Nowadays we take for granted the vast railroad system that transports food, materials, and people all over our country. It can sometimes seem like it was always there. But it wasn’t until the mid 1800s, after the country had expanded from coast to coast, that the United States started considering a rail system for the now massive country.
On this date in 1853, Congress appropriated $150,000 for the Army's Topographic Bureau to undertake surveys to find the best route for a transcontinental railroad. They sent out land surveyors, scientists, and engineers, but there was one group that we today probably wouldn’t guess. Can you? It was artists! With photography still in early stages, artists were needed to produce lithographs of the land.
One of those artists was John Mix Stanley, a self taught painter born in New York who had become well known for his art depicting western landscapes, Native American portraits, and tribal life. He was chosen as chief artist for the northern survey, which researched the land between the 47th and 49th parallels from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Puget Sound on the Pacific coast.
For the survey, he produced multiple lithographs of the North Dakota landscape. Some notable ones include a settlement near the Sheyenne River, hillsides with bison, and members of the Assiniboine tribe peacefully counseling with white settlers. Unfortunately, the harmony conveyed in Stanley’s sympathetic images of Indigenous people did not play out in real life. It was an expedition of discovery for colonial settlers, but the expansion of the railroads would hasten the destruction of hunting grounds, gathering places, and sacred sites.
A fire at the Smithsonian in 1865 consumed many of his paintings, but 227 works have survived the years and still get exhibited today.
John Mix Stanley passed away in 1872 at age 58.
Dakota Datebook written by Lucid Thomas
Sources:
https://www.statehistoricalfoundation.org/?id=81
https://web.archive.org/web/20120308064723/http://www.philaprintshop.com/prrs.html
http://cprr.org/Museum/PacRRSurvey_Secty_War_1853.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Surveys
