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


Zachary Taylor with William Bliss Unidentified photographer Quarter-plate daguerreotype, c. 1848	Andrés Pico 1810–1876 Unidentified photographer Quarter-plate daguerreotype, c. 1850	Winfield Scott 1786–1866 Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94) Salted-paper print, c. 1861


Sam Houston 1793–1863 James McClees (1821–1887) and Julian Vannerson (c. 1827–1875) Salted-paper print, c. 1859	George Bancroft 1800–1891 John Plumbe Jr. (1809–1857) Quarter-plate daguerreotype, 1846	James K. Polk 1795–1849 Mathew Brady (1823?–1896) Whole-plate daguerreotype, 1849

Slavery


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

Industrial Development


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

Conservation


Galen Clark 1814–1910 Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) Albumen silver print, c. 1865–66	John Muir 1838–1914 William Dassonville (1879–1957) Platinum print, c. 1910	Gifford Pinchot 1865–1946 Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) Platinum print, c. 1901


George Bird Grinnell 1849–1938 William Notman (1826–1891) Albumen silver print, c. 1880	William Mulholland 1855–1935 James W. Bledsoe (lifedates unknown) Gelatin silver print, c. 1910	Theodore Roosevelt 1858–1919 Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952) Platinum print, 1904

Writers


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

Artists and Photographers


Thomas Moran 1837–1926 William Edwin Gledhill (1888–1976) Gelatin silver print, 1921	Eadweard Muybridge 1830–1904 Self-portrait Albumen silver print, 1872	Alexander Gardner 1821–1882 James Gardner (1829–?) Albumen silver print, 1863

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