What does the woman in the Manifest Destiny painting represent?

In our resource history is presented through a series of narratives, primary sources, and point-counterpoint debates that invites students to participate in the ongoing conversation about the American experiment.

John Gasts’ American Progress painting is clear to interpret even though the representation of events is not realistic. With Lady Liberty flying east to west, she is seen as a goddess like embodiment of the United Sates. With the changing environment in the painting, Lady Liberty is used to represent this because of the power woman hold. They are associated more to nature than men are, deriving from the word “birth.” There is the birth of a new westward expanded nation that is brought from her. With the east becoming more technologically advanced, the angel resembling lady carries those advancements along with her. American Progress symbolizes the enlightenment with Lady Liberty bringing advancements from east to west to represent westward expansion. Westward expansion also relates to Manifest Destiny which John O’Sullivan wrote about which led to advancements for the rest of the world. American Progress also relates to Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness through the colors shown in the sky. The light that leads to dark represents the main takeaways from the story through its imagery.

Symbolizing the enlightenment, the sky is clear and bright with rolling hills to the east, while the west is drastically different. There are black clouds casting darkness upon the land with jagged mountains in the back, showing the areas where the enlightenment has not reached yet. The torch that Lady Liberty is carrying is the symbol for enlightenment, and wherever she goes it

John Gast’s “American Progress”

by Jake Colberg
In the nineteenth century the young new nation of the United States had great aspirations for its future. As a result, westward expansion was an appealing thought, and the idea of manifest destiny was a common mindset among early Americans. With this ideology so common among people at the time, the West wasn’t only thought of by some as a great opportunity to start anew. It was also viewed as a serious economic opportunity for people seeking to exploit the hopeful thoughts of others. As a result of this, propaganda began surfacing portraying the West and the American expansion west in a very positive light. John Gast’s painting “American Progress” is an example of this (it was printed in traveling guides at the time), and – through different displays of symbolism – it portrays Western expansion by Americans as a glorious and righteous thing. In reality, however, expansion may not have been as just as the painting makes it seem.

The painting is set on an American landscape, with the right half of the painting representing eastern America, and the left half of the painting representing western America. The first thing to notice about the painting is the variations in light seen when comparing the east and the west. The rightmost edge of the painting is bright, but as the painting shifts left it begins to grow darker, with the furthest left edge being marked by a foreboding sky adorned with storm clouds. Similarly, the gentle rolling hills of the east give way to jagged mountains as the painting moves left into the west. From these landscape features alone, Gast creates the idea that the East is warm and welcoming, while the West is dark and ominous. This creates a platform which, upon Gast’s introduction of characters into the painting, plays a great deal on the viewer’s emotions.

The next thing to notice is the dominating figure in the middle of the painting. The figure is a woman who resembles an angel, and the light aforementioned clearly exudes from her. She appears to be moving westwards, illuminating the way as she goes. Amy Greenberg writes: “It is the benign domestic influence of [her] allegorical figure, […] Gast seems to indicate, that is responsible for the smooth and uplifting transformation of wilderness into civilization.”[1] When looking at the painting, this claim certainly seems to hold true. The painting features covered wagons, then stagecoaches, then trains, all moving west. This presents the idea of technological advancement being brought further West as American folk continue to settle the frontier, a thought which was very widespread at the time.

By incorporating these common ideals into “American Progress,” Gast immediately established common ground with any American viewing the painting at the time. By creating the heavenly woman in the center, who bears the innovative telegraph wire in her left hand, Gast introduces the main argument of the painting: the idea that it was the heavenly duty of Americans to expand the country all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This idea surely resonated with people at the time. This aggressive use of pathos is most likely the main reason many Americans at the time connected with the argument the painting presented.

The opinions people shared about American Indians in the nineteenth century played a significant role in the perspective people took regarding the Indians’ inclusion in the image. In the nineteenth century Indians were thought of as mere savages, and driving them out of an area of land may have been considered an example of cleansing in some American’s eyes. Looking at “American Progress” today, however, one can’t help but feel sympathy for the Indians shown fleeing on the left side of the painting. Rather than coming across as savages fleeing from the progress settlers were bringing with them, they appear to be troubled people fleeing in a desperate attempt to maintain the way of life they were accustomed to. Similarly, the farmers depicted at the bottom of the painting may be viewed in a negative light today as well. Rather than being brave individuals taming the land, they might instead be viewed as selfish individuals destroying the habitat and forcing animals out of their natural homes.

Overall, however, “American Progress” presented a very effective argument at the time it was created. John Gast effectively played off the American emotions present at the time regarding patriotism and manifest destiny, and by incorporating American innovations such as telegraph lines into the image he paired the idea of expanding westward settlement with the idea of innovation. The painting truly “hints at the past, lays out a fantastic version of an evolving present, and finally lays out a vision of the future,” and though it may lack in some aspects of logical argument, it presents a great example in which “a static picture conveys a dynamic story.”[2]

______________________________________________________________________

[1] Greenberg, Amy S. Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2005.

[2] Sandweiss, Martha A. “John Gast, American Progress, 1872.” Picturing US History. City University of New York.

All D.C.–area museums and the American Indian Museum in New York are open regular hours on Thanksgiving and Friday!

American Progress (1872) John Gast

American Progress (1872) is a patriotic painting by John Gast portraying the beauty of our country’s expansion. Yet, was America’s expansion this destined, peaceful movement of the country spreading west? In the painting, Gast shows that it was the America’s destiny to expand, spread technology, and civilize the untamed west. Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans were destined to rule the continent but it is totally incorrect because it allowed the Americans to take and destroy the land, the animals and native people. John Gast justified Manifest Destiny by using symbolism and imagery to show the west as uncivilized, wild and unruly which America must naturally colonize and dominate. In addition to this, the idea that westward expansion was peaceful is very incomplete and one-sided because, unlike the painting, the reality of America’s westward expansion was often violent as the United States believed that America was destined to expand.

John Gast’s perspective on Manifest Destiny is that the west was given to the Americans to settle. In actuality, the west belonged to the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years until the settlers came and took the land and put Native Americans on reservations. Gast portrays Manifest Destiny using the symbol of ‘Lady Liberty’ as an angelic looking woman floating above the landscape and guiding the American people west. She is an unstoppable force just like America’s destiny to expand. John Gast is a very patriotic man, yet his views are incorrect. Manifest Destiny was a way to justify the settling of Native American land and the destruction of the natural habitat. Is it hard to imagine the opposite Native American view after seeing the white people take their land, kill the bison, the natives’ main source of food, and then confine them on reservations? Manifest Destiny is a wrong and incorrect view of westward expansion, because it justified the conquering of the west and the destruction of a way of life.

A second major idea of John Gast’s perspective is the contrast between the east as a light place and the west as dark. What he is depicting is that the east is enlightened, a civilized place that has technology and is a very well educated. The darkness of the west is saying that it is a wild and uncivilized place, needing modern advancements. Native Americans, because they are on the left side of the painting are shown as a wild uncivilized inferior group running away from the superior white people. All of this led to the reasoning that is was okay for Americans to take their land, and force them to learn English. This view is also incorrect, for the Native Americans were civilized people that had very different cultures. That does not mean that the Americans were superior, and it should have meant that they should have respect for each other and their ways. Unfortunately this did not happen, as the Americans used the idea to justify their conquering of the west.

A final idea of John Gast's painting is that American expansion was a peaceful movement. In his painting there are hardly any weapons, only a hunter holding a gun, and a Native American, while raising his tomahawk, is running away. Since there are no weapons in the painting it subconsciously gives a peaceful feel to westward expansion just as Lady Liberty glides over the landscape in a non-threatening way. All of that detail shows Gast’s view that the expansion was a peaceful movement that was meant to happen. In reality, America’s westward expansion was full of bloody wars, fighting, killing, and massacres as the Native Americans resisted the attempt to take their land. There was lots of violence, but Gast did not put it into his painting because it would counter his patriotic and positive view of the westward expansion.

American Progress justified the conquering of the west. In his painting, John Gast’s ideas of Manifest Destiny, the contrast between the civilized east and ‘uncivilized’ west, and his belief that it was a peaceful expansion gave the impression that settling the west was the right thing to do. Even though some of this was true, historical evidence points to a different understanding of America’s westward expansion as it involved destroying the bison herds, breaking treaties and violent clashes. This painting, though, probably convinced many Americans to ‘Go West’ to the frontier believing that it was a great and noble undertaking. So did this perspective lead to the Massacre at Wounded Knee?