| Date |
 |
Politics and Empire |
|
Art and Literature |
|
| 1850 |
|
Jasper Francis Cropsey, High Torne Mountain |
|
| 1851 |
Treaty signed at Fort Laramie, Wyoming; Native Americans given annuities for allowing US to build roads and forts in Indian Territory |
The Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. Death of JMW Turner |
|
| 1852 |
|
John Frederick Kensett, A Reminiscence of the White Mountains |
|
| 1853 |
'Gadsden Purchase' : land along Mexico's northern border purchased by the US |
Church's first trip to South America. Frederic Church, Mount Ktaadn |
|
| 1855 |
|
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha. Frederic Church, The Andes of Ecuador |
|
| 1856 |
|
John Martin's Last Judgement triptych exhibited on Broadway. Cropsey moves to England for 7 years |
|
| 1857 |
Outbreak of the Indian 'Mutiny', or uprising against British Rule in India |
Church's second trip to South America; Church exhibits Niagara in New York, to great acclaim. Opening of the South Kensington Museum in London |
|
| 1858 |
|
Church's Niagara tours Britain. Sanford Robinson Gifford, Mount Mansfield |
|
| 1859 |
Outbreak of the 'Pig War', a boundary dispute between Great Britain and U.S. over the San Juan Islands in the Washington Territory; not resolved until 1872 |
Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. Albert Bierstadt travels with FW Lander's government-sponsored railway survey expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Church's Heart of the Andes is sold for $10,000, the highest price for a work by a living American artist.
Church travels to Newfoundland and Labrador sketching icebergs |
|
| 1860 |
Abraham Lincoln elected President, pledging to oppose the spread of slavery; South Carolina secedes from the Union |
|
|
| 1861 |
Outbreak of American Civil War |
Thomas Moran travels to the shores of Lake Superior, collecting material later used for his three paintings inspired by Hiawatha. Sanford Gifford enlists in the New York National Guard. Frederic Edwin Church, The Icebergs |
|
| 1862 |
Congress passes the Pacific Railroad Act: Native American land transferred to US to make way for a transcontinental railroad |
Frederic Edwin Church Cotopaxi |
|
| 1863 |
Emancipation Proclamation declares that all slaves in the Confederate States are 'forever free' |
Bierstadt exhibits The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak. Bierstadt and Fitz Hugh Ludlow travel to Oregon and California, and visit the Yosemite Valley |
|
| 1864 |
|
Fitz Hugh Lane Brace's Rock, Brace's Cove |
|
| 1865 |
End of Civil War Abraham Lincoln assassinated; Andrew Johnson becomes President |
Death of Fitz Hugh Lane |
|
| 1866 |
|
Frederic Church Hunter Mountain, Twilight. Martin Johnson Heade Sudden Shower, Newbury Marshes |
|
| 1867 |
|
Bierstadt shows some of his paintings to Queen Victoria at Osborne House, Isle of Wight. Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara. Thomas Moran, Hiawatha |
|
| 1869 |
The trans-continental Union Pacific railroad completed |
|
