Credit: The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, The University of Virginia Library Media type: engraving Museum Number: Year: 1843

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-USZC4-6206 Year: 1848

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-05086 Year: 1835

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-USZ62-366 Year: 1836

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-USZ62-90728 Annotation: John Brown’s Raid on the bridge that links Harpers Ferry with Maryland. Year: 1859

Credit: The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, The University of Virginia Library Media type: engraving Museum Number: Annotation: Godey’s Lady’s Book was a monthly periodical particularly popular amongst women in the 19th century. Initially published by Philadelphia’s Louis Godey, the magazine offered original artwork and arcticles by American contributors, many of whom were women. Godey’s Lady’s…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-USZC4-6207 Annotation: In September of 1847, US military forces led 13,000 soldiers in an attack against 4,000 Mexican Army regulars and some 400 Mexican Army cadets at Chapultepec Castle, just south of Mexico City. The ensuing American victory is immortalized in the first lines of the US Marine Hymn, referred…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: Annotation: The illustration is from a popular nineteenth-century publication. It shows reformer Wendell Phillips (1811-1884) addressing an April 11,1851 meeting to protest the case of Thomas Sims, a fugitive slave being tried in Boston. A fiery and persuasive orator, Phillips was a member of the Boston Committee of Vigilance…

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-USZC4-1661 Annotation: Image of an American family relaxing on a porch, c.1877. Year: 1877

Credit: Library of Congress Media type: engraving Museum Number: LC-USZC2-3757 Annotation: In 1845 John O’Sullivan, the editor of the Democratic review, coined the term Manifest Destiny to encourage the annexation of Texas and the Oregon country to the United States, “that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the…