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 