Land

The American claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative self-government entrusted to us.
    – John L. O'Sullivan in an editorial in the New York Morning News, 1845


In the trans-Mississippian West, land has long been a source of power, riches, and inspiration. Drawn to what this land held, American settlers headed west in increasing numbers beginning in the 1840s. There they pursued new opportunities, some of which were realized, others not. This westward migration also precipitated frequent conflicts, and throughout the nineteenth century the U.S. military clashed repeatedly with foreign rivals and with tribal nations that saw this land as their own.

Many questions surrounded the future of these lands: Who was to control them? How would they be used? What exactly awaited settlers? This section highlights those politicians, military leaders, industrialists, preservationists, writers, and artists whose interest in and engagement with these lands profoundly shaped how they would be understood by the century’s end.


Mexican War


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Click to enlarge imageZachary Taylor with William Bliss
Unidentified photographer
Quarter-plate daguerreotype, c. 1848
Click to enlarge imageAndrιs Pico 1810–1876
Unidentified photographer
Quarter-plate daguerreotype, c. 1850
Click to enlarge imageWinfield Scott 1786–1866
Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Salted-paper print, c. 1861
         
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Click to enlarge imageSam Houston 1793–1863
James McClees (1821–1887) and Julian Vannerson (c. 1827–1875)
Salted-paper print, c. 1859
Click to enlarge imageGeorge Bancroft 1800–1891
John Plumbe Jr. (1809–1857)
Quarter-plate daguerreotype, 1846
Click to enlarge imageJames K. Polk 1795–1849
Mathew Brady (1823?–1896)
Whole-plate daguerreotype, 1849
         

Slavery


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Click to enlarge imageJohn C. Breckinridge 1821–1875
William R. Phipps (active c. 1849–c. 1867)
Sixth-plate daguerreotype, c. 1855
Click to enlarge imageJohn Brown 1800–1859
James Wallace Black (1825–1896), after an 1859 daguerreotype by Martin M. Lawrence
Salted-paper print, 1859
Click to enlarge imageJames Denver 1817–1892
Whitehurst Studio (active 1849–60))
Salted-paper print, c. 1856

Industrial Development


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Click to enlarge imageWilliam Butler Ogden 1805–1877
Alexander Hesler (1823–1895)
Albumenized salted-paper print, c. 1857
Click to enlarge imageCollis P. Huntington 1821–1900
William Keith (1838–1911)
Gelatin silver print, c. 1900
Click to enlarge imageHenry Villard 1835–1900
Frank Jay Haynes (1853–1921)
Albumen silver print, 1883
         

Conservation


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Click to enlarge imageGalen Clark 1814–1910
Carleton Watkins (1829–1916)
Albumen silver print, c. 1865–66
Click to enlarge imageJohn Muir 1838–1914
William Dassonville (1879–1957)
Platinum print, c. 1910
Click to enlarge imageGifford Pinchot 1865–1946
Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952)
Platinum print, c. 1901
         
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Click to enlarge imageGeorge Bird Grinnell 1849–1938
William Notman (1826–1891)
Albumen silver print, c. 1880
Click to enlarge imageWilliam Mulholland 1855–1935
James W. Bledsoe (lifedates unknown)
Gelatin silver print, c. 1910
Click to enlarge imageTheodore Roosevelt 1858–1919
Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952)
Platinum print, 1904
         

Writers


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Click to enlarge imageSamuel Clemens 1835–1910
George M. Baker (lifedates unknown)
Albumen silver print, 1869
Click to enlarge imageFrederick Jackson Turner 1861–1932
Reuben Gold Thwaites (1853–1913)
Gelatin silver print, c. 1892
Click to enlarge imageJack London 1876–1916
Arnold Genthe (1869–1942)
Gelatin silver print, c. 1900
         

Artists and Photographers


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Click to enlarge imageThomas Moran 1837–1926
William Edwin Gledhill (1888–1976)
Gelatin silver print, 1921
Click to enlarge imageEadweard Muybridge 1830–1904
Self-portrait
Albumen silver print, 1872
Click to enlarge imageAlexander Gardner 1821–1882
James Gardner (1829–?)
Albumen silver print, 1863
         
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