Category:Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way

**Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way**
	painting by Emanuel Leutze
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Instance of	painting;
Depicts	manifest destiny, cattle, livestock, man, woman, Pilgrims, Golden Gate, San Francisco Bay, musket, horse, covered wagon, mountain, river, blanket, explorer, people and family
Genre	landscape art;
Location	United States Capitol, Capitol Hill, Northeast, Washington, D.C., District of Columbia
Creator	Emanuel Leutze;
Collection	United States Capitol;
Inception	1862;
Width	30 ft;
Height	20 ft;
Different from	Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (mural study, U.S. Capitol);
Authority file
	Q7989813;
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Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way

, also commonly known as Westward Ho!, is a 20-by-30-foot (6.1 m × 9.1 m) painted mural in the United States Capitol Building. It was painted by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816 – July 18, 1868), a German-American history painter best known for Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851). Commissioned by the U.S. Congress in 1860 and completed in 1861, the mural celebrates the idea of the Manifest Destiny, the belief that the United States was destined for Western exploration and expansion originating from the initial colonies along the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. A preliminary oil study measuring 33 ¹⁄₄ by 43 ³⁄₈ inches (84.5 cm × 110.2 cm) hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.