---
title: '"American Progress" (John Gast, chromolithograph for George A. Crofutt, 1873)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/american-progress-crofutt-chromolithograph-1873/
description: A woman in white drapery with a star on her brow floats westward over the plains, a schoolbook in one hand and a telegraph wire unspooling from the other.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Allegorical 1873 print of westward settlement in which Native figures and bison are shown fleeing into a darkened sky. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["American Progress" (John Gast, chromolithograph for George A. Crofutt, 1873)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/american-progress-crofutt-chromolithograph-1873.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/american-progress-crofutt-chromolithograph-1873.jpg)

# "American Progress" (John Gast, chromolithograph for George A. Crofutt, 1873)

A woman in white drapery with a star on her brow floats westward over the plains, a schoolbook in one hand and a telegraph wire unspooling from the other. Behind her come railways, wagons and settlers with ploughs; ahead, bison, bears and Native riders move into a dark sky. The message rests on a virtue word ('Progress', the title Crofutt gave the print) and the prestige of a classical allegorical figure rather than on any stated claim.

## Text on the object

Checked for printed text

No printed or legible text on this object.

No lettering is printed on the picture side shown here; the only marks in the margins are the printer's colour bars and registration marks, and a Library of Congress microfilming stamp at the foot. The verso carries a printed advertisement for Crofutt's Western World that is not part of the hosted image and is not transcribed here (see LOC record LC-DIG-cph-3a20596).

[← L'Homme a la boule (Draner), French caricature of a Prussian leader on a globe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lhomme-a-la-boule-draner-1870/) [¡¡Viva Chile!! Suscrición popular para comprar una Nueva Esmeralda (Popular Subscription to Buy a New Esmeralda) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/suscricion-popular-nueva-esmeralda-1879/)

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