Image and Imagination: Art of the American West
Collage of Artwork
Documenting Westward Expansion Revealing an Unseen Landscape Portraying the Native American


Bodmer Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers lithograph

Karl Bodmer, Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, lithograph, c.1832
Collection of the Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri - St. Louis 		Notwithstanding all that has been written and said, there is scarcely any subject on which the knowing people of the East, are yet less informed and instructed than on the character...of the West; by this I mean the "Far West;" -the country whose fascinations spread a charm over the mind almost dangerous to civilized pursuits. Few people even know the true defintion of the term "West;" and where is its location?-phantom-like it flies before us as we travel, and on our way is continually gilded, before us, as we approach the setting sun.

George Caitlin (1796-1872), Letter No. 9, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, 1841.

 Boehl St. Louis Levee photograph

Emil Boehl, St. Louis Levee, photograph, c.1870.
Collection of the Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

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