Historic Timeline

View paintings in the Museum’s collection alongside major historical, political, and cultural events, beginning with the American Revolution and leading up to the founding of the AMWA.

1776

Congress formally endorsed the Declaration of Independence

1789

George Washington was sworn in as first President of the United States

1790-1830

Start of the Industrial Revolution

1803

President Jefferson purchased Louisiana Territory

1805

The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Pacific Ocean

1810-1840

Fur trade reaches its peak

1812

Congress declared war on Great Britain

1819-1820

Expeditionary artists travel to the Rocky Mountains

1821

The Mexican Revolution opens trade between the US and Mexico

1823-1841

James Fennimore Cooper published The Leatherstocking Tales

1830

Congress passed the Indian Removal Act

1832

George Catlin traveled west by steamship

1835-1848

Texas declared Independence from Mexico

1836

First wagon train along the Oregon Trail

1844

Samuel Morse sent the first long-distance telegraph message

1845

The term Manifest Destiny is coined

1848

The California Gold Rush begins

1849-1869

The Pacific Railroad Company builds west

1850s

The US government built wagon roads

c. 1850

William Tylee Ranney travels west

1851

The Laramie Treaty was signed

1852

Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin

1858

Colorado Gold Rush begins

1860

Pony Express Mail Service

1861-1865

American Civil War

1862

The Homestead Act

1864

The Sand Creek Massacre

1865

Abraham Lincoln shot at Ford’s Theater

1865-1876

The Sioux Wars

1866-1890

The Open Range Cattle Industry and the Era of the Cowboy

1866

William Jacob Hays painted The Gathering of the Herds

1867

US purchases Alaska

1870

15th Amendment granted right to vote to African American men

1871

First National Park established

1872

Innovations in photography impact painting

1876-1877

Bell’s First Telephone

1879

The relocation of the Southern Utes

1880

The Navarre Building Constructed in Denver

1881

Remington begins illustrating the West

1889

Oklahoma Land Rush

1890

Massacre at Wounded Knee

1893

Western markets crashed

1898

The Spanish American War

1898

Blumenschein and Phillips travel to Taos, New Mexico

1903

First narrative film

1913

The Armory Show

1913

Henry Ford established the assembly line

1915

The Taos Society of Artists was founded

1915

N.C. Wyeth painted The Lady Wins

1917-1918

The United States participated in World War I

1920

19th Amendment granted right to vote to women

1924

Indian Citizen Act signed into law

1926

US Highway System

1929

Black Tuesday

1933 - 1935

Federal Art Projects

1935

Georgia O’Keeffe painted Red Hills, Grey Sky

1941-1945

World War II

1944

G.I. Bill signed

1952

Emil Bisttram created The Mirror

1967

Ralph Brownell McGrew painted Going on a Visit

1969

Thomas Hart Benton painted Wheat Threshing on the High Plains

1976

Helen Frankenthaler visits the West

1979

Fritz Scholder painted An American Portrait

1981

Harold Joe Waldrum painted Church at Arroyo Hondo

1991

New Appreciation for Western American Art

1997

Kim Wiggins painted Merging of Cultures

2009

Ed Mell painted Flashing Storm

2010

AMWA founded