unit 5: selling of the american west -...

Announcements: midterms handed back assignment folder update posted next week turning in assignment folder June 12th Unit 5: Age of Exploration North America Thomas Moran Video Notes

Unit 5: Selling of the American West

Unit 5: Lecture Concepts

Age of exploration

North America

American indigenous groups

westward expansion

Thomas Moran

life and work

America’s public lands

national park service

preservation vs conservation

Unit 5 activities

• Video Notes: Drawn to Yellowstone

• Article Summary

– about threat to our public lands

• Earth map update

Unit 5 terms

Manifest Destiny

Louisiana Purchase

Transcontinental railroad

Romantic Realist

Preservation

conservation

Unit 5: Selling the American West

Age of Exploration

Discovery and later colonization of these distant continents warranted documentation of cultures, animals, plants and other valuable resources

Artists started to accompany the expeditions as early as 1500’s

Age of Exploration

These artists include:

Jacques Le Moyne,

Florida---1564

John White,

Roanoke Island, North Carolina-- 1585

Conrad Martins,

South America---1833-35

voyage of the Beagle

Age of Exploration North America in 1803

Prairie Ecosystem of the Mid West

Selling of the American West

West of the Mississippi-

• The mountain man

• Fur Trappers

• Indigenous people

horse cultures

• Bison:

keystone species

importance to tribes

population

Selling the American West Motivation for taming the

wilderness became economic and moral act

Natural resources infinite & inexhaustible

Exploitation reaches it’s pinnacle in 1800 in North America

Rapid increase in immigrants

Land, economic opportunity and freedom

Population increased 30%

West = last frontier and hope for prosperity

VANISHING VIEWS

Lewis and Clark expedition

1804-06

Bodmer and Maximilllian expedition

1832 - 1834

Selling the American West

•Manifest Destiny •Homestead Act of 1862 •American Progress 1872

American Progress, John Gast , 1872

VANISHING VIEWS

Transcontinental railroad 1868

California Gold Rush 1848

Extermination of the bison 1830 - 1880

VANISHING VIEWS: the cultures

• Decimation of food resources- removal of livelihood– American Bison

• Disease-small pox • Removal onto reservations • Assimilation— boarding schools 1879 – 1980’s • Dying of elders--- loss of

ceremonies and traditions • American Indian War • Illegalization of ceremonies

between 1882 -1930 Resulted in the Genocide of the

indigenous people of North America.

During the 1800’s, artists were commissioned under contract with the railroad lines to publicized the wonders of the West and encourage westward expansion.



Romantic Realism Hudson River School

-devoid of civilization -reaction to the

-Idealization of the landscape industrial age

-dramatic lighting

The Oxbow, Thomas Cole 1836


Thomas Moran: Born in Lancashire, England in 1836

raised in Pennsylvania

Printer maker – Hudson school

"an artist of Philadelphia of rare genius".

Hayden Geological Survey Expedition 1871

Yellowstone region of the American West-

Hayden Geological Survey Expedition 1871

“The place where Hell bubbled up…”


William Henry

Jackson

-Photographer

-Worked alongside Moran

-Offered objective view of the region


Crystal Falls, Yellowstone region 1871

Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Basin, 1871

Old Faithful geyser

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone- Field sketch

Yellowstone National Park

Hayden, Moran and Jackson fought to keep US government from auctioning off the land

500 page report

US congress:

Preservation vs conservation

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone– 7’ x 12’

oil on canvas, 1872

1872 1st National Park created

Selling the American West •1873

•The Colorado River Expedition

•John Wesley Powell

• 30 paintings were created for Powell’s report

• Instrumental in getting the area designated as a national park but not until 1919.


Chasm of the Colorado, 1874


“The Mountain of the Holy Cross” 1875

Mountain in Colorado

Hayden expedition 1875

Travelled extensively

Created 100’s of large scale oil paintings

Published work in various periodicals

“I place no value upon literal transcripts from nature. My general scope is not realistic, all my tendencies are toward idealization… topography in art is valueless”


Green River, Wyoming 1896


Ponce de Leon in Florida, 1878

Thomas Moran

Shoshone Falls, 1900


• Moran and Jackson returned to Yellowstone in 1892.

• 1,000’s of tourists annually to 1000 per day

• Northern Pacific Railway- Gardiner,MT

Yellowstone Park Improvement Co. was

granted unlimited use of resources within park


In The Lava Beds, 1892

Thomas Moran

• painted more than 400 large scale paintings throughout his life

• He travelled and painted throughout his life as late as 1920

• Moran died at the age of 89 at his home in Santa Barbara, California

The Transcontinental Railroad

New Age of Tourism in the West

• Preservation for profit by the railroads

• Commissions to artists

• Encouraged visitors

• Developed infrastructure on public lands and surrounding areas

• Degradation of parks

poaching, grazing and mining etc.

Conservation vs preservation

conservation seeks the proper use of nature – natural resources were infinite

preservation seeks protection of nature from use.

Railroads lobbied with environmentalist for preservation

Railroads = economic value-tourism

Environmentalists = aesthetic or recreational value

"benefit and enjoyment of the people,"

Human superiority - both for the use of humans

Rights of nature to simply exist?

Ecological value?

Railroads Co. role in Preservation

“wildlife as spectacle”

economic potential of creating the National Parks

public use and enjoyment was the overriding concern.

development, financing, and marketing of parks

Monopoly-

• railroads for transportation

• Development of infrastructure

Settlers Tourist

Railroad legacy • Native American lands

were taken without compensation

• Slave labor under paid and over worked immigrants mainly from China.

• Only the wealthiest citizens were able to visit and stay in the luxury hotels that were available

Threat to our Public Lands today Articles to read and

summarize: • 27 National Monuments through out

the West are threatened to be delisted.

• Opening the areas up to extraction industries – oil and gas development, mining and grazing.

https://medium.com/center-for-biological-diversity/national-monuments-at-risk-ec5c7b5e61f2

https://www.ecowatch.com/zinke-national-monuments-2476612419.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2aa7e9185c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2aa7e9185c-86043425

Unit 5: Earth Map update

5a. Yellowstone National Park , Wyoming

5b. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Drawn to Yellowstone

Video Notes

https://www.pbs.org/video/drawn-to-yellowstone-jzw935/

Take a page of notes on this interesting video about Thomas Moran and Yellowstone.









unit 5: selling of the american west -...

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