May 2023
The Great Triumvirate
Week 1
1. The Barbary Wars
The Barbary Wars marked the first major international conflict between the United States and a group of loosely aligned privateers and pirates…
2. The Corps of Discovery
The Corps of Discovery was the expedition tasked with exploring and observing the ecosystem of the Louisiana Purchase and beyond…
3. Washington Allston
Washington Allston painted the “Storm Rising at Sea’ in 1804 making him one of the earliest landscape painters of the United States…
4. The War of 1812
The famous painting, “The Battle of Erie,” displayed an imagined scene from one of the notable battles from the War of 1812…
5. William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant of Massachusetts was an early American writer. He contributed to American culture in the areas of poetry and journalism…
Week 2
6. John James Audubon
John James Audubon was one of the first American naturalists. He left detailed notes and illustrations of American wildlife, particularly birds…
7. Petalesharo
Petalesharo was a Pawnee chief from the Great Plains (present-day Nebraska). He delivered remarks on Pawnee culture to the US President…
8. Henry Clay
Henry Clay of Kentucky served several roles in state and federal legislative and executive branches of government from 1803 to 1852…
9. Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was one of the great legal minds and political thinkers of the first half of the 19th century…
10. William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was an American abolitionist and journalist. His newspaper, “The Liberator,” frequently reported stories advancing abolition…
Week 3
11. Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American writer who’s short stories, essays, and other works gained prominence during the first half of the 1800s…
12. James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was an American writer known for historical romances who lived during the first half of the 1800s…
13. George Catlin
This painting of Black Hawk, the Sauk chief and namesake of the Black Hawk War of 1832 was created by American artist George Catlin…
14. Davy Crockett
David Crockett had two prominent nicknames, “Davy” and “King of the Wild Frontier,” and participated in numerous historical events…
15. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson published the essay “Nature” in 1836. Historians often view this book as the beginning of the transcendentalism movement…
Week 4
16. Jim Bridger
Jim Bridger was n American outdoorsman. He worked as a trapper, wilderness guide, and wilderness guide…
17. John C. Fremont
Although John C. Fremont accomplished much in the 1800s, his adventures in the American West brough him attention in the 1840s…
18. The Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was the beginning of a major depression in the United States that resulted in loss of profits, a drop in prices, and loss of wages…
19. Mexican-American War
Some historians have argued that the painting, “War News from Mexico,” by Richard Caton Woodville, Sr. showed the emotions of the typical American…
20. California Gold Rush
In 1848, gold was discovered in California. News of this find caused people from around the world to go to California to search for gold…