This gallery features early exploration art of the American West with works by John James Audubon, C.B. King, Thomas Moran, and others from the 19th century. 

The nation of the United States has looked westward from its early days. Many people believe that the idea of the frontier, a boundary between a developed area and an unknown region, has helped to shape the identity of this country. With advancing exploration and then settlement, the frontier moved. This concept of the frontier discounted the fact that American Indians had known and occupied this land for centuries, but powerfully affected the perception of the land and its potential use.

In the early nineteenth century artists traveled into regions of the American West. They came to view and depict what they regarded as a new and unexplored country and unknown peoples. The artists’ works documented, interpreted, and created enduring images of the land, the wildlife, and the peoples of the West that would become America.