Explore the Influences of this artwork, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way.
The imagery of the pilgrim gesturing on a high rock is very similar to the 5 cent postage stamp, Fremont in the Rocky Mountains, that was part of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Issue and reprinted a century later.
A Currier and Ives print from 1868 uses the same title and theme for a very different print, showing a railroad crossing a new settlement as the train goes west.
A photographic print and a stereograph by Alexander Gardner, both of an 1867 end-of-track frontier construction train, were titled Westward The Course of Empire Takes Its Way.
Currier and Ives postage stamp photographic print Alexander Gardner railroad Trans-Mississippi Issue