Domestic Animals and American Identity II

Many of the animals we associate with America are not American at all. Horses, cows, and most other domesticated livestock were introduced into North America by European colonists. Their presence in this selection of artworks by George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton subtly represented European colonization and the complex cultural and environmental issues associated with “civilizing” the native “wilderness.” The second installment of Domestic Animals and American Identity now on display contains a variety of works by Bingham and Benton, including Benton drawings illustrating Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Bingham's famous series of prints representing political campaigns and elections in the the 1850s.