The whole continent, in short, seemed prepared to be the abode of a great nation, yet unborn.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835

Under a broad golden sky, a mountain guide at lower left points to the distance, instructing his companions where to look. The sun’s golden orb, thickly painted, sits like an ingot in the sky, a shining emblem of the land’s riches. Images of landscape and ideas of nation were deeply intertwined, helping to shape and articulate American identity in the mid-nineteenth century. These monumental panoramic views of the West, both literal and in paintings, promised Americans a golden future. Albert Bierstadt was the first American painter to capture fully the symbolic power of the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Yosemite Valley. Ironically, his "untouched" landscapes were post-settlement spectacles, made after the completion of the transcontinental railway through the western frontier, which brought thousands of tourists to the West, such as those shown here.