Spanish Peaks from Raton Pass

Among the most famous images of western American art—so famous that many no doubt regard it as a cliché—is Emanuel Leutze’s mural of migrating pioneers, which decorates the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. An equally famous (and equally...

Objects such as this urn, presented to the president of a canal company, reflect the dramatic changes taking place in the United States during the nineteenth century. A revolution in transportation technology was sweeping over the young nation, and improvements such as canals were opening up new trade routes, to the great benefit of the economy...