Landscape with a Frontier House 

Thomas Hill painted ‘Landscape with a Frontier House,’ a window into the 19th-century American West. Born in England, Hill became a key figure in the White Mountain School and later the California landscape painting tradition. His work coincided with a period of intense westward expansion, embodying both the promise of the frontier and the erasure of Indigenous presence. Look at the solitary house nestled in the vast landscape. It's easy to see a narrative of rugged individualism, the pioneer spirit conquering nature. But what about those who were already here? What stories are silenced by this vision of uninhabited wilderness? Hill's landscapes are beautiful but were made in a time of profound social and ecological transformation. It invites us to consider whose stories are told and whose are left out of the dominant narratives of American history and identity.