[Across the Continent: "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way"]

Book Description

[New York: Currier & Ives, 1868]. Lithograph, coloured by hand, drawn on stone by James Merritt Ives. Visible image size: 17 3/8 x 26 3/4 inches. Matted, framed and glazed. Trimmed to just outside image. A spectacular image of the West from the best known lithographic printers of the 19th century. 'A paradigm of the Old West. In the foreground, the populace of a small settlement of log buildings turn out to see a railroad train whose cars bear the legend "Through Line, New York, San Francisco." Belching smoke (which balks two mounted Indians on the right), the train is on tracks running on a diagonal to the upper left, disappearing over the hoizon. the tracks are paralleled by a dirt trail upon which a wagon train is seen in the distance.' (Gale). Conningham Currier & Ives Prints 0130; Gale Currier & Ives: A Catalogue Raisonné 0119.

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