Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way
(also known as Westward Ho) is a 20-by-30-foot
(6.1 m × 9.1 m) painted mural displayed behind
the western staircase of the House of Representatives
chamber in the United States Capitol Building.
The mural was painted by Emanuel Gottlieb
Leutze in 1861 and symbolizes Manifest Destiny,
the belief that the United States was destined
for Western exploration and expansion originating
from the initial colonies along the Atlantic
seaboard to the Pacific Ocean.
A study measuring 33 1⁄4 by 43 3⁄8 inches
(84.5 cm × 110.2 cm) hangs in the Smithsonian
American Art Museum.The darkness turning into
light represents the greatness that was believed
to lie in the future West.
== Content ==
Leutze combined pioneer men and women, mountain
guides, wagons, and mules to suggest a divinely
ordained pilgrimage to the Promised Land of
the western frontier.
Within the left half of the picture is a depiction
of the entrance to the San Francisco Bay,
the Golden Gate, which is being pointed to
by the pilgrim seated atop the rock in the
foreground.
Within the right hemisphere of the painting
is a depiction of a valley, representing the
Valley of Darkness and symbolic of the troubles
faced by explorers.
The imagery is familiar imperial iconography
and is regarded as a symbol of American exceptionalism
and the realization of Manifest Destiny, ultimately
leading to the evolution of the American Empire.
== Literary reference ==
The painting takes its inspiration from the
closing lines of George Berkeley's Verses
on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning
in America:
== Influences ==
The imagery of the pilgrim gesturing on a
high rock is very similar to the 5 cent postage
stamp, Fremont in the Rocky Mountains that
was part of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Issue,
and reprinted a century later.
A Currier and Ives print from 1868 uses the
same title and theme for a very different
print, showing a railroad crossing a new settlement
as the train goes west.
A photographic print and a stereograph by
Alexander Gardner, both of an 1867 end-of-track
frontier construction train, were titled "Westward
The Course of Empire Takes Its Way".
== In popular culture ==
David Foster Wallace named one of his short
stories "Westward the Course of Empire Takes
Its Way" in his 1989 collection Girl with
Curious Hair.
Early revisions of the 1995 computer game
Oregon Trail II depict the study version of
this painting on the title screen
