EXAM 2 THE WEST

Tenskwatawa

"The Prophet" He inspired a religious revival that spread through many tribes and united them; killed by Harrison at battle of Tippecanoe (January 1775 - November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. Tenskwatawa denounced the Euro-American settlers, calling them offspring of the Evil Spirit, and led a purification movement that promoted unity among Native Americans, rejected acculturation to the settler way of life, including alcohol, and encouraged his followers to pursue traditional ways. In the early 1800s Tenskwatawa formed a community with his followers near Greenville in western Ohio, and in 1808 he and his brother, Tecumseh, established a village that the Americans called Prophetstown north of present-day Lafayette, Indiana. At Prophetstown the brothers' pan-Indian resistance movement increased to include thousands of followers, with Tenskwatawa providing the spiritual foundation. Together, they mobilized the Native Americans in what was then the western United States, from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi, to fight the whites and remain resolute in their rejection of United States authority and acculturation.

John Quincy Adams

(1767-1848) Son of President John Adams and the secretary of state to James Monroe, he largely formulated the Monroe Doctrine. He was the sixth president of the United States and later became a representative in Congress. AN ARDENT BELIEVER IN NATIONAL GREATNESS, THE SIXTH PRESIDENT THOUGHT AMERICA SHOULD DOMINATE THE HEMISPHERE Declaring the blessing of American exceptionalism, he announced that the American founding proclaimed "to mankind the indistinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundation for government." In no area did his determination stand out more than in his commitment to both American territorial expansion and pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere. As a Federalist United States senator from Massachusetts, he supported the Virginia Republican President Thomas Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana from France even though his own party and his state opposed it, fearing it would in time significantly enhance Republican political strength. In Quincy Adams's view, adding the immense Louisiana Territory stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains enhanced the greatness of his country. To him that result far outweighed the possibility that new states eventually carved from the Territory might diminish the influence of his own New England. When Adams became secretary of state in 1817, he brought to the office a vision of his country extending all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He saw his opportunity in negotiations with Spain over the purchase of Florida, the only remaining area east of the Mississippi not then possessed by the United States.

Horatio Alger

(January 13, 1832 - July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on the United States during the Gilded Age. in the 1870s, Alger's fiction was growing stale. His publisher suggested he tour the American West for fresh material to incorporate into his fiction. Alger took a trip to California, but the trip had little effect on his writing: he remained mired in the tired theme of "poor boy makes good." The backdrops of these novels, however, became the American West rather than the urban environments of the northeastern United States.

Hell's Hinges (1916)

-American Western silent film -Stars William S. Hart and Clara Williams -Western romantic epitomized Hart's good bad man character

California Indian Population (From Sherburne Cook)

1770: 310,000 1848: 150,000 1900: 16,000

Theodore Roosevelt

1858-1919. 26th President. Increased size of Navy, "Great White Fleet". Added Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine. "Big Stick" policy.

The West of Dime Novels

A Dime Western is a modern term for Western-themed dime novels, which spanned the era of the 1860s—1900s. Most would hardly be recognizable as a modern western, having more in common with James Fennimore Cooper's Leatherstocking saga, but many of the standard elements originated here: a cool detached hero, a frontiersman (later a cowboy), a fragile heroine in danger of the despicable outlaw, savage Indians, violence and gunplay, and the final outcome where Truth and Light wins over all. Often real characters — such as Buffalo Bill or the famous Kit Carson — were fictionalized, as were the exploits of notorious outlaws such as Billy the Kid and Jesse James. Buffalo Bill's literary incarnation provides the transition from the frontier tales to the cowboy story, as he straddles both of the genres. Scholars who have studied western dime novels argue that they portray the West as a utopia of cattle ranching, mountain men, blazing sun, and exciting pioneer life.[12] When action is taking place in a dime novel, the plot is typically set among a western backdrop of snow-covered mountains, expansive deserts, and perhaps a river. The western frontier in dime novels is often depicted by a lone cabin occupied by a few settlers and not much else. The frontier appears as a dangerous place of Indian raids, cattle roundups, and wilderness adventures.[13]

Tecumseh

A Shawnee chief who, along with his brother, Tenskwatawa, a religious leader known as The Prophet, worked to unite the Northwestern Indian tribes. The league of tribes was defeated by an American army led by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Tecumseh was killed fighting for the British during the War of 1812 at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. Tecumseh and his confederacy continued to fight the United States after forming an alliance with Great Britain in the War of 1812. During the war, Tecumseh's confederacy helped in the capture of Fort Detroit. However, after U.S. naval forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, the British and their Native American allies retreated into Upper Canada, where the European American forces engaged them at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, where Tecumseh was killed. His death and the end of the war caused the pan-Native American alliance to collapse. Within a few years, the remaining tribal lands in the Old Northwest were ceded to the U.S. government and subsequently opened for new settlement and most of the Native Americans eventually moved west, across the Mississippi River. Since his death Tecumseh has become an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian history.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West

A circuslike production begun in 1883 that helped create a romantic and mythological view of the West in the American imagination. In 1883, Cody staged an outdoor extravaganza called the "Wild West, Rocky Mountain, and Prairie Exhibition" for a Fourth of July celebration in North Platte, Nebraska. When the show was a success, Cody realized he could evoke the mythic West more effectively if he abandoned cramped theater stages for large outdoor exhibitions. The result was "Buffalo Bill's Wild West," a circus-like pageant celebrating life in the West. During the next four years, Cody performed his show all around the nation to appreciative crowds often numbering 20,000 people. Audiences loved Cody's reenactments of frontier events: an attack on a Deadwood stage, a Pony Express relay race, and most exciting of all, the spectacle of Custer's Last Stand at the Little Big Horn. Even more popular were the displays of western outdoor skills like rope tricks, bulldogging, and amazing feats of marksmanship. Cody made a star of Annie Oakley, an attractive young Ohio woman who earned her nickname "Little Sure Shot" by shooting a cigar out of an assistant's mouth. Many American's were convinced that Cody's spectacle was an authentic depiction of the Wild West. Cody encouraged the impression by bringing audiences "genuine characters"-real Native American performers Cody had recruited from several tribes. Even the famous Sitting Bull toured with the show for one season. Enthralled by the site of "genuine" Indians, few audience members questioned whether these men wearing immense feathered headdresses and riding artfully painted horses accurately represented tribal life on the Great Plains. Having effectively defined the popular image of the West for many Americans, Cody took his show across the Atlantic to show Europeans. He staged his first international performance at the Earls Court show ground in London on this day in 1887 to a wildly appreciative audience. Queen Victoria herself attended two command showings. After London, Cody and his performers amazed audiences throughout Europe and then became a truly international success. One bronco rider, who stayed with the show until 1907, traveled around the world more than three times and recalled giving a performance in Outer Mongolia. Though his Wild West show waned in popularity in the 20th century-in part because of competition from thousands of local rodeos that borrowed his idea-Cody remained on the road with the show for 30 years. When the show finally collapsed from financial pressures in 1913, Cody continued to perform in other similar shows until two months before his death in 1917. More than 18,000 attended the great showman's funeral, and the romantic power of his vision still draws thousands of visitors a year to his gravesite on Lookout Mountain above Denver.

"Cripple Creek Barroom" (1899)

A vignette of a barroom/liquor-store in the West, no plot per se. However this short is usually regarded as the first "Western" in the sense that it depicts a western scene.

Bram Stoker

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 - 20 April 1912) was an Irish author, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned. This article explores Stoker's assessment of the American character, a subject on which he wrote throughout a long career and his experience traveling across the United States for the Lyceum Theatre. That Quincey Morris, the only American character in Dracula, dies in the fight against the vampire has led some to conclude Stoker was hostile to Americans. However, Stoker's favorable treatment of other American characters, especially women, in his other fiction and his profound respect for real Americans (Lincoln and Roosevelt) suggests a more nuanced view of both Stoker and his best-known novel. It is evident from reading a number of Stoker works that he was not hostile to Americans in general but that he was extremely interested in the place that the former British colony would take on the world stage.

National Wildnerness Areas

Activity on formally designated wilderness areas is coordinated by the National Wilderness Preservation System. Wilderness areas are managed by four federal land management agencies: the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.

Davy Crockett at the Alamo

All that is certain about the fate of David Crockett is that he died fighting at the Alamo on the morning of March 6, 1836 at age 49. According to many accounts, between five and seven Texians surrendered during the battle, possibly to General Castrillon.[149][150] Santa Anna had ordered the Mexicans to take no prisoners, and he was incensed that those orders had been ignored. He demanded the immediate execution of the survivors, but Castrillon and several other officers refused to do so. Staff officers who had not participated in the fighting drew their swords and killed the unarmed Texians.[151] The Battle of the Alamo lasted almost 90 minutes,[144] and all of the defenders were killed. Santa Anna ordered his men to take their bodies to a nearby stand of trees, where they were stacked together and wood piled on top.[145] That evening, they lit a fire and burned their bodies to ashes.[146] The ashes were left undisturbed until February 1837, when Juan Seguin and his cavalry returned to Bexar to examine the remains. A local carpenter created a simple coffin, and ashes from the funeral pyres were placed inside. The names of Travis, Crockett, and Bowie were inscribed on the lid.[147] The coffin is thought to have been buried in a peach tree grove, but the spot was not marked and can no longer be identified.[148]

Alfred Jacob Miller

Artist who focused on landscapes and mountain men in the rockies Alfred Jacob Miller (January 2, 1810 - June 26, 1874) was an American artist best known for his paintings of trappers and Native Americans in the fur trade of the western United States. He also painted numerous portraits and genre paintings in and around Baltimore during the mid-nineteenth century.

Curly (Indian)

Ashishishe (c. 1856-1923), known as Curly (or Curley), was a Crow scout in the United States Army during the Sioux Wars, best known for having been one of the few survivors on the United States side at the Battle of Little Bighorn. He did not fight in the battle, but watched from a distance, and was the first to report the defeat of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. Afterward a legend grew that he had been an active participant and managed to escape, leading to conflicting accounts of Curly's involvement in the historical record. A day or two after the battle, Curly found the Far West, an army supply boat at the confluence of the Bighorn and Little Bighorn Rivers. He was the first to report the 7th's defeat, using a combination of sign language, drawings, and an interpreter. Curly did not claim to have fought in the battle, but only to have witnessed it from a distance; since this first report was accurate,[1] two of the most influential historians of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Walter Mason Camp (who interviewed Curly on several occasions) and John S. Gray, accepted Curly's early account. Later, however, when accounts of "Custer's Last Stand" began to circulate in the media, a legend grew that Curly had actively participated in the battle, but had managed to escape. Later on, Curly himself stopped denying the legend, and offered more elaborate accounts in which he fought with the 7th and had avoided death by disguising himself as a Lakota warrior, leading to conflicting accounts of his involvement.[1] The family story is that he was involved, but when he saw Custer fall, he gutted open a horse and hid inside. After the Crow Agency had been moved to its current site in 1884, Curly lived there, on the Crow Reservation on the bank of the Little Bighorn River, very close to the site of the battle. He served in the Crow Police. He divorced Bird Woman in 1886, and married Takes a Shield. Curly had one daughter, Awakuk Korita ha Sakush ("Bird of Another Year"), who took the English name Nora. For his Army service, Curly received a U.S. pension as of 1920.

The New Gilded Age: The Twenties

Babe Ruth, Flapper girls...

Battle of Tippecanoe

Battle between Americans and Native Americans. Tecumseh and the Prophet attempted to oppress white settlement in the West, but defeated by William Henry Harrison. Led to talk of Canadian invasion and served as a cause to the War of 1812. The U.S. victory broke Tecumseh's power and ended the threat of an Indian confederation. William Henry Harrison emerged with a reputation as the hero of Tippecanoe, an image that he would use to his political advantage in later years.

The Detective

Before Sherlock Holmes became the world's most famous detective, a variety of sleuths solved crimes in the pages of dime novels. However, the traditional dime novel detective tended to favor action and excitement over logical deduction. Old Sleuth, first seen in 1872, was initially portrayed as a young man disguised as an old man, but in later books he was simply an aged detective.[4] Old Cap. Collier, who appeared on the scene in 1883, foreshadowed later superhero tales with his mysterious background and superhuman strength.[5] Nick Carter was easily the longest-running dime novel detective; his first adventure took place in 1891, but the character was repeatedly reinvented over the years, and new books were still being written about him as recently as 1990.[6] Although he couldn't rival Nick Carter for longevity, Old King Brady, a Roman Catholic detective, still managed to feature in a large number of adventures between 1885 and 1912, sometimes in combination with another popular character named Young Sleuth. The Old King Brady stories are also noteworthy for providing a slightly more realistic portrayal of detective work than the average dime novel.

Battle of Horshoebend

Bend On March 27, 1814, the forces of Andrew Jackson defeat the Creeks in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, on the Tallapoosa River in Alabama. This decisive victory ends the Creek War. effectively ended Creek resistance to American advances into the southeast, opening up the Mississippi Territory for pioneer settlement Extremely rich lands taken from the tribes in Georgia and Alabama were quickly opened to white settlers. The area rapidly became a prime source of cotton, the engine of the Southern economy, and helped to revive the flagging institution of slavery. Jackson's reputation began to take on legendary status during the Creek War. When his militia unit was disbanded, he received a commission as a major-general in the U.S. Army. Without authorization, he led his forces across the international boundary into Florida and seized a Spanish fort at Pensacola (November 1814). His superiors were infuriated, but the frontiersmen roared their approval. Soon thereafter, Jackson achieved national fame in a heralded victory over the British at New Orleans (January 1815).

Benjamin West

Benjamin West, born October 10, 1738 in Pennsylvania, a painter of historic and religious subjects, including King George III of England. One of his most famous works "The Death of General Wolfe" was notable for its realistic use of modern dress. He painted his most famous, and possibly most influential painting, The Death of General Wolfe, in 1770 and it exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771. The painting became one of the most frequently reproduced images of the period. It returned to the French and Indian War setting of his General Johnson Saving a Wounded French Officer from the Tomahawk of a North American Indian of 1768.

William F. (BUFFALO BILL) Cody and Sitting Bull

Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull performed together in Wild West shows that toured the U.S. and Europe, and forged what would become a very strange friendship joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show Sitting Bull rode in the show's opening procession — and he was well compensated, earning 50 dollars a week plus the money he made from selling autographs. Cody, who had served as a scout during the 1876 war but never encountered Sitting Bull on the battlefield, had a complicated relationship with the Sioux warrior. On one level, they were friendly enough, and Buffalo Bill termed him "that wonderful old fighting man." But on another occasion, he called Sitting Bull "a peevish Indian" and "an inveterate beggar." December 14, 1890, Sitting Bull was shot by a group of Indian police who had been sent to arrest him. In the midst of the gunfire, Sitting Bull's stage horse, a gift from Cody, began performing its old routine, lifting its leg as if to shake hands. Cody would later say that if he'd only gotten to Sitting Bull in time, the whole tragedy would have been avoided.

Little Crow

Chief who led the Dakota Sioux uprising in Minnesota 1810 - July 3, 1863 Little Crow is notable for his role in negotiating the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota of 1851, in which he agreed to remove his band of Dakota to a reservation near the Minnesota River in exchange for annuity goods and payments. In the summer of 1862, the federal government failed to deliver annuities in a timely way, and the Dakota were starving. Little Crow supported the decision of a Dakota war council in August 1862 to try to drive the whites out of the region. Little Crow led warriors in the Dakota War of 1862, but retreated in September 1862 before the war's conclusion in December of that year. Little Crow was shot and killed on July 3, 1863 by two white settlers, a man and his son. He was scalped and his body was taken to Hutchinson, Minnesota, where it was ritually humiliated and mutilated by white settlers.

Prentiss Ingraham

Colonel Prentiss Ingraham (December 28, 1843 - August 16, 1904) was a Colonel in the Confederate Army, a mercenary throughout the 1860s, and a fiction writer. born near Natchez, Mississippi Ingraham moved to the West where he met up with Buffalo Bill. Ingraham soon worked as an advance agent for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. best known for his Buffalo Bill series.

Roosevelt

Conservation/Preservation

F. Otto Becker "Custer's Last fight" Painting

Custer's 'Last Stand' became a slaughter. The exact events of Custer's Last Stand are unclear. What is known is that neither Benteen or Reno helped Custer despite admitting later they'd heard heavy gunfire coming from Custer's position. Custer and his men were left to face scores of war-hungry Indians alone. Some historians believe many of Custer's men panicked, dismounted from their horses and were shot dead as they fled. No one knows when Custer realized he was in trouble since no eyewitness from his troops lived to tell the tale. The Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Crazy Horse brutally attacked with Winchester, Henry and Spencer repeating rifles as well as bows and arrows. Most of Custer's men were armed with Springfield single-shot carbine rifles and Colt .45 revolvers; they were easily outgunned. Custer's line and command structure quickly collapsed, and soon it was every man for himself. In the end, Custer found himself on the defensive with nowhere to hide and nowhere to run and was killed along with every man in his battalion. His body was found near Custer Hill, also known as Last Stand Hill, alongside the bodies of 40 of his men, including his brother and nephew, and dozens of dead horses.

IV. The Wild West

DAWILDW3ST

The Celluloid West

Drawing upon the Beinecke Library's collection of more than 2100 film scripts and extensive collections of lobby cards, press kits, and posters, Celluloid West investigates the ways in which screen writers, directors, producers, and actors have embraced, challenged, and shaped 20th-century American views of the West. The exhibition features over 50 posters, dozens of lobby cards, publicity materials, and five-dozen film scripts, from silent film depictions of Buffalo Bill's adventures to Dirty Harry to contemporary African American life in Los Angeles. Genres include not only the traditional, generic "Western," but also film noir, contemporary drama, romantic comedy, historical epic, in both urban and rural settings. Materials range from the classic John Ford films, Stagecoach, Fort Apache, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, to multiple drafts for more recent works such as McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Thelma & Louise, and Drugstore Cowboy. The exhibition introduces visitors to the range of materials now available at the Beinecke to support scholarly investigation into film history collection and to suggest the scale of the creative and critical conversation about the West that has been carried on by the last century's most distinctive medium of popular culture.

III. Embracing the Indians

EMBRACING THE INDIANS

Seth Jones

Edward Sylvester Ellis (April 11, 1840 - June 20, 1916) Seth Jones was the most significant of early dime novels of publishers Beadle and Adams. It is said that Seth Jones was one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite stories. In addition, in 1860 Beadle launched an innovative advertising campaign to publicize the release of the novel Seth Jones; or the Captive of the Frontier by Edward S. Ellis. The publishing firm covered cities with posters and ads asking "Who is Seth Jones?" before the novel went on sale, thus piquing the curiosity of the public. The novel achieved record sales, and Ellis went on to become one of the most popular juvenile fiction writers of the century

Ned Buntline (Edward Zane Carroll Judson)

Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr. (March 20, 1821 - July 16, 1886), known by his pseudonym Ned Buntline, was an American publisher, journalist, writer, and publicist. In 1844, he adopted the pen name "Ned Buntline" Through his columns and his association with New York City's notorious gangs of the early 19th century, Buntline was one of the instigators of the Astor Place Riot, which left 23 people dead. He was fined $250 and sentenced to a year's imprisonment in September 1849.[9] After his release, he devoted himself to writing sensational stories for weekly newspapers, and his income purportedly amounted to $20,000 a year. Buntline was traveling through Nebraska when he heard that Wild Bill Hickok was in Fort McPherson. Buntline had read a popular article about Hickok and hoped to interview him and write a dime novel about him. He found Hickok in a saloon and rushed up to him, saying, "There's my man! I want you!" By this time in his life, Hickok had an aversion to surprises. He threatened Buntline with a gun and ordered him out of town in 24 hours. Buntline took him at his word and left the saloon. Still looking to get information on his subject, Buntline took to finding Hickok's friends. This is likely how he first met Buffalo Bill. Traveling with the gregarious Cody, Buntline became friends with him and later claimed that he created the nickname "Buffalo Bill" for the hero of his serial novel Buffalo Bill, the King of the Border Men, published in the New York Weekly beginning 23 December 1869 Originally, Buntline was going to cast Cody as a sidekick of "Wild Bill" Hickok, but he found Cody's character more interesting than Hickok's

Elizabeth Custer

Elizabeth Clift Custer (née Bacon; April 8, 1842 - April 4, 1933) was an American author and public speaker, and the wife of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, United States Army. She spent most of their marriage in relatively close proximity to him despite his numerous military campaigns in the American Civil War and subsequent postings on the Great Plains as a commanding officer in the United States Cavalry. Left nearly destitute in the aftermath of her husband's death, she became an outspoken advocate for his legacy through her popular books and lectures. Largely as a result of her decades of campaigning on his behalf, General Custer's iconic image as the gallant fallen hero amid the glory of 'Custer's Last Stand' was a canon of American history for almost a century after his death. Elizabeth Custer never remarried and far outlived her husband, reaching age 90 when she died in 1933, only 4 days short of her 91st birthday. She has been portrayed by a number of actresses starting in the 1940s in movies and on television.

Erastus Beadle/Robert Adams partnership

Erastus Flavel Beadle was born on September 9, 1821 in Oswego County, New York. Five years later, his brother, Irwin Pedro Beadle, was born. Toward the middle of the nineteenth century, the story papers started giving way to a new publication format: the dime novel. Though a number of American publishers capitalized on the trend, Irwin and Erastus Beadle were likely the most successful. The fruits of their publishing company include numerous series, constituting a unique category of collecting. The Beadles' rapid success led them to publish a dime novel every two weeks. After a year or so, the schedule was accelerated to produce a novel per week. The subject matter of these early novels was patriotic and centered on adventure and romance. Stories of pirates on the high seas, courageous freedom fighters in the French and American Revolutionary Wars, and Indians raiding white settlements on the Frontier issued from the presses in rapid succession. Although the setting and historical time periods of these adventure stories changed weekly, the moral fiber of the hero remained constant: he was ever the patriotic young man who tirelessly battled vice and upheld virtue

Yellowstone National Park

Established in 1872 by Congress, Yellowstone was the United States's first national park. Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.[5][6] Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world.[7] The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular features.[8] It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion. Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years.[9] Aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s. Management and control of the park originally fell under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior, the first being Columbus Delano. However, the U.S. Army was subsequently commissioned to oversee management of Yellowstone for a 30-year period between 1886 and 1916.[10] In 1917, administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service, which had been created the previous year. Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, and researchers have examined more than a thousand archaeological sites. In 1871, eleven years after his failed first effort, Ferdinand V. Hayden was finally able to explore the region. With government sponsorship, he returned to the region with a second, larger expedition, the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871. He compiled a comprehensive report, including large-format photographs by William Henry Jackson and paintings by Thomas Moran. The report helped to convince the U.S. Congress to withdraw this region from public auction. On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed The Act of Dedication[6] law that created Yellowstone National Park

Expansion as Pure Good

Expansion as Pure Good..

Jedidiah Morse

Father of American Geography (August 23, 1761 - June 9, 1826) was a notable geographer whose textbooks became a staple for students in the United States. He was the father of the telegraphy pioneer and painter Samuel Morse, and his textbooks earned him the sobriquet of "father of American geography." Native American peoples Morse rebutted certain racist views published in the Encyclopædia Britannica concerning the Native American peoples, e.g., that their women were "slavish" and that their skins and skulls were thicker than those of other humans.[4] He took great interest in the subject of civilizing and Christianizing the Native Americans, and in 1820 he was appointed by the US secretary of war to visit and observe various tribes on the border, in order to ascertain their actual condition, and to devise the most suitable means for their improvement. This work occupied his attention during two winters, and the results of his investigations were embodied in a Report to the Secretary of War on Indian Affairs (New Haven, 1822).[1]

Frederick Benteen

Frederick William Benteen (August 24, 1834 - June 22, 1898) was a military officer who first fought during the American Civil War. He was appointed to commanding ranks during the Indian Campaigns and Great Sioux War against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. Benteen is best known for being in command of a battalion (Companies D, H,& K) of the 7th U. S. Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in late June, 1876. While scouting the area, Captain Benteen received an urgent note from his superior officer George Armstrong Custer ordering him to bring up the ammunition packs and join him in Custer's surprise attack on a large Native American encampment. Benteen's failure to promptly comply with Custer's orders is one of the most controversial aspects of the famed battle. The fight resulted in the death of Custer and the complete annihilation of the five companies of cavalrymen which comprised Custer's detachment. Benteen subsequently served in the U.S. Cavalry another 12 years, being both honored by promotion and disgraced with a conviction for drunkenness by a military tribunal. He retired for health reasons in 1888, and lived a further decade until his death by natural causes at age 63.

George Armstrong Custer: American Martyr

George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 - June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861, bottom of his class, but as the Civil War was just starting, trained officers were in immediate demand. He worked closely with General McClellan and the future General Pleasonton, who both recognised his qualities as a cavalry leader, and he was brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers at age 23. At Gettysburg, he commanded the Michigan Cavalry Brigade ("Wolverines"), and defeated Jeb Stuart's assault on Cemetery Ridge, while greatly outnumbered. In 1864, Custer served in the Overland Campaign and in Sheridan's army in the Shenandoah Valley, defeating Jubal Early at Cedar Creek. His division blocked Lee's final retreat and received the first flag of truce from the Confederates, Custer being present at Lee's surrender to U.S. Grant at Appomattox. After the war, Custer was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army, and sent west to fight in the Indian Wars. On June 25, 1876, while leading the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory against a coalition of Native American tribes, he was killed along with over one third of his command during an action later romanticized as "Custer's Last Stand". His dramatic end was as controversial as the rest of his career, and his legacy remains deeply divided. His bold leadership in battle is unquestioned, but his legend was partly of his own fabrication, through his extensive journalism, and perhaps more through his wife's energetic lobbying throughout her long widowhood.

George Caleb Bingham

George Caleb Bingham was a Missouri artist and politician. During his lifetime, he was known as "the Missouri Artist." Painting his most significant pieces between 1845 and 1860, Bingham produced many remarkable drawings, portraits, landscapes, and scenes of social and political life on the frontier. He was also active in civic affairs and contributed to the political life of Missouri before and after the Civil War. Initially a Whig, he was elected as a delegate to the Missouri legislature before the American Civil War where he fought the extension of slavery westward. During that war, although born in Virginia, Bingham was dedicated to the Union cause and became captain of a volunteer company which helped keep the state from joining the Confederacy, and then served four years as Missouri's Treasurer

George Catlin

George Catlin (July 26, 1796 - December 23, 1872) was an American painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West. Travelling to the American West five times during the 1830s, Catlin was the first white man to depict Plains Indians in their native territory painter and student of the Native American life who helped advocate for the preservation of nature and proposed the idea of National Parks. The first being Yellowstone in 1872 The creation of the National Parks in the United States can be traced to an idea first proposed by the noted American artist George Catlin, who is best remembered for his paintings of American Indians. Catlin traveled extensively throughout North America in the early 1800s, sketching and painting Indians, and writing down his observations. And in 1841 he published a classic book, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians. While traveling the Great Plains in the 1830s, Catlin became acutely aware that the balance of nature was being destroyed because robes made of fur from the American bison (commonly called the buffalo) had become very fashionable in the cities of the East.

Albert Bierstadt

German born U.S Painter know for his large landscape portraits of the 19th century west known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. To paint the scenes, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion. Though not the first artist to record these sites, Bierstadt was the foremost painter of these scenes for the remainder of the 19th century. An important interpreter of the western landscape, Bierstadt, along with Thomas Moran, is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School. "The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak" is an 1863 landscape oil painting by the German-American painter Albert Bierstadt. It is based on sketches made during Bierstadt's travels with Frederick W. Lander's Honey Road Survey Party in 1859. The painting shows Lander's Peak in the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains, with an encampment of Native Americans in the foreground.

Broncho Billy Anderson

Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson (March 21, 1880 - January 20, 1971) was an American actor, writer, film director, and film producer, who is best known as the first star of the Western film genre.[1] He was a founder and star for Essanay studios. In 1958, he received a special Academy Award for being a pioneer of the movie industry. Anderson played three roles in Porter's early motion picture The Great Train Robbery (1903). Seeing the film for the first time at a vaudeville theater and being overwhelmed by the audience's reaction, he decided to work in the film industry exclusively. He began to write, direct, and act in his own westerns under the name Gilbert M. Anderson. From Little Rock Arkansas

Buffalo Bill Sells the West

In December 1872, Cody traveled to Chicago to make his stage debut with his friend Texas Jack Omohundro in The Scouts of the Prairie, one of the original Wild West shows produced by Ned Buntline.[25] The effort was panned by critics - one critic compared Cody's acting to a "diffident schoolboy" - but the handsome performer was a hit with the sold-out crowds.[22] In 1873, Cody invited "Wild Bill" Hickok to join the group in a new play called Scouts of the Plains. Hickok did not enjoy acting and often hid behind scenery; in one show, he shot at the spotlight when it focused on him. As such, he was released from the group after a few months.[26] Cody founded the Buffalo Bill Combination in 1874, in which he performed for part of the year, while scouting on the prairies the rest of the year.[22] The troupe toured for ten years. Cody's part typically included a reenactment of an 1876 incident at Warbonnet Creek, where he claimed to have scalped a Cheyenne warrior.[27] In 1883, in the area of North Platte, Nebraska, Cody founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a circus-like attraction that toured annually.[10] (Contrary to the popular misconception, the word show was not a part of the title.)[24] With his show, Cody traveled throughout the United States and Europe and made many contacts. He stayed, for instance, in Garden City, Kansas, in the presidential suite of the former Windsor Hotel. He was befriended by the mayor and state representative, a frontier scout, rancher, and hunter named Charles "Buffalo" Jones.[28] In 1886, Cody and Nate Salbsury, his theatrical manager, entered into partnership with Evelyn Booth (1860-1901), a big-game hunter and scion of the aristocratic Booth family.[29] It was at this time Buffalo Bill's Cowboy Band was organized. The band was directed by William Sweeney, a cornet player who served as leader of the Cowboy Band from 1883 until 1913. Sweeney handled all of the musical arrangements and wrote a majority of the music performed by the Cowboy Band.[30] In 1893, Cody changed the title to Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included US and other military, cowboys, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire.[10] Turks, gauchos, Arabs, Mongols and Georgians displayed their distinctive horses and colorful costumes. Visitors would see main events, feats of skill, staged races, and sideshows. Many historical western figures participated in the show. For example, Sitting Bull appeared with a band of 20 of his braves. Cody's headline performers were well known in their own right. Annie Oakley and her husband, Frank Butler, were sharpshooters, together with the likes of Gabriel Dumont and Lillian Smith. Performers re-enacted the riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies. The show was said to end with a re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand, in which Cody portrayed General Custer, but this is more legend than fact. The finale was typically a portrayal of an Indian attack on a settler's cabin. Cody would ride in with an entourage of cowboys to defend a settler and his family. This finale was featured predominantly as early as 1886 but was not performed after 1907; it was used in 23 of 33 tours.[31] Another celebrity appearing on the show was Calamity Jane, as a storyteller as of 1893. The show influenced many 20th-century portrayals of the West in cinema and literature.[24] Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill, Montreal, Quebec, 1885 With his profits, Cody purchased a 4,000-acre (16-km²) ranch near North Platte, Nebraska, in 1886. The Scout's Rest Ranch included an eighteen-room mansion and a large barn for winter storage of the show's livestock. In 1887, Cody took the show to Great Britain in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, who attended a performance.[10] It played in London and then in Birmingham and Salford, near Manchester, where it stayed for five months. In 1889, the show toured Europe, and in 1890 Cody met Pope Leo XIII. On March 8, 1890, a competition took place. Buffalo Bill had met some Italian butteri (a less-well-known sort of Italian equivalent of cowboys) and said his men were more skilled at roping calves and performing other similar actions. A group of Buffalo Bill's men challenged nine butteri, led by Augusto Imperiali, at Prati di Castello neighbourhood in Rome. The butteri easily won the competition. Augusto Imperiali became a local hero after the event: a street and a monument were dedicated to him in his hometown, (Cisterna di Latina), and he was featured as the hero in a series of comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s. Cody set up an independent exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, which greatly contributed to his popularity in the United States.[10] It vexed the promoters of the fair, who had rejected his request to participate.[32][citation needed]. On October 29, 1901, outside Lexington, North Carolina, a freight train crashed into one unit of the train carrying Buffalo Bill's show from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Danville, Virginia. The freight train's engineer had thought that the entire show train had passed, not realizing it was three units, and returned to the tracks; 110 horses were killed in the crash or had to be killed later, including his personal mounts Old Pap and Old Eagle.[33] No people were killed, but Annie Oakley's injuries were so severe that she was told she would never walk again. She did recover and continued performing later. The incident put the show out of business for a while, and this disruption may have led to its eventual demise. In 1908, Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill joined forces and created the Two Bills show. That show was foreclosed on when it was playing in Denver, Colorado.

Grand Duke Alexis of Russia(...and guess who?) buffalo bill..

It was the highlight of his "Grand Tour." Twenty-two-year-old Grand Duke Alexis, sixth child of Russian Emperor Alexander II, had arrived in the US the previous November to tour North America. After calling on President Grant, where he received a cold reception due to a diplomatic dispute regarding a request of the US for Russia to withdraw its ambassador in Washington, the Grand Duke toured the eastern states, took a trip into Canada and then to Chicago. By mid-January the Grand Duke had made his way to central Nebraska for his much anticipated participation in a buffalo hunt that would take place on his twenty-second birthday. Buffalo Bill Cody was to be his guide. The hunting party also included General Philip Sheridan and Colonel George Custer. Of course the main thing was to give Alexis the first chance and the best shot at the buffaloes, and when all was in readiness we dashed over a little knoll that had hidden us from view, and in a few minutes we were among them. Alexis at first preferred to use his pistol instead of a gun. He fired six shots from this weapon at buffaloes only twenty feet away from him, but as he shot wildly, not one of his bullets took effect. Riding up to his side and seeing that his weapon was empty, I exchanged pistols with him. He again fired six shots, without dropping a buffalo. ^^^from buffalo bills diary

James Cruze

James Cruze, byname of Jens Vera Cruz Bosen, also called James Bosen, (born March 27, 1884, Ogden, Utah, U.S.—died August 3, 1942, Los Angeles, California), American film director and actor who was a giant in the days of silent films but became a minor figure after the advent of sound. Cruze was born to Mormon parents and reputedly partly of Ute Indian origin. He left Utah for San Francisco in 1900 and gravitated to the stage. (Some sources claim that he sold medicaments—"snake oil," in the parlance of the day—in traveling medicine shows as a teenager.) He joined director David Belasco's acting company in 1906. In 1910 Cruze began his career as a screen actor. He joined the Thanhouser Company in New Rochelle, New York, in 1911 and soon became one of the studio's leading stars. His first film as a director was the comedy short From Wash to Washington (1914). He was fired by Thanhouser in 1915 and went west to Hollywood. He started acting at Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount) in 1917 and switched to directing the next year. Over the next 10 years Cruze (who used the name James Bosen offstage) made 48 of his 73 feature films at Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount. His first was Too Many Millions (1918), which starred the popular star Wallace Reid, with whom he made 13 more films prior to Reid's death in 1923. He also made five Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle comedies, two of which, The Fast Freight (1922) and Leap Year (1924), were shelved and only released abroad years after the scandal that derailed Arbuckle's career. The Covered Wagon (1923), about a wagon train traveling to Oregon, was the first epic western. Filmed on location in Utah and Nevada with painstaking attention to historical detail, the film was an enormous financial success, and Cruze became one of the highest-paid directors in Hollywood. However, two subsequent big-budget historical films, The Pony Express (1925) and Old Ironsides (1926), were not as successful, and Old Ironsides, about the USS Constitution's battles against Barbary pirates, was an especially costly failure. He was released by Paramount and formed his own production company, James Cruze Productions, which started making films in 1928. But going independent may have cost him the opportunity to make the transition to sound with the resources of a major studio, and he ultimately relinquished the status he had earned through the 1920s. (Many of Cruze's silent films were subsequently lost, and few exist today.)

Jesse and Frank James

Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 - April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla, and leader of the James-Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of western Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. He and his brother Frank James joined pro-Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" operating in Missouri and Kansas during the American Civil War. As followers of William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, they were accused of participating in atrocities against Union soldiers and civilian abolitionists, including the Centralia Massacre in 1864. Despite popular portrayals of James as an embodiment of Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, there is no evidence that he and his gang shared any loot from their robberies with anyone outside their close kinship network.[1] Scholars and historians have characterized James as one of many criminals inspired by the regional insurgencies of ex-Confederates following the Civil War, rather than as a manifestation of alleged economic justice or of frontier lawlessness.[2] James continues to be one of the most iconic figures from the era, and his life has been dramatized and memorialized numerous times.

Preservation (John Muir)

John Muir (April 21, 1838 - December 24, 1914)[1] also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks",[2][3] was an influential Scottish-American[4][5]:42 naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America. Muir threw himself into the preservationist role with great vigor. He envisioned the Yosemite area and the Sierra as pristine lands.[40] He thought the greatest threat to the Yosemite area and the Sierra was domesticated livestock—especially domestic sheep, which he referred to as "hoofed locusts". In June 1889, the influential associate editor of The Century magazine, Robert Underwood Johnson, camped with Muir in Tuolumne Meadows and saw firsthand the damage a large flock of sheep had done to the grassland. Johnson agreed to publish any article Muir wrote on the subject of excluding livestock from the Sierra high country. He also agreed to use his influence to introduce a bill to Congress to make the Yosemite area into a national park, modeled after Yellowstone National Park. On September 30, 1890, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that essentially followed recommendations that Muir had suggested in two Century articles, "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed National Park", both published in 1890.[41][40] But to Muir's dismay, the bill left Yosemite Valley under state control, as it had been since the 1860s.

Christopher "Kit" Carson

Kit Carson, byname of Christopher Houston Carson, (born December 24, 1809, Madison County, Kentucky, U.S.—died May 23, 1868, Fort Lyon, Colorado), American frontiersman, trapper, soldier, and Indian agent who made an important contribution to the westward expansion of the United States. His career as an Indian fighter earned him both folk hero status through its aggrandizement in the dime novels of his day and condemnation from some later revisionist historians as an agent of the displacement and decimation of the native peoples of the West. At 15 Carson ran away from his home in Missouri to join a caravan of traders bound for Santa Fe. From experienced frontiersmen he learned fur trapping and trading, a career he pursued for 15 years. often exaggerated versions of his exploits were the subject of dime novels. His understated nature belied confirmed reports of his fearlessness, combat skills, tenacity, and profound effect on the westward expansion of the United States. The first story about Carson's adventures was printed in 1847. It was called An Adventure of Kit Carson: A Tale of the Sacramento. It was printed in Holden's Dollar Magazine. Other stories were also printed, such as Kit Carson: The Prince of the Goldhunters and The Prairie Flower. Writers thought Carson the perfect mountain man and Indian fighter. His exciting adventures were printed in the story Kiowa Charley, The White Mustanger; or, Rocky Mountain Kit's Last Scalp Hunt. In this story, an older Kit is said to have "ridden into Sioux camps unattended and alone, had ridden out again, but with the scalps of their greatest warriors at his belt.

Jacques-Louis David"Leonidas at Thermopylae"

Leonidas at Thermopylae is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Jacques-Louis David. The work currently hangs in the Louvre in Paris, France. David completed the massive work (13.0 ft by 17.4 ft) 15 years after he began, working on it from 1799 to 1803 and again in 1813-1814.[1] Leonidas at Thermopylae was purchased, along with The Intervention of the Sabine Women, in November 1819 for 100,000 francs by Louis XVIII, the king of France. The piece depicts the Spartan king Leonidas prior to the Battle of Thermopylae. David's pupil Georges Rouget collaborated on it. The crowded and theatrical scene that David depicts takes place in a time of war, seemingly in Greece from the Greek temple and temperate mountains in the background. The setting is the mountain pass in which the Battle of Thermopylae was about to be fought, in 480 BCE. Thermopylae was chosen as an ideal location for waging a defensive action in view of its narrow passage through the mountainous geography. This helped the Greeks make a better stand against the numerically vastly superior Persians, who were invading Greece.[2] King Leonidas, the Spartan leader, "delayed the invasion of Darius I and the Persians...by sacrificing himself and his men to give the Greeks the time they needed to organize an ultimately victorious resistance" in the long run.[3] This act of bravery and sacrifice by King Leonidas and his three hundred soldiers inspired David as France waged its own campaigns against rival European powers that wanted to restore France's pre-revolutionary ancien régime.[4] In 1813-14, when he finished the painting, European powers allied against the First French Empire were invading France to topple the emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, and David again found inspiration in the story of Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae.[5]

Ernest Hemingway

Lost Generation writer, spent much of his life in France, Spain, and Cuba during WWI, notable works include A Farewell to Arms Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961) was an American journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and noted sportsman. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two non-fiction works. Three of his novels, four short-story collections, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

Marcus Reno

Marcus Albert Reno (November 15, 1834 - March 30, 1889) was a United States career military officer who served in the American Civil War and under George Armstrong Custer in the Great Sioux War against the Lakota (Sioux) and Northern Cheyenne. Reno is most noted for his prominent role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This has since been a subject of controversy regarding his command decisions in the course of one of the most infamous defeats in the history of the United States military. Reno was the senior officer serving under Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. Reno, with three troops, or companies, was to attack the Indian village from the south, while Custer with five companies intended to cross the Little Bighorn River farther north and come into the village from the opposite side; Custer ordered Captain Frederick Benteen with three companies to move below the Sioux camp to block the Indians from escaping to the south. Captain Thomas McDougall's troop was to bring the packtrain with ammunition and supplies. Historians believe the United States officers did not understand how large the village was. Estimates vary as to the size of the village (up to 10,000) and the number of warriors engaged. After visiting the battlefield, General Nelson Appleton Miles estimated that the number of "warriors did not exceed thirty-five hundred", while Captain Philo Clark, who interviewed a number of Indian survivors, "considered twenty-six hundred as the maximum number". Miles concluded, "At all events, they greatly outnumbered Custer's comman

Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Cannary)

Martha Jane Canary or Cannary (May 1, 1852 - August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman and professional scout known for being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok and fighting against Native Americans. Late in her life, she appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She is said to have exhibited compassion to others, especially to the sick and needy. This facet of her character contrasted with her daredevil ways and helped to make her a noted frontier figure.[1] She was also known for her habit of wearing men's attire.[2] Much of what she claimed to have witnessed and participated in cannot be proven. It is known that she had no formal education and was an alcoholic. Calamity Jane accompanied the Newton-Jenney Party into Rapid City in 1875, along with California Joe and Valentine McGillycuddy. In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota in the Black Hills. There she became friends with Dora DuFran, the Black Hills' leading madam, and she was occasionally employed by her. She also became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter, having traveled with them to Deadwood in Utter's wagon train.

Mississippi vs Alabama

Mississippi: 1800: 8,000 Slaves: 4,000 1810: 31,000 Slaves: 17,000 1820: 75,000 Slaves: 33,000 Alabama: 1800: 1,000 Slaves: --- 1810: 9,000 Slaves: --- 1820: 128,000 Slaves: 42,000

Manifest Destiny

Natural Right Beneficent Use of the Soil Geographical Predestination Strategic Outlets Racial Superiority the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable. Manifest Destiny, a phrase coined in 1845, expressed the philosophy that drove 19th-century U.S. territorial expansion. Manifest Destiny held that the United States was destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. Louisiana Purchase Thanks to a high birth rate and brisk immigration, the U.S. population exploded in the first half of the 19th century, from around 5 million people in 1800 to more than 23 million by 1850. Such rapid growth—as well as two economic depressions in 1819 and 1839—would drive millions of Americans westward in search of new land and new opportunities. President Thomas Jefferson kicked off the country's westward expansion in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, which at some 828,000 square miles nearly doubled the size of the United States. In addition to sponsoring the western expedition of Lewis and ClarkOF 1805-07, Jefferson also set his sights on Spanish Florida, a process that was finally concluded in 1819 under President James Monroe. But critics of that treaty faulted Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, for yielding to Spain what they considered legitimate claims on Texas, where many Americans continued to settle.

Owen Wister

Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 - July 21, 1938) was an American writer and historian, considered the "father" of western fiction. He is best remembered for writing The Virginian and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Wister had spent several summers in the American West, making his first trip to the Territory of Wyoming in 1885, planning to shoot big game, fish trout, meet the Indians, and spend nights in the wild. Like his friend Teddy Roosevelt, Wister was fascinated with the culture, lore and terrain of the region. He was "...struck with wonder and delight, had the eye to see and the talent to portray the life unfolding in America. After six journeys [into the dying 'wild west'] for pleasure, he gave up the profession of law...",[citation needed] and became the writer he is better known as. On an 1893 visit to Yellowstone National Park, Wister met the western artist Frederic Remington, who remained a lifelong friend. When he started writing, Wister naturally inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier. His most famous work remains the 1902 novel The Virginian, a complex mixture of persons, places and events dramatized from experience, word of mouth, and his own imagination - ultimately creating the archetypal cowboy, who is a natural aristocrat, set against a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War, and taking the side of the large landowners. This is widely regarded as being the first cowboy novel, though modern scholars argue that this distinction belongs to Emma Ghent Curtis's The Administratrix, published over ten years earlier).[7] The Virginian was reprinted fourteen times in eight months. It stands as one of the top 50 best-selling works of fiction and is considered by Hollywood experts to be the basis for the modern fictional cowboy portrayed in literature, film and television.[citation needed He was interested in politics, however, and was a staunch supporter of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt. In the 1930s, Wister opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal.

Frederic Remington

Painter and sculptor, his works portrayed the cowboy as a natural aristocrat, living in a natural world in which all the normal supporting structures of "civilization" were missing. (October 4, 1861 - December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the American Old West, specifically concentrating on scenes from the last quarter of the 19th century in the Western United States and featuring images of cowboys, American Indians, and the U.S. Cavalry, among other figures from Western culture. Remington received a commission to do eighty-three illustrations for a book by Theodore Roosevelt, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, to be serialized in The Century Magazine before publication.[24] The 29-year-old Roosevelt had a similar Western adventure to Remington, losing money on a ranch in North Dakota the previous year but gaining experience which made him an "expert" on the West. The assignment gave Remington's career a big boost and forged a lifelong connection with Roosevelt.

Conservation: Gifford Pinchot

Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves by planned use and renewal.[3] He called it "the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man." Pinchot coined the term conservation ethic as applied to natural resources. Pinchot's main contribution was his leadership in promoting scientific forestry and emphasizing the controlled, profitable use of forests and other natural resources so they would be of maximum benefit to mankind.[3] He was the first to demonstrate the practicality and profitability of managing forests for continuous cropping. His leadership put conservation of forests high on America's priority lis

John Ross

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Indians who tried to use legal means to fight against removal (October 3, 1790 - August 1, 1866) Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828-1866, serving longer in this position than any other person. Described as the Moses of his people,[1] Ross influenced the Indian nation through such tumultuous events as the relocation to Indian Territory and the American Civil War. John Ross was the son of a Cherokee mother and a Scottish father. His mother and maternal grandmother were of mixed Scots-Cherokee ancestry, since his maternal grandfather was another Scottish immigrant. As a result, young John (one-eighth Cherokee by blood quantum) grew up bilingual and bicultural, an experience that served him well when his parents decided to send him to schools that served other mixed-race Cherokee. At the age of twenty, having completed his education and with bilingual skills, Ross received an appointment as US Indian agent to the western Cherokee and sent to their territory (in present-day Arkansas). During the War of 1812, he served as an adjutant in a Cherokee regiment. He fought under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the British-allied Upper Creek warriors, known as the Red Sticks.

DUDES OUT WEST

REMINGTON, WISTER, ROOSEVELT

Zane Grey

Riders of the Purple Sage ane Grey, the greatest storyteller of the American West, was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on January 31, 1872. His Zane ancestors had been vigorous, illustrious pioneers in America's "First West", the historic Ohio Valley, and his boyhood thrill at their adventures would eventually motivate Grey to novelize both his family's own story and the stories of many another pioneer homesteader, farm wife, rancher, cowhand, naive Eastern belle, camp follower, miner, Indian youth, trail driver, railroad man, desperado, buffalo hunter, soldier, gambler, wanderer and poor wayfaring stranger, as the great migration Westward coursed in waves across the continent. In his youth Zane Grey was a semiprofessional baseball player and a half-hearted dentist, having studied dentistry to appease his father while on a baseball scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. But he wanted above all to write, and taught himself to write with much stern discipline so as to free his innate and immense storytelling capacity. Many a lean year came and went as he waited for a publisher to finally recognize a best-seller when it saw one. For Zane Grey became the best-selling Western author of all time, and for most of the teens, 20s, and 30s, had a least one novel in the top ten every year.

William S. Hart

Silent film actor who made 65 movies, most of them westerns. He became well known for his portrayal of the American cowboy. The stock characters and situations - the fight in the saloon, the faithful horse, the dude who goes west, the sheriff who cleans up the town, the showdown, the trip west in a covered wagon -- that are now clichés of western movies were first introduced to film audiences by Hart. Many of the actors who appeared in his films had lived the experiences of the western frontier.

Bob Steele

Steele's career began to take off for good in 1927, when he was hired by production company Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) to star in a series of Westerns. Renamed Bob Steele at FBO, he soon made a name for himself, and in the late 1920s, 1930s and 1940s starred in B-Westerns for almost every minor film studio, including Monogram, Supreme, Tiffany, Syndicate, Republic (including several films of The Three Mesquiteers series) and Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) (including the initial films of their "Billy the Kid" series), plus he had the occasional role in an A-movie, as in the adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men in 1939. In cowboy movies shown on TV in the 1940's he played a dashing, but short cowboy replete with eye-make-up and lipstick. In the 1940s, Steele's career as a cowboy hero was on the decline, but he kept himself working by accepting supporting roles in big movies like Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep, or the John Wayne vehicles Island in the Sky, Rio Bravo , Rio Lobo, The Comancheros, and The Longest Day. Besides these he also made occasional appearances in science fiction films like Atomic Submarine and Giant from the Unknown.

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950)

Tarzan Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 - March 19, 1950) was an American fiction writer best known for his celebrated and prolific output in the adventure and science-fiction genres. Among the most notable of his creations are the jungle hero Tarzan, the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter and the fictional landmass within Earth known as Pellucidar. Burroughs' California ranch is now the center of the Tarzana neighborhood in Los Angeles.

The ARYAN (1915)

The Aryan (1916) is an American silent era western motion picture starring William S. Hart, Gertrude Claire, Charles K. French, Louise Glaum, and Bessie Love.[2] Directed by William S. Hart and produced by Thomas H. Ince, the screenplay was written by C. Gardner Sullivan. Although Hart was assisted by Reginald Barker and Clifford Smith, he mostly directed the movie by himself. Hart's combined salary as actor and director was $150 per week.[3] Prints of the film survive in the Library of Congress and at the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[4]

Battle of Summit Springs

The Battle of Summit Springs, on July 11, 1869, was an armed conflict between elements of the United States Army under the command of Colonel Eugene A. Carr and a group of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers led by Tall Bull, who was killed during the engagement. The US forces were assigned to retaliate for a series of raids in north-central Kansas by Chief Tall Bull's Dog Soldiers band of the Cheyenne. The battle happened south of Sterling, Colorado in Washington County near the Logan/Washington county line After Pawnee Scouts under Major Frank North led his command to Tall Bull's village, Colonel Carr, a veteran campaigner known as "The Black-Bearded Cossack",[4] deployed his forces carefully so that they hit the unsuspecting camp from three sides at once. He had 244 men of the 5th United States Regiment of Cavalry and 50 Pawnee Scouts.[5] Summit Springs ended the conflict with Native Americans on the Colorado Plains. According to George Bent, who later related the history of the Cheyenne people, the Dog Solders were never again an important factor. Buffalo Bill Cody would later recreate the battle in his famous Wild West Show.

The "Scalp for Custer"

The Battle of Warbonnet Creek was a skirmish characterized by a duel between "Buffalo Bill" Cody and a young Cheyenne warrior named Heova'ehe or Yellow Hair (often incorrectly translated as "Yellow Hand").[1] The engagement is often referred to as the First Scalp for Custer. It occurred July 17, 1876, in Sioux County in northwestern Nebraska ter the defeat of Gen. George A. Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, many Native Americans joined with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, encouraged by the Indians' success. About 200-300 Cheyenne warriors led by Morning Star (also known as Dull Knife) set out with their families from the Spotted Tail and Red Cloud agencies in Nebraska. The United States Army had sent the 5th Cavalry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Eugene Asa Carr, from Oklahoma to a position on the Cheyenne River in South Dakota to guard against such an occurrence. Carr was replaced in command on July 1 by Col. Wesley Merritt, and when news of the Battle of the Little Big Horn reached Gen. George Crook on July 5, the 5th Cavalry was ordered to reinforce Crook on Goose Creek in Wyoming. Merritt joined Crook, whose expedition later linked up with that of Gen. Alfred H. Terry, bringing the combined strength of the U.S. force to about 4,000. Ever the showman, Buffalo Bill returned to the stage in October, his show highlighted by a melodramatic reenactment of his duel with Yellow Hair. He displayed the fallen warrior's scalp, feather war bonnet, knife, saddle and other personal effects.[2] He later often celebrated the killing during his Wild West shows in a reenactment he entitled "The Red Right Hand, or, Buffalo Bill's First Scalp for Custer".[3]

Battle of Washita (1868)

The Battle of Washita River (also called Battle of the Washita or the Washita Massacre[4]) occurred on November 27, 1868 when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Southern Cheyenne camp on the Washita River (near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma). They were the most isolated band of a major winter encampment along the river of numerous Native American tribal bands, totaling thousands of people. But Custer's forces attacked their village because scouts had followed the trail of a party that had raided white settlers and passed through it. Black Kettle and his people had been at peace and were seeking peace. Custer's soldiers killed women and children in addition to warriors, although they also took many captive to serve as hostages and human shields. The number of Cheyenne killed in the attack has been disputed since the first reports. Following the event, a controversy arose as to whether the event was best described as a military victory or as a massacre. This discussion endures among historians to this day.[98] The Indian Bureau described the event as a "massacre of innocent Indians", and humanitarian groups denounced it as "cold-blooded butchery".[98] The Cheyenne survivors considered it a horrifying event that gravely impacted their lives and community; the loss of many tribal elders, in particular, was profoundly damaging to Cheyenne families and society. Modern Cheyenne consider the event a massacre and are campaigning to change the name of the historical site to reflect that view.[99] Custer himself did not consider Washita a massacre, stating that he did not kill every Indian in the village, though he said his forces could not avoid killing a few women in the middle of the hard fight. He said that some women took up weapons and were subsequently killed and that he took women and children prisoners.[100] In his book about the encounter, published in 2004 for the National Park Service, historian Jerome Greene concluded that "Soldiers evidently took measures to protect the women and children

The Covered Wagon (1923)

The Covered Wagon is a 1923 American silent Western film released by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by James Cruze based on a novel by Emerson Hough about a group of pioneers traveling through the old West from Kansas to Oregon. J. Warren Kerrigan starred as Will Banion and Lois Wilson as Molly Wingate. On their quest they experience desert heat, mountain snow, hunger, and Indian attack.[3] The Covered Wagon is one of many films from 1923 that entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2019.[4]

The Cowboy

The Cowboy is the archetypical character of the Western, perhaps the quintessential American hero. In the simplest terms, a "cowboy" is someone whose primary job is tending a herd of cattle on a ranch. In more general terms, it can be any character that has the appearance and mannerisms of a cowboy. Thus, the term "cowboy" is often used as an inclusive term for any Western characters, regardless of whether they are actually ranchers or not.

The Great Train Robbery (1903)

The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent short Western film written, produced, and directed by Edwin S. Porter, a former Edison Studios cameraman. Actors in the movie included Alfred C. Abadie, Broncho Billy Anderson and Justus D. Barnes, although there were no credits. Though a Western, it was filmed in Milltown, New Jersey. The film was inspired by Scott Marble's 1896 stage play, and may also have been inspired by a 1900 train robbery perpetrated by Butch Cassidy.[2][3] At twelve minutes long, The Great Train Robbery film is considered a milestone in film making, expanding on Porter's previous work Life of an American Fireman. The film used a number of then-unconventional techniques, including composite editing, on-location shooting, and frequent camera movement. The film is one of the earliest to use the technique of cross cutting, in which two scenes are shown to be occurring simultaneously but in different locations. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes. Techniques used in The Great Train Robbery were inspired by those used in Frank Mottershaw's British film A Daring Daylight Burglary, released earlier in the year.[4] Film historians now largely consider The Great Train Robbery to be the first American action film and the first Western film with a "recognizable form".[5][6] In 1990, The Great Train Robbery was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The Outlaw

The exploits of outlaws were a popular subject of many early dime novels. Some of these stories were inherited from the British penny dreadful tradition, such as the adventures of highwayman Dick Turpin[11], but others had a distinctly American flavor. The (substantially fictionalized) adventures of Jesse James and his brother Frank were an early and popular example.[12] Concerns from postal authorities about distributing works glorifying banditry eventually led to the decline of this subgenre.

Lake Wedington

The Lake Wedington Historic District (locally Lake Wedington, sometimes spelled incorrectly Lake Weddington) is a US Historic District in Washington County, Arkansas. The 170-acre (69 ha) historic district is located within the 424-acre (172 ha) Lake Wedington Recreation Area.[2]

Wister's "THE VIRGINIAN"

The Virginian (otherwise titled The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains) is a 1902 novel set in the Wild West by the American author Owen Wister, (1860-1938). It describes the life of a cowboy on a cattle ranch in Wyoming and is considered the first true fictional western ever written, aside from short stories and pulp dime novels, though modern scholars debate this. The Virginian paved the way for many more westerns by such authors as Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, and several others.

THE VIRGINIAN (SUMMARY)

The novel begins with an unnamed narrator's arrival in Medicine Bow, Wyoming from back East and his encounter with an impressively tall and handsome stranger. The stranger proves adept at roping horses, as well as facing down a gambler, Trampas, who calls him a son of a bitch. (At the time, the word was an unacceptable insult in any society, except between joking friends.) The stranger lays a pistol on the table and gently threatens, "When you call me that, smile!" Known only as the Virginian, the stranger turns out to be the narrator's escort to Judge Henry's ranch in Sunk Creek, Wyoming. As the two travel the 263 miles to the ranch, the narrator, who is nicknamed the Tenderfoot, and the Virginian come to know one another as the Tenderfoot slowly begins to understand the nature of life in the West, which is very different from what he expected. This meeting is the beginning of a lifelong friendship and the starting point of the narrator's recounting of key episodes in the life of the Virginian. The novel revolves around the Virginian and the life he lives. As well as describing the Virginian's conflict with his enemy, Trampas, and his romance with the pretty schoolteacher, Molly Stark Wood, Wister weaves a tale of action, violence, hate, revenge, love, and friendship. In one scene, the Virginian is forced to participate in the hanging of an admitted cattle thief, who had been his close friend. The hanging is represented as a necessary response to the government's corruption and lack of action, but the Virginian feels it to be a horrible duty. He is especially stricken by the bravery with which the thief faces his fate, and the heavy burden that the act places on his heart forms the emotional core of the story. A fatal shootout resolves the ongoing conflict with Trampas after five years of hate. After Trampas shoots first in a duel, the Virginian shoots Trampas in self defense and leaves to marry his young bride. The Virginian and Molly ride off together to spend a month in the mountains and then journey back East to Vermont[2] to meet her family. They are received a bit stiffly by the immediate Wood family, but warmly by Molly's great-aunt. The new couple returns to Wyoming, and the Virginian is made a partner of Judge Henry's ranch. The book ends noting that the Virginian became an important man in the territory with a happy family

Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 - February 11, 1848) was an English-born American painter known for his landscape and history paintings. Cole's work is known for its romantic portrayal of the American wilderness Cole was primarily a painter of landscapes, but he also painted allegorical works. The most famous of these are the five-part series, The Course of Empire, which depict the same landscape over generations—from a near state of nature to consummation of empire, and then decline and desolation—now in the collection of the New York Historical Society and the four-part The Voyage of Life.

Mayne Reid

Thomas Mayne Reid (April 4, 1818 - October 22, 1883) was a Scots-Irish American novelist. Thomas Mayne Reid attended the American-Mexican War (1846-1848). His many works are about American life. In these works, the author described the colonial policy in the United States, the horrors of slave labor, and the lives of American Indians. "Captain" Reid wrote many adventure novels These novels contain action that takes place primarily in places including, but not limited to: the American West He was also very popular around the world; his tales of the American West captivated children everywhere

Wanted Dead or Alive

This anthology presents a comprehensive look at the significance of the West in American history and culture through the writings of ten specialists in the genre. Aquila examines the birth and growth of the "pop culture West" through major forms of live entertainment; trends in movies, such as The Virginian, The Great Train Robbery, The Covered Wagon, and True Grit; television shows such as Gunsmoke, Maverick, Wagon Train, and Bonanza; comic book heroes such as Buckeroo Bill and The Lone Ranger; popular music such as "High Noon,""Yellow Rose of Texas," and "Indian Love Call"; and Western-related advertising for cigarettes, liquor, clothes, and perfume. The book demonstrates how the "pop culture West"-like the region itself-has played an important role in the shaping of the United States. In most people's perceptions there have always been many Wests. One is geographical, a land encompassing the Great Plains, the Rockies, the Southwest, and perhaps the Pacific coast. But the West has also resided in the imaginations of Americans and people around the world as a mythic place where dreams and aspirations could be realized. The two Wests did not always coincide, but popular culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries actively promoted written or visual representations of the imagined West. Whether the Western frontier closed in 1890 is prbblematical. But we can be certain that the purveyors of popular culture in the succeeding one hundred years constructed another West-a West of the imagination. Among the pioneers in this field were individuals working in literature, live entertainment, moving pictures, television, music, art, and advertising. This book of essays, whose contributors analyze topics in their areas of expertise, provides an excellent introduction to depictions of the West in popular culture. Christine Bold writes perceptively about the dime novel tradition, while William Bloodworth focuses on novelists and the American West. Thomas Altherr concentrates on Wild West shows and rodeos. John Lenihan, an authority on Western films, delves into that genre, while Ray White confines himself to B Westerns and Gary Y oggi covers Westerns on television. Richard Aquila writes about the mythic West in popular and rock music; Kenneth Bindas does the same with country music. Joni Kinsey crosses familiar ground in Western art, while Elliot West provides an imaginative account of Western images in advertising. Each of the essays is supported by footnotes and a brief list of books for further reading. Most contributions are interesting, well written, and informative. Although many books have been written about the popular culture of the West, most deal with a specific sphere. The advantage of this volume is its broad range and inclusiveness. Anyone seeking to delve into this dimension of Western history will find Wanted Dead or Alive a useful guide.

Death Suitcases

Tom Mix has of one of those golden names that nearly everyone recognizes, yet fewer and fewer people know why. Mix was a cowboy movie star; a big one. He appeared in over 300 Westerns. He lived the life of a bon-vivant; by the early 1920s this former Texas Ranger was earning the princely sum of $10,000 a week. But when the talkies arrived, Tom's career arc went as flat as a chuckwagon pancake. Though he made a number of sound Westerns and a serial, he ended up working in rodeos and circuses. Tom died in 1940 in a weird automobile accident, the back of his head walloped by a suitcase that flew off the rear shelf of his single-seated roadster in the middle of the desert. Tom Mix might have been forgotten. Most of his movies -- released on combustible nitrate film stock -- have been lost. But those who remembered Tom Mix built roadside tributes to him, and these have survived. The Tom Mix Museum in Dewey is an example of a Tom Mix survivor shrine. Its curator, a Roadside America fan, went out of her way to scotch the rumor that Tom Mix cut the tail off of his faithful steed, Tony the Wonder Horse, after Tony had died, and made it into a bedside bell pull for Tom's Hollywood mansion. "That's impossible," she said, "since Tom died two years before Tony." Tom's premature exit also explains why Tony (unlike Roy Rogers' Trigger) was never stuffed when he died, or even given a grave marker. "Tom was dead. When Tony died, who cared?" The suitcase of death (the one that brained Tom) is still displayed at the Tom Mix Museum. "That," said the curator, "is the important exhibit."

Tumbleweeds (1925)

Tumbleweeds is a 1925 American Western film starring and produced by William S. Hart. It depicts the Cherokee Strip land rush of 1893. The film is said to have influenced the Oscar-winning 1931 Western Cimarron, which also depicts the land rush.[1] The 1939 Astor Pictures' re-release of Tumbleweeds includes an 8-minute introduction by the then 75-year-old Hart as he talks about his career and the "glories of the old west."[1] Tumbleweeds was Hart's last movie.[1]

Charles Lindberg

United States aviator who in 1927 made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean (1902-1974) Nazi Sympathizer Lindbergh's flight was not the first transatlantic flight; the Curtiss NC-4 achieved the goal of the first successful transatlantic flight [2] by flying from Rockaway, New York to Lisbon, Portugal on May 27, 1919.[3] Lindbergh's flight was, however, the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight, and one made between two major cities, and by a man barely 25 years of age.

Annie Oakley

United States sharpshooter who was featured in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (1860-1926) Her talent[1] first came to light when at age 15 she won a shooting match against traveling-show marksman Frank E. Butler, whom she later married. The couple joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show a few years later. Oakley became a renowned international star, performing before royalty and heads of state. Oakley also was variously known as "Miss Annie Oakley", "Little Sure Shot", "Little Miss Sure Shot", "Watanya Cicilla", "Phoebe Anne Oakley", "Mrs. Annie Oakley", "Mrs. Annie Butler", and "Mrs. Frank Butler". Her death certificate gives her name as "Annie Oakley Butler".[2]

1876 Centennial

Who/What: 100th anniversary of country with many giant buildings, but most impressive was machine hall. Had expositions from every nation. Where: Philadelphia When: 1876 Why: Show how strong America has become in 100 years and to show that america is a dominate force The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. Officially named the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine, it was held in Fairmount Park along the Schuylkill River on fairgrounds designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. Nearly 10 million visitors attended the exhibition and thirty-seven countries participated in it.

Gilbert Patten (Wyoming Will)

William George "Gilbert" Patten (October 25, 1866 - January 16, 1945) was a writer of dime novels and is best known as author of the Frank Merriwell stories, with the pen name Burt L. Standish. He sold his first two stories in this period to the dime novel company of Erastus Flavel Beadle, and combined his resumed studies for the next four years with writing and publishing stories He wrote westerns with the pen name Wyoming Bill,[6] but is best known for his sporting stories in the Frank Merriwell series, written as Burt L. Standish. He estimated that he had written 40 million words as an author.[13] In total, some 500 million of his books were in print,[14] making him one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time.

THE WINNING OF THE WEST (BOOK)

Winning of the West, The, by Theodore Roosevelt (1889-96). Four volumes, each complete in itself, and together constituting a study of early American developments; to be placed by the side of Parkman's 'France and England in North America.' It treats what may be called the sequel to the Revolution; a period of American advance, the interest and significance of which are very little understood. Washington himself prophesied, and almost planned, the future of the great region beyond the Ohio. When, at the close of the war, there was no money to pay the army on its disbandment, he advised his soldiers to have an eye to the lands beyond the Ohio, which would belong not to any one State but to the Union; and to look to grants of land for their pay. Out of this came the New England scheme for settlement on the other side of the Ohio. The promoters of this scheme secured the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, which made the Ohio the dividing line between lands in which slaves might be held to labor, and those in which there should be no slavery, and which broadly planned for the education of all children on a basis of equality and free schools. To an extent without parallel these actions of a moment fixed future destiny. How the course of events from 1769 brought about those actions, and the progress forward for twenty years from that moment, is the subject of Mr. Roosevelt's carefully planned and admirably executed volumes. The mass of original material to which Mr. Roosevelt has had access, casts a flood of new light upon the field over which he has gone, with the result that much of the early history has had to be entirely rewritten. It is in many ways a fascinating narrative, and in every way a most instructive history.

Steam Rotary Press

With America's population fast approaching twenty million by the 1830s, there was a growing audience for popular literature. Although readership had been greatly restricted due to the high cost of hardcover books and the dearth of public libraries, the introduction of the steam rotary press resulted in affordable and abundant reading material that could be distributed by a growing network of railways. The success of story papers such as Brother Jonathan Weekly, first published in 1839, provided an impetus for Erastus and Irwin Beadle to start selling novel-length stories for a dime each. Fueled by the success of Malaeska, the Beadles published several novels in quick succession

F. Scott Fitzgerald

a novelist and chronicler of the jazz age. his wife, zelda and he were the "couple" of the decade but hit bottom during the depression. his noval THE GREAT GATSBY is considered a masterpiece about a gangster's pursuit of an unattainable rich girl. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 - December 21, 1940) was an American fiction writer, whose works helped to illustrate the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age. While he achieved popular success, fame, and fortune in his lifetime,[1] he did not receive much critical acclaim until after his death. Perhaps the most notable member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s, Fitzgerald is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, was published posthumously. Four collections of his short stories were published, as well as 164 short stories in magazines during his lifetime.

Hoot Gibson

dmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (August 6, 1892 - August 23, 1962) was an American rodeo champion and a film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitioned from silent films to become a leading performer in Hollywood's growing cowboy film industry. During the period between WWI and WWII, he was second only to cowboy film legend Tom Mix as a box office draw.

Karl Bodmer

expedition of Prince Maximillian of Weid, Traveled up Missouri to Yellowstone, Lewis & Clark He is best known in the United States as a painter who captured the American West of the 19th century. (See collection) He painted extremely accurate works of its inhabitants and landscape. He accompanied the German explorer Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied from 1832 through 1834 on his Missouri River expedition. Bodmer was hired as an artist by Maximilian in order to accompany his expedition and record images of cities, rivers, towns and peoples they saw along the way, including the many tribes of Native Americans along the Missouri River and in that region.[2] Bodmer had 81 aquatints made from his work to illustrate Prince Maximilian's book entitled Maximilian Prince of Wied's Travels in the Interior of North America (1839-1841 in German/published in English translation in 1843-1844).

Rin Tin Tin

first dog star The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin is an American children's television program. Beginning in October 1954 until May 1959, 164 episodes originally aired on ABC television network. It starred Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid, who was being raised by the soldiers at a US Cavalry post known as Fort Apache. He and his German shepherd dog, Rin Tin Tin, helped the soldiers to establish order in the American West. James E. Brown appeared as Lieutenant Ripley "Rip" Masters. Co-stars included Joe Sawyer and Rand Brooks.

Charles Russell

frontier artist (March 19, 1864 - October 24, 1926),[1][2] also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the Old American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. Known as 'the cowboy artist',[3] Russell was also a storyteller and author. He became an advocate for Native Americans in the West, for instance supporting the bid by landless Chippewa to have a reservation established for them in Montana.

DW Griffith

groundbreaking American film director, directed The Birth of a Nation The film has sparked significant controversy surrounding racism in the United States,[3][4] focusing on its negative depiction of black people and the glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Today, it is both acclaimed for its radical technique and condemned for its inherently racist philosophy.[1] The film was subject to boycotts by the NAACP; screenings caused riots at several theaters and it was censored in many cities, including New York City. Intolerance was an answer to his critics.[1]

Tom Mix (Celebrity Outhouse)

he Tom Mix Comes Home Museum in Driftwood, is not in town (which doesn't care about the silent film era cowboy actor) but out on a rural road where first the pavement ends, then the plumbing. The sign "Welcome To Tom Mix Territory," gives no hint of the miles and miles of rutted road you'll have left to travel. The big attraction here -- for Tom Mix fans -- is his birthplace. The big attraction for Roadsiders is Tom Mix's celebrity outhouse. The Flaughs, the museum's husband and wife owners, though well-meaning are occasionally desperate for company and are black holes of Mix trivia; you can't escape their well-rehearsed ad-libbing. They will talk to you about every single photo, clipping, and collectible in the small Museum. As you wander around the property, large black flies will attack you. In order to build a monument on the site, the Flaughs sell square inches of the land for $10. Ronald Reagan bought ten square inches, and the Flaughs give out Xeroxes of his $100 check to all visitors. Reagan marked it as a contribution, so taxpayers actually paid roughly $40 of it. Over his square inch is a sign reading, "The President Of The United States Owns This Lot." When the monument is built, RR will be listed as #1 -- though he wrote his check in 1986 and there's still no monument. The attraction appears to be closed/gone.

Thomas Ince

homas Harper Ince (November 16, 1880 - November 19, 1924) was an American silent film producer, director, screenwriter, and actor.[1] Ince was known as the "Father of the Western" and was responsible for making over 800 films.[2] He revolutionized the motion picture industry by creating the first major Hollywood studio facility and invented movie production by introducing the "assembly line" system of filmmaking. He was the first mogul to build his own film studio dubbed "Inceville" in Palisades Highlands. Ince was also instrumental in developing the role of the producer in motion pictures. Two of his films, The Italian (1915), for which he wrote the screenplay, and Civilization (1916), which he directed, were selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. He later entered into a partnership with D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett to form the Triangle Motion Picture Company, whose studios are the present-day site of Sony Pictures. He then built a new studio about a mile from Triangle, which is now the site of Culver Studios.[3][4] Ince's untimely death at the height of his career, after he became severely ill aboard the private yacht of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, has caused much speculation, although the official cause of his death was heart failure.[5]

Thomas Moran

painted the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 - August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.[1] Moran along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters because of all of the Western landscapes made by this group

The Darker Side of the search for identity....

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Yosemite

yosemite National Park (/joʊˈsɛmɪti/ yoh-SEM-i-tee)[4] is an American national park located in the western Sierra Nevada of Central California,[5][6] bounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 747,956 acres (1,168.681 sq mi; 302,687 ha; 3,026.87 km2)[2] and sits in four counties: centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity.[7] Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.[8] John Muir wrote articles popularizing the area and increasing scientific interest in it. Muir was one of the first to theorize that the major landforms in Yosemite Valley were created by large alpine glaciers, bucking established scientists such as Josiah Whitney, who regarded Muir as an amateur.[35] Muir wrote scientific papers on the area's biology. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted emphasized the importance of conservation of Yosemite Valle