Library of Congress
In 1868 the lithography firm of Currier & Ives produced this fanciful print dramatizing the railroad heading into the American west. A wagon train has led the way, and is disappearing into the background on the left. In the foreground, railroad tracks separate the settlers in their newly constructed small town from the untouched scenery populated by Indians.
And a mighty steam locomotive, its stack bellowing smoke, pulls passengers westward as both settlers and Indians seem to admire its passing.
Commercial lithographers were highly motivated to produce prints they could sell to the public. Currier & Ives, with their developed sense of popular taste, must have believed this romantic view of the railroad playing a major part in the settlement of the west would strike a chord.
People revered the steam locomotive as a vital part of an expanding nation. And the prominence of the railroad in this lithograph mirrors the place it was beginning to take in the American consciousness.