." Belching smoke (which balks two mounted Indians on the right), the train is on tracks running on a diagonal to the upper left, disappearing over the horizon. the tracks are paralleled by a dirt trail upon which a wagon train is seen in the distance. The school in the foreground center signifies that civilization is the banner under which all this is happening. Frances (Fanny) Palmer immigrated to the United States from England in 1844, shortly before journalist John O'Sullivan coined the term "Manifest Destiny" and the gold rush drew nearly 300,000 settlers to California. By the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, she had become one of America's most prolific and versatile printmakers, her name appearing alongside that of Currier & Ives. Signed "F. F. Palmer," Across the Continent is her best-known work, demonstrating her artistic skill and sensitivity to the politics of her adopted country. A digital restoration.
Size: 4191px × 3004px
Location: Across the continent color print United States of America US USA
Photo credit: © Akademie / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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