1. VIII: Westward • Doctrine & Destiny • Leutze, Bingham, Bierstadt
9/18/2018
VIII: Westward
• Doctrine & Destiny
• Leutze, Bingham, Bierstadt
• Ambivalent white attitudes toward natives
• Catlin
• native resistance & “ledger art”
• myth of the “Old West”
• Remington, Schreyvogel
• blacks & Asians
• the “Western” as mythic genre
9/18/2018
Dr. Nick Melczarek 2004

2. Doctrine & Destiny
The “Monroe Doctrine” (President Monroe, 7th annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823):
“We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”
“Manifest Destiny” (John O’Sullivan -- Pohl p.188):
“Our manifest destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions” -- John O’Sullivan

3. Doctrine & destiny in motion: Leutze
9/18/2018
Doctrine & destiny in motion: Leutze
The Storming of Teocalli By Cortez and His Troops (1848)(Pohl p.187)
Inspired by Leutze’s unease at the territory war against Mexico from
Also alludes to white American expansion into native lands

4. Doctrine & destiny in motion: Leutze
9/18/2018
Doctrine & destiny in motion: Leutze
Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)
Leutze still capable of creating national myth-images
How compares/contrasts to Storming of Teocalli?

5. Doctrine & destiny in motion: George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879)
9/18/2018
Doctrine & destiny in motion: George Caleb Bingham ( )
Often depicted (and exaggerated) both the dangers & pleasures of “the West” to cater to eastern-coast tastes for romantic images of western expansion
The Concealed Enemy (1845) Pohl p.168
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (1845) -- Pohl p.169

6. Doctrine & destiny in motion: Bingham
9/18/2018
Doctrine & destiny in motion: Bingham
The Jolly Flatboatmen (1847) -- Pohl p.170
What attitudes towards expansion do these works present?
Daniel Boone Escorts Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap ( ) -- Boone as Moses leading whites into another promised land

7. Doctrine & destiny in motion: Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)
9/18/2018
Doctrine & destiny in motion: Albert Bierstadt ( )
Emigrants Crossing the Plains (1867)
also Looking Down Yosemite Valley (1865) Pohl p.284
How does Bierstadt use landscape to convey his historical message?

8. Ambivalent White Attitudes Toward Natives in 1800s
9/18/2018
Ambivalent White Attitudes Toward Natives in 1800s
Romanticism & Transcendentalism’s belief in “nature” changes some attitudes toward oral culture (and therefore native culture).
Govt legislation concerning native tribes:
1830’s Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy -- moved tribes to west of the Mississippi.
1887: General Allotment Act (Dawes Act), land redistribution destroyed native living collectives
1879: Bureau of Ethnology (1894 Bureau of American Ethnology) seeks to preserve what’s left of native tribal heritage
Many white Americans disfavor westward expansion at cost of native tribes; some adopt native-style dress as ethnic chic; others study native cultures, as “doomed” cultures.

9. Representing Natives: George Catlin (1796-1872)
The Last Race (1832) -- Pohl p.170
Wanted to capture and convey images of natives as “untouched” by European culture -- actually captured manners & customs influenced by contact with white Americans
Often altered or edited scenes or sitters to fit his aesthetic
Quote in Pohl pp
Also Pohl pp

10. Native resistance & art
9/18/2018
Native resistance & art
Through various conflicts with whites, natives were often imprisoned (e.g. Ft.Marion/Castillo de San Marco in St.Augustine) -- various distinct tribes were often thrown in together
Native “ledger art” -- Pohl pp.185, 231, 229
Rise of the “Ghost Dance” movement; Pohl p.232
Many tribes resisted white encroachment; tribal resistance eventually broken at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, Dec the same year that the U.S. Census declared the frontier “closed”
Eventually, many tribes assimilated into white culture through schools specifically designed for younger generations of natives and blacks
Even in these schools, native cultures were reduced to museum exhibits -- Pohl p.236, Johnston’s Class in American History

11. “Cowboys” and “Indians”: myth of the Old West
9/18/2018
“Cowboys” and “Indians”: myth of the Old West
Visual arts & literature created a myth of settlers, Indian wars, etc. only loosely based on fact
Developed a cult of manhood & masculinity (direct opposition to women’s movement).
Changed conventional cultural roles of whites and natives: white settlers/pioneers became the “true” inhabitants and owners of the land; natives became the invaders of white space.
Myth of “the last stand” : was as much a reaction to political events elsewhere in the country (suffragism for blacks & women, increasing immigration, industrial labor unrest) as about western pioneering.
20th-century films love this myth -- Disney theme parks, too.
9/18/2018
Dr. Nick Melczarek 2004

12. Myth of the Old West: Frederick Remington (1861-1909)
9/18/2018
Myth of the Old West: Frederick Remington ( )
A Dash for the Timber (1889) Pohl p.237
Fight for the Waterhole (1903)
Catered to immediate nostalgia for “the West.”
Became such archetypal images that they were the source for many film Westerns: e.g. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

13. Myth of the Old West: Charles Schreyvogel (1861-1909)
Defending the Stockade (1903)
Schreyvogel painting on the roof of his apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey (1910)

14. 9/18/2018
Who’s left (out)?
Almost all representations of “the Old West” (even when it was still new) left out the involvement of recently freed blacks and Asian immigrants in westward expansion. Later representations -- especially film -- later filled in these gaps.
What examples of blacks and Asians were eventually conveyed in film “Westerns”?
What films are examples?
How does the “Western” as a genre still operate today? How has it changed? (E.g. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Unforgiven, Dances With Wolves, etc.)

15. “VIII:Westward” themes, terms, concepts, artists
9/18/2018
Monroe Doctrine
“Manifest Destiny”
Emanuel Leutze
Geroge Caleb Bingham
Albert Bierstadt
Ambivalent white attitudes toward natives
George Catlin
Native resistance; “ledger art”
Myth of the “Old West”
Frederick Remington
Charles Schreyvogel
Blacks & Asians
The “Western” genre
9/18/2018
Dr. Nick Melczarek 2004