Go West, Young Man . . .

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Go West, Young Man . . .

Westward Expansion in American History and Mythology

Westward Expansion in American History and Mythology

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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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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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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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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Meaning of the West in Culture


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•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.

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19th and 20th Century Literature


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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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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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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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James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)Story Dates Publication

DateTitle Subtitle

1740-1755 1841 The Deerslayer The First War Path

1757 1826 The Last of the Mohicans

A Narrative of 1757

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 TaleKaren McPherson Osher Institute

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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 Houseseries of books between 1932-1943


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Books by Laura Ingalls

Wilder

Publication Date

Title

1932 Little House in the Big Woods

1933 Farmer Boy

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

1971 The First Four Years



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Willa Cather (1873-1947)•Novels of frontier life on the Great Plains

•1913 – O Pioneers!

•1915 – Song of the Lark

•1918 – My AntoniaKaren McPherson Osher Institute

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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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Edgar Lee Masters


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• Hamilton Greene

I WAS the only child of Frances Harris of VirginiaAnd Thomas Greene of Kentucky,Of valiant and honorable blood both.To them I owe all that I became,Judge, member of Congress, leader in

the State.From my mother I inheritedVivacity, fancy, language;From my father will, judgment, logic.All honor to themFor what service I was to the people!

• Elsa Wertman

I WAS a peasant girl from Germany,Blue-eyed, rosy, happy and strong.And the first place I worked was at Thomas

Greene's.On a summer's day when she was awayHe stole into the kitchen and took meRight in his arms and kissed me on my

throat,I turning my head. Then neither of usSeemed to know what happened.And I cried for what would become of me.And cried and cried as my secret began to

show.One day Mrs. Greene said she understood,And would make no trouble for me,And, being childless, would adopt it.

Mark Twain (1835-1910)Samuel Clemens

•Novels about life on the “near frontier”aswell as the Far West after the Civil War


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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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Louis L’Amour (1908-1988)

•Hundreds of novels and short stories about the American west between 1951 and 1987.


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• “The Dean of Western Writers”

• Wrote more than a dozen novels about the west

• Many monographs

Wallace Stegner (1909-1993)


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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Comic Books


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Visual Imagery –Painting and Photography


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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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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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241Sioux Hunting Buffalo, 1835

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Teepee of the Crow Tribe, 1850


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Portrait of Black Hawk, Indian Chief

North American Indians

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 Oxbow1836


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Thomas Cole

The Course of Empire

(1835-1836)

“Consummation”

5: Desolation

4: Destruction 2: The Savage State

1: The Pastoral State


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Emanuel Leutze,

“Westward the Course of Empire Takes

its Way”

1860

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Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) •Born in Prussia, came to America as an infant

•Second Generation Hudson River School


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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 through the Cumberland Gap. George

Caleb Bingham 1851-52


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Jolly Flatboatmen in Port1857

The Squatters1850

Fur Traders Descending 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 wing of the U.S. Capitol.


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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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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


Crossing the South Platte

(William Henry Jackson).



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Ansel Adams (1982-1984)

•Landscape photographer and environmentalist

•Black and white images of the American west


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Farm, Farmworkers, Manzanar Relocation Center, World War II

Glacier National Park

Real Characters of the West


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The Men

The Cowboys

The Lawmen


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The GunslingersThe Posse


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Karen McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 269Wyatt Earp Butch Cassidy Jesse James


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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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The Schoolmarm


“Soiled Doves”

Saloon Girls

Images of Native Americans


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Pocahontas (Matoaka)


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Powhatan Opechancanough

Native American Images from the

First Frontier


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SacagaweaKing Philip (Metacom)

Tecumseh

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Sitting BullGeronimo Crazy Horse

Native American Images of the Third Frontier


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Chief JosephRed Cloud

Public Entertainment


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National Parks

1872 – Yellowstone

1890 – Yosemite

1919 – Grand Canyon


• “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 remembered the West.

William Frederick Cody (1846-1917)

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283Philippe Lescaude 1668-1743Joseph Cody 1700-1756Isaac Cody 1703-1737

Philip Cody Jr. 1770-1850

Joseph Cody 1736-1787

Isaac Cody 1811-1854

Daniel Cody 1777-1846

William F. Cody 1846-1917

Melinda Cody 1803-1888

Lydia Deuel 1845-1881

Karen Sue Arnold 1947-

Philip Cody Sr. 1729-1850

[Insert Three Generations]

4th

Cousins4 times Removed

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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

•American buffalo hunter •U.S. Army scout•Pony Express rider • Indian fighter•He regularly embellished his life storyKaren McPherson Osher Institute Spring 2021 286

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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

• A staged buffalo huntKaren McPherson Osher Institute

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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 France


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Calamity Jane

Annie OakleyWild Bill Hickock

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

Prairie”1970s-1980s.

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Rodeo and Professional Bull Riders


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Dixie Stampede


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Popular Entertainment

Movies


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The construction of a railroad or a telegraph line on the wild frontier.

Revenge stories, which hinge on the chase and

pursuit by someone who has been wronged.

Outlaw gang shenanigans

Stories about cavalry

fighting Native Americans.

Ranchers protecting their family ranch

from rustlers or large landowners, or who

build a ranch empire.

Stories about a lawman or

bounty hunter tracking down

his quarry.

Common Plot

Lines

Common Settings297


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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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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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.


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•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.


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•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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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


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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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Henry Fonda

Charles Bronson

John Wayne

Clint Eastwood

Gary Cooper

Glen Ford

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Television


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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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Chuck Connors

James Garner

James Arness


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The Cartrights

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Folk Songs and “Cowboy” Songs


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Sweet Betsy From Pike

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• 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 Anna whisked her away


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"O bury me not on the lone prairie”These words came low and

mournfullyFrom the pallid lips of the youth who

layOn his dying bed at the close of day.

"O bury me not on the lone prairieWhere coyotes howl and the wind

blows freeIn a narrow grave just six by three—

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Oh, What was your name in the States?Was it Thompson or Johnson or Bates?

Did you murder your wifeAnd run for your life?Oh what was your name in the States

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Go West, Young Man . . .

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