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Go West, Young Man . . .
Westward Expansion in American History and Mythology
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207 What We Will Do in this Course •Day 1: Westward Expansion: The Big Picture •Day 2: Westward Expansion: A granular look •Day 3: “The West” in American Culture and Mythology
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208 Day 3 – The West in Popular Culture
• 19th and 20th century fiction • Visual Arts – Painting and Photography • Archetypes of the West • Popular Entertainment • Movies • Television • Music
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209 Meaning of the West in culture
• The pop culture West offers glimpses of America’s self-identity. • It shows where Americans have been, where they are, and where they are headed • Each generation views the West differently – swinging between romanticism and reality, or hope and despair
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210 Meaning of the West in Culture
• After the 1890s, Americans no longer saw an advancing frontier line with its powerful symbolic message of civilization’s triumph over wildness, of endless possibility for reinvention. • Instead, muckraking journalists and progressive reformers drew peoples’ attention to city slums, corrupt politics, and oppressive industrial working conditions
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•The physical frontier no longer could serve as a kind of safety valve for American development •The western novel (and later movies) could provide psychological relief from the problems of urban life.
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212 Meaning of the West in Culture • Throughout it all, the Cultural West has survived, providing a unifying symbol for Americans otherwise divided by race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, or region • Although the frontier may have been closed and the geographical West may have been settled, the Mythic West continued to exist in the thoughts, dreams, and popular culture of the American people. Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 212
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19th and 20th Century Literature
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219 Literature of the American West
•Writing about the frontier began with the settlement of the earliest New England colonies •Took shape in the early 19th century •Reached its peak in the second half of the century in the form of dime novels and other popular literary forms.
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220 Literature of the American West
Common themes: •Male-dominated world •Tension between civilization and the wilderness •Struggle between the individual and society
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221 James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) • Historical Romances of the frontier and Native American Life from the 17th-19th centuries • Leatherstocking Tales – • Five Historical Novels focusing on the period 1740-1806
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222 James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) Story Dates Publication Title Subtitle Date 1740-1755 1841 The Deerslayer The First War Path 1757 1826 The Last of the A Narrative of 1757 Mohicans 1758-1759 1840 The Pathfinder The Inland Sea 1793 1823 The Pioneers The Sources of the Susquehanna: A Descriptive Tale 1804 1827 The Prairie A Tale Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 222
223 Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957) • Novels based on her childhood in a settler and pioneer family in Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakota Territory between 1867-1885 • Wrote the Little House series of books between 1932-1943
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Publication 224 Title Date Books by 1932 Little House in the Big Woods Laura Ingalls 1933 Farmer Boy Wilder 1935 Little House on the Prairie
1937 On the Banks of Plum Creek
1939 By the Shores of Silver Lake
1940 The Long Winter
1941 Little Town on the Prairie
1943 These Happy Golden Years
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227 Willa Cather (1873-1947) • Novels of frontier life on the Great Plains • 1913 – O Pioneers! • 1915 – Song of the Lark • 1918 – My Antonia
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228 Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950) •Born in Kansas, raised in Illinois •Wrote 12 plays, 21 books of poetry, 6 novels, and 6 biographies.
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229 Edgar Lee Masters
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230 • Hamilton Greene • Elsa Wertman
I WAS a peasant girl from Germany, I WAS the only child of Frances Harris of Virginia Blue-eyed, rosy, happy and strong. And the first place I worked was at Thomas And Thomas Greene of Kentucky, Greene's. Of valiant and honorable blood both. On a summer's day when she was away He stole into the kitchen and took me To them I owe all that I became, Right in his arms and kissed me on my Judge, member of Congress, leader in throat, the State. I turning my head. Then neither of us From my mother I inherited Seemed to know what happened. Vivacity, fancy, language; And I cried for what would become of me. And cried and cried as my secret began to From my father will, judgment, logic. show. All honor to them One day Mrs. Greene said she understood, And would make no trouble for me, For what service I was to the people! And, being childless, would adopt it. Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 230
231 Mark Twain (1835-1910) Samuel Clemens •Novels about life on the “near frontier”as well as the Far West after the Civil War
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232 Zane Grey (1872-1939)
• Adventure novels and stories about the western frontier • He not only popularized the Western – he gave the American West a romantic prominence and significance it otherwise would not have had.
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233 Louis L’Amour (1908-1988)
•Hundreds of novels and short stories about the American west between 1951 and 1987.
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Wallace Stegner (1909-1993)
• “The Dean of Western Writers” • Wrote more than a dozen novels about the west • Many monographs
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235 Dime Novels
1860s - Dime novel became a general term for similar paperbacks produced by various publishers in the early twentieth century.
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237 Comic Books
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Visual Imagery – Painting and Photography
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239 Art of the West
• Images from Christopher Columbus to the 20th century show the discovery and settlement of th West as a heroic undertaking • The public believed that these images represented a faithful account of civilization moving westward • A better argument is that these images are carefully staged fiction and that their role was to justify the hardship and conflict of nation building • Western scenes extolled progress but rarely noted damaging social and environmental change.
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240 George Catlin (1796-1872)
•Specialty – portraits of Native Americans in the Old West •Based in St. Louis, visited 50 tribes between 1830-36
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Sioux Hunting Buffalo, 1835 241
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Teepee of the Crow Tribe, 1850 Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 242
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North American Indians Portrait of Black Hawk, Indian Chief Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 243
244 Thomas Cole (1801-1848) •Founder, Hudson River School
•Known for his romantic portrayal of the American Wilderness
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View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (usually referred to as The Oxbow 245 1836
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2: The Savage State “Consummation” 4: Destruction Thomas Cole
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Emanuel Leutze,
“Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way”
1860
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248 Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) •Born in Prussia, came to America as an infant
•Second Generation Hudson River School
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251 George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879)
•Known as “the Missouri Artist”
•Painted American frontier life along the Missouri River
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Daniel Boone escorting a group of settlers 252 through the Cumberland Gap. George Caleb Bingham 1851-52
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Jolly Flatboatmen in Port The County Election 253 1857 1852
The Squatters Fur Traders Descending 1850 the Missouri 1845
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AMERICAN PROGRESS
John Gast 1872
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Covered Wagons, mural by Allyn Cox in the House 255 wing of the U.S. Capitol.
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257 William Henry Jackson (1843-1942)
• Born in Vermont • Painter and photographer of the American West • Civil War Veteran – fought at Gettysburg • Went west after he broke his engagement in Vermont
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258 William Henry Jackson
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Emigrants at Kanesville, a depiction of settlers crossing the Missouri River at Kanesville, Iowa, by William Henry Jackson
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Crossing the South Platte (William Henry Jackson).
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The Rocky Mountains: Emigrants Crossing the 262 Plains, lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1866.
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263 Ansel Adams (1982-1984)
•Landscape photographer and environmentalist •Black and white images of the American west
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Real Characters of the West
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266 The Men
The Cowboys
The Lawmen
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Billy the Kid Davy Crockett 268
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Wyatt Earp KarenJesse McPherson Osher James Institute Spring 2021 Butch269 Cassidy
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Doc Holliday Belle Starr Black Bart
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"Dodge City [Kans.] Peace Commissioners. L to R: Chas. Bassett, W. H. Harris, Wyatt Earp, Luke Short, L. McLean, Bat Masterson, Neal Brown." By Camillus S. Fly, ca. 1890.
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272 The Schoolmarm
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Saloon Girls
“Soiled Doves”
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Images of Native Americans
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Pocahontas (Matoaka)
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Native American Images from the First Frontier
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277 King Philip Tecumseh Sacagawea (Metacom)
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Geronimo Crazy Horse Sitting Bull Native American Images of the Third Frontier Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 278
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Red Cloud Chief Joseph
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Public Entertainment
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National Parks 1872 – Yellowstone
1890 – Yosemite
1919 – Grand Canyon
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William Frederick Cody (1846-1917)
• “Buffalo Bill” • He bridges the gap – he is both a participant in the Wild West and a showman telling the world about it • Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show established the
template for how people 282
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Philippe Lescaude 1668-1743 283 Isaac Cody 1703-1737 Joseph Cody 1700-1756
Joseph Cody 1736-1787 Philip Cody Sr. 1729-1850
Daniel Cody 1777-1846 Philip Cody Jr. 1770-1850
Melinda Cody 1803-1888 Isaac Cody 1811-1854 4th Lydia Deuel 1845-1881 William F. Cody 1846-1917 Cousins [Insert Three Generations] 4 times Removed
Karen Sue Arnold 1947-
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285 Buffalo Bill’s Life
• His father, Isaac Cody, was born in Canada • Bill was born in Iowa; the family moved back to Canada when Buffalo Bill was an infant; moved to Kansas when he was six years old • His father was severely injured in the violence of Bleeding Kansas; he died a few years later
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Buffalo Bill’s Life
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288 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West •The program included: • Race of races, between a Cowboy, a Cossack, a Mexican, an Arab, a Gaucho, and an Indian • A wagon train attacked by Indians and saved by Buffalo Bill • A Pony Express Rider • The Battle of San Juan Hill • Attack on the Deadwood Mail Coach, and rescue once again by Buffalo Bill
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289 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West •Ran for 30 years – 1883-1913 •Sample 1899 Tour: • 11,000 miles • 200 days • 341 performances • 132 cities and towns across the US •First went to England in 1887; went back in 1889, 1892, 1901, 1902, 1903, and 1904 •In 1902, they played the entire season in
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Calamity Jane
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Old Tucson
• Built in 1939 for the movie “Arizona” (1940) • Also used for • “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (1957) • “Rio Bravo” (1959) • “El Dorado” (1966) • “Little House on the 291 Karen McPhersonPrairie”1970s- Osher Institute Spring 20211980s. 291
292 Rodeo and Professional Bull Riders
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293 Dixie Stampede
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Popular Entertainment
Movies
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Common Settings 297
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298 Why Were the Westerns so Popular? •Westerns of the 1930s and 1940s reflected optimism – very appealing to people suffering through the Great Depression and World War II
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299 Why were the Westerns so Popular? • Cold war anxieties were reflected in cavalry-Indian scenarios that preached the urgency of firm, decisive action to contain or defeat an unregenerate aggressor • Carl Foreman, screenwriter of High Noon, said he wrote the screenplay as a “metaphorical attack” on Hollywood’s submission to congressional anticommunist investigations that threated the careers of many actors and writers in the 1950s
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300 Why Were Westerns so Popular?
•The speed with which the Western hero outsmarted and dispatched the villains also expressed the American appreciation for action – •Americans retained their restlessness, nervous energy, and desire to solve problems quickly and pragmatically. Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 300
301 Why Were Westerns so Popular?
•The myth of the West offered clear strategies for defeating cold war enemies. •Just like Indians or outlaws, communists could be contained if hardworking, individualistic Americans would join together to stop the threat. Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 301
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302 Why Were Westerns so Popular?
•The mythic West reflected and reinforced the public’s wish for consensus and conformity in the cold war era. •It espoused traditional values, such as patriotism and rugged individualism, and endorsed America’s tradition patriarchal, white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant culture.
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303 Impact of the Westerns
• The B westerns focused on the West’s exotic locales, strong Anglo heroes, delicate heroines, and morality-play plots • Action, gunplay, and fistfights were depicted as everyday occurrences in the West • Packed with values, the films stereotyped males, females and minorities, and they reflected both attitudes and events of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 303
304 Impact of the Westerns
• The limited and stereotypical roles of blacks in western movies and tv shows contributes to the myth that African Americans played small roles in the history of the American West. • Historians estimate that roughly ¼ of the cowboys were black in the 1860s-1880s. • African-Americans were roughly 13% of the population (then and now)
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Movie Cowboys
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Randolph Scott
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Clint Eastwood
Glen Ford
Charles Bronson
Henry Fonda
Gary Cooper
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Popular Entertainment
Television
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309 TV Westerns •1958 – 18 new westerns appeared on television, and 12 of the top 25 Nielsen rated shows were westerns, include 7 of the top 10 •1959 – peak of western TV – 47 prime-time shows each week.
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James Garner
James Arness
Chuck Connors
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The Cartrights
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Popular Entertainment
Folk Songs and “Cowboy” Songs
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Sweet Betsy From Pike
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320 • The song is based on the story of Emily West, a teenaged free negro woman who traveled to Texas to work as an indentured servants on a cotton plantation • In 1836, Mexican general Santa Anna claimed her as his “traveling wife” to take the place of his stay-at-home wife in Texas • When Sam Houston’s troops arrived for the Battle of San Jacinto (six weeks after the Battle of the Alamo), Santa Anna was “busy” with Emily and his troops were defeated. • The song was written by the black man who was Emily’s lover before Santa Karen McPherson Osher Institute Anna whisked her away Spring 2021 320
321 "O bury me not on the lone prairie” These words came low and mournfully From the pallid lips of the youth who lay On his dying bed at the close of day.
"O bury me not on the lone prairie Where coyotes howl and the wind blows free In a narrow grave just six by three—
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Oh, What Did you 325 was your murder name in your wife the And run States? for your Was it life? Thompson Oh what or was your Johnson name in or Bates? the States Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 325
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