Museum of American Exceptionalism
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Frontier

A continent claimed, crossed and settled. From the Louisiana Purchase to the Alamo to 160 acres of your own.

1803–1867 · 5 exhibits
  1. The flag flies over Jackson Square in New Orleans, the old Place d’Armes, with the Cabildo at left and St. Louis Cathedral at center. Here the Stars and Stripes went up over Louisiana on 20 December 1803.
    1803Open nowThe Louisiana PurchaseJefferson’s envoys doubled the size of the United States in a single treaty, for under three cents an acre.828,000square miles
  2. Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia (Charles M. Russell, 1905)
    1804Open nowLewis & ClarkAcross a continent no American had crossed, to the Pacific, and back again.8,000miles
  3. The Fall of the Alamo: David Crockett swings his rifle as the Mexican assault breaks over the walls on 6 March 1836 (Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, c. 1903).
    1836Open nowRemember the AlamoAbout 200 defenders held an old mission against an army of thousands. Six weeks later, their cry won Texas at San Jacinto.13days
  4. Hattie, Lizzie, Lutie and Ruth Chrisman in front of Lizzie's sod house in Custer County, Nebraska, in 1886. All four sisters went on to file homesteads.
    1862Open nowThe Homestead ActAny citizen willing to live on 160 acres and farm it for five years could own it. Homesteaders claimed 270 million acres, a tenth of the country.270Macres settled
  5. Denali, 20,310 feet, over Wonder Lake before sunrise, Denali National Park and Preserve, July 2018.
    1867Open nowSeward’s BargainMocked as Seward’s Folly, the purchase of Alaska added 586,000 square miles of gold, oil and strategic coast.1.9¢an acre