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c. 1860 Broadside Song Sheet titled, TO THE WEST! publisher H. De Marsan, NY

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:220.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 400.00 USD
c. 1860 Broadside Song Sheet titled, TO THE WEST! publisher H. De Marsan, NY
Western America
Scarce c. 1860 Broadside Song Sheet: “TO THE WEST!”
c. 1860 Broadside Song Sheet titled, “TO THE WEST!” with Black and White Figures, publisher H. De Marsan, 54 Chatham Street, New York, Very Fine.
This historic Broadside with a Decorative Ornate Woodcut Border in the design of numerous humorous figures, monographic printed on this single white wove paper sheet measuring 9.75” x 6.75” (25 cm x 17 cm). Various representations of both Black and White people are used in the border design, including a Black Banjo Player and a White Fiddler, among others. Edges worn and with several short 1” edge tears, lower right corner repaired with tape on the blank reverse. At center is the original, four verse poem being all about the bounty of the American West, beginning in part:

"TO THE WEST! --- To the west! to the west! to the land of the free, Where the mighty Missouria rolls down to the sea, Where a man is a man if he is willing to toil, And the humblest may gather the fruits of the soil, Where children are blessings, and he who hath most Has aid to his fortune, and riches to boast; Where the young may exult, and the aged may rest, Away, far away, to the land of the west."

Scarce. Listed by the Library of Congress: National Expansion and Reform

Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860
Library of Congress: National Expansion and Reform

Traveling on the Overland Trails, 1843-1860

Overview Documents:

To the West! - H. De Marsan, Publisher, 54 Chatham Street, N.Y.

To the West!

To the West!

America Singing

The most remote area explored by mountain men in the 1820s and 1830s was the Oregon country, the region consisting of present-day Oregon and Washington. In the 1830s and 1840s, Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements along the Missouri River.

Americans' interest in Oregon and California country grew with each passing year, as the emigrants sent letters back home describing the region to their friends and family. After the discovery of gold in California in 1848, an even larger group of people set out on the overland trails for California.

Whether traveling to Oregon or California, the emigrants found that overland travel was difficult and filled with danger. The pioneers and their animals were worn out at the end of their journey.

To find more American Memory sources on this topic, search the collections using such terms as overland journeys to the Pacific, frontier and pioneer life [by state], exploration, surveys, and guidebooks [by state], or using specific geographical or human-made features of the area (e.g., Platte River, Snake River, Fort Laramie).