The timeline follows the shaping of the myth of the U.S. West, from its early articulations in Captivity Narratives and Travel Accounts to its contemporary revival in Film and TV.
Author:Geronimo de Zárate Salmerón; Writing Date:October 7th 1604- January 25th 1605; Publication Date: 1626; Place: Traveled from Mexico to the Gulf of California.
Author: Jacques Marquette; Writing Date:May-July 1673; Publication Date:1681; Place:Mississippi River.
Author:Fernando del Bosque; Writing Date:Beginning in April 1675; Publication Date: Printed in Spanish in 1888 and later in English in 1916; Place:Traveled from Mexico to Texas.
Author: Mary Rowlandson; Writing Date: February-March 1676; Publication Date:1682; Place:Lancaster, Massachusetts
Author: Cotton Mather; Writing Date: February-March 1690; Publication Date:1702; Place: Salmon Falls (New Hampshire).
Author: Cotton Mather; Writing Date: March 1697;Publication Date: 1702; Place: Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Author: James E. Seaver; Writing Date: 1755 (The captivity took place in 1755, but Seaver interviewed Jemison in November 1823, and that was the time when the actual writing of the narrative took place); Publication Date:March 1824; Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Author: David Thompson; Writing Date: 1784-1812; Publication Date: 1916; Place: North Dakota, Columbia River, Idaho and Montana.
Author: Oliver M. Spencer; Writing Date: 1792; Publication Date:1834; Place: Cincinnati.
Author: William Clark and Meriwether Lewis (+ Thomas Jefferson); Writing Date:1804-1806 (+1783); Publication Date:1904; Place:Pacific Northwest, Missouri River.
The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States of America, with lyrics written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key. For decades, it was a well-known American patriotic song, which gained popularity throughout the nineteenth century. By a law signed on March 3, 1931 by President Herbert Hoover, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem of the United States.
Among the chapters in this collection of short sketches, James Hall tells the story of Daniel Boone, the mythic hero of the West, as the model for the American pioneers: "Brave adventurous, restless, delighting in danger and strife more than garnering of material wealth".
James Fenimore Cooper is considered one of the most prominent American writers of all times. In his series of novels The Leatherstocking Tales, he presented a blend of conventional romantic fiction from the East with the setting and themes of the new American West in a manner which was never attempted so successfully before.
Catherine Sedgwick is a unique writer not just because she was a woman who contributed to the forming of a genre we consider masculine, but also because of her variation on the popular captivity narratives.
Painter: Thomas Cole (1801-1848); Oil on Canvas.
Painter: Thomas Cole (1801-1848); Oil on Wood.
Written as an autobiography, Crockett presents the frontier hero with "backwoods" origins.
Painter: Thomas Cole (1801-1848); Oil on canvas.
William Gilmore Simms writes the story of brothers Clarence and Edward Conway fighting against each other in the South. One is a good leader of the people whilst the other is the head of a bandit group.
This ballad was popularized during the Californian Gold Rush Era, 1848-1855. Some believed its hero to have been a real person and others thought of him as a mythical figure.
Painter: George Inness (1825-1894); Oil on canvas.
Painter: Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868)
Painter: Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902); Oil on canvas.
Painter: Virgil Williams (1830-1886); Oil on canvas.
Painter: Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902); Oil on canvas.
"The literary west may be said to have founded itself upon the imagination of Bret Harte" (Henry Seidel Canby, 1926).
Ned Buntline created one of the most memorable characters to star in the western genre and influence all western heroes from thereon.
"Home On The Range," first published in the early 70's of the 19th century, was made the State Song of Kansas in 1947.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was one of the most prominent writers in American history. His humorous semi-autobiography Roughing It depicts his journey through the Wild West during the years 1861–1867 and the American civil war.
Painter: Albert Bierstadt; Oil on canvas.
The Chisholm Trail was a trail which originated in the south of Texas and continued to the north of Kansas. The formation of the trail is attributed to Jess Chisholm and is believed to have been created in 1865.
Painter: William Hahn (1829-1887); Oil on canvas.
Author Adolph Bandelier was an archeologist fascinated with Native American life. He sought to give an accurate depiction of the prehistoric life of the natives in the form of a novel instead of a "dry" historical account.
Simon Pokagon, a Native American Chief, is the second native ever to publish a novel. His story follows the life of the Potawatomi people in a rapidly changing world as white settlers spread across the land.
Owen Wister's The Virginian (also called The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plain) was published in 1902.
This ballad is also known as "The Dying Cowboy" and "The Cowboy's Lament." It is claimed to be one of the most well known cowboy ballads.
Riders of the Purple Sage, one of Zane Grey's bestsellers, was published in 1912, but is set in 1871 in the Mormon village of Cottonwoods, Utah.
Charles Marion Russell, oil on canvas, 12 X 25 ft.
Eanger Irving Couse, Oil on canvas, 35 x 46 inch.
Nikolai Fechin, Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 76.2 cm.
Maynard Dixon, oil on canvas.
Jackson Pollock, oil on fiberboard, 38.3 x 52.7.
This 1939 Western, featuring John Wayne in his breakthrough role, has received various awards and honors and has been recognized as one of the top Western films of all times.
This black and white Western is set along the backdrop of the American Civil War and evokes, more than anything else, the western as the story of characters who traverse borders as opposed to those who maintain them.
Georgia O'Keeffe, Oil on canvas, 68.8 x 76.1 cm, Alfred Stieglitz Collection.
The Big Sky is about an expedition to the Oregon Trail that leaves from Kentucky westward.
This Western classic is based on the historical event of the opening of the Chisholm trail, which was used during the 19th century to drive cattle from Texas to Kansas.
Based on a 1927 novel of the same name, Treasure of the Sierra Madre was a 1948 movie notable for its unique portrayal of the turbulent Mexican landscape during the 1920's civil war, and for having been one of the first American-made films to be filmed entirely on location outside the United States (in this case, in Northern Mexico).
"Riders in the sky: a cowboy legend," written – or perhaps, adapted – by Stan Jones, is derived from an ancient Norse myth, which probably existed earlier than 1200 A.D.
Shane, by Jack Schaefer, is set in Wyoming in the mid-19th century. The local farmers are trying to defend themselves from a cattle driver named Fletcher. Fletcher desires to expand his herd to the other farmers' territories. A mysterious stranger named Shane helps the local farmers to fight Fletcher off and regain their property.
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