ANONYMOUS CHASE & BACHELDER'S AMERICAN MUSEUM OF ART. Circa 1875. 36 1/2x27 inches. Stafford & Co., Nottingham. Condition A-: creases and slight staining in margins and image. Woodblock. Framed. In many ways this is not only one of the earliest travel or travel-related posters ever created but also the wellspring and influence of all future American travel images. Here, an allegorical figure leads trains, covered wagons, coaches and prospectors across America. To the best of our knowledge there never was such an institution as Chase & Bachelder's American Museum of Art, neither in America nor in England, where this poster was printed. More likely, this image was used by a printer as a sample of his prowess with woodblocks and printing. The image itself, an American classic, is based on the 1872 painting American Progress by John Gast. Shortly after the painting was created, George Crofutt made a chromolithograph of the image which was widely circulated. To sell his print, he described the image as follows: "a diaphanously and precariously clad America floats westward through the air with the 'Star of Empire' on her forehead. She has left the cities of the East behind, and the wide Mississippi, and still her course is Westward. In her right hand she carries a school book testimonial of the national enlightenment, while with her left she trails the slender wires of the telegraph that will bind the nation. Fleeing her approach are Indians, buffalo, wild horses, bears and other game, disappearing into the storm and waves of the Pacific coast. They flee the wonderous vision -the star is too much for them." This incredible poster of American Manifest Destiny is a woodblock, based upon the chromolithograph after the painting.
