John Gast: American Progress Painting

American Progress, a painting sometimes called Westward the Course of History, Westward Ho!, or Manifest Destiny, is one of the most widely reproduced images from the post–Civil War era having to do with America’s westward expansion. It originated as an oil painting by John Gast that was commissioned by publisher George A. Crofutt, who then reproduced and distributed it as a lithograph. The painting is housed in the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles. On the reverse side of the original lithograph was an advertisement for Crofutt’s Western World, a periodical that was one of Crofutt’s popular travel publications promoting travel and tourism in the West; the ad promised a free copy of the image to each new subscriber. The image became emblematic of the concept of “manifest destiny,” the belief held by many Americans in the mid- to late nineteenth century that the “destiny” of the United States was to expand its dominion westward across the continent, spreading democracy and progress.