| Date |
 |
Politics and Empire |
|
Art and Literature |
|
| 1870 |
|
Foundation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Sanford Gifford travels to the Colorado Rockies with John F Kensett and Worthington Whittredge |
|
| 1871 |
|
Thomas Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson travel with geologist Ferdinand Hayden's expedition to Yellowstone River region |
|
| 1872 |
Formation of the First National Park at Yellowstone, north-west Wyoming |
Thomas Moran's Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone exhibited in New York and Washington, and purchased by the U.S. government.
Death of John Frederick Kensett.
Albert Bierstadt Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley
|
|
| 1873 |
|
Thomas Moran travels with John Wesley Powell's expedition to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado |
|
| 1874 |
Gen. George A Custer leads a major expedition into the Black Hills to find gold, violating the Sioux Treaty |
Thomas Moran's The Chasm of the Colorado bought by the US government |
|
| 1876 |
Victory of the Plains Indians over the US cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn River in Montana; Custer is killed in what comes to be known as 'Custer's Last Stand' |
|
|
| 1880 |
|
Death of Sanford Gifford |
|
| 1883 |
The Northern Pacific Railroad is completed |
'Buffalo Bill' (William F Cody) presents his first 'Wild West' show, re-enacting a stage-coach hold-up and other scenes from frontier life |
|
| 1885 |
Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway between the east and west coasts of Canada |
|
|
| 1886 |
|
Death of Asher Durand |
|
| 1887 |
Congress passes the General Allotment Act: tribal heads of American Indian families receive allotments of land; 'excess' land taken away |
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show performed in London as part of the American exhibition at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
Jasper Francis Cropsey Winter on the Hudson |
|
| 1889 |
President Benjamin Harrison issues a proclamation opening 'unassigned' lands of Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) for settlement, starting a dramatic land rush |
Bierstadt's The Last of the Buffalo controversially rejected for the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris
|
