Fotosearch Collection Gallery

American Progress

Painting entitled American Progress, by John Gast, depicting Manifest Destiny (the religious belief that the United States should expand from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in the name of God). In 1872 artist John Gast painted a popular scene of people moving west that captured the view of Americans at the time. Called Spirit of the Frontier and widely distributed as an engraving portrayed settlers moving west, guided and protected by a goddess-like figure and aided by technology (railways, telegraphs), driving Native Americans and bison into obscurity. It is also important to note that angel is bringing the light as witnessed on the eastern side of the painting as she travels towards the darkened west. USA, circa 1872. (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images)

© 2010 Getty Images

American Civil War

Confederate cartoon entitled Virginia Paws-ing, depicting Abraham Lincoln as a cat, with the caption A Consoling Thought (Uncle Abe is catching Virginia as it secedes. They are saying:) Uncle Abe: Nothing is going wrong. Nothing really hurts anybody. Nobody is suffering anything. Virginia: We can go out on the 4th of July as well as the 4th of March. Beneath the dead rat on the left is written, The Union must and shall be preserved. The others are, from left to right, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina. USA, circa 1861. (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images)

© 2010 Getty Images

Saluting The Flag

School childen saluting the American Flag in the Mott Street Industrial School in New York, USA. The image symbolically represents the progressive view of schooling as a process of Americanization, circa 1892. (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images)

96740232, Education, Huty 16882, Immigration