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116 Manifest Destiny Painting, 1872

Manifest Destiny Painting, 1872

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John Gast, American Progress, 1872. Wikimedia.

Columbia, the female figure of America, leads Americans into the West and into the future by carrying the values of republicanism (as seen through her Roman garb) and progress (shown through the inclusion of technological innovations like the telegraph) and clearing native peoples and animals, seen being pushed into the darkness.

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U.S. History Copyright © by John M. Lund; P. Scott Corbett; Volker Janssen; Sylvie Waskiewicz; Todd Pfannestiel; and Paul Vickery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.