COLUMBIA, AMERICAN PROGRESS, JOHN GAST
John Gast (painter) - Wikipedia
John Gast (21 December 1842 in Berlin, Prussia – 26 July 1896 in Brooklyn) was a Prussian-born American painter and lithographer.
His most famous work is American Progress (1872); this painting and many of his drawings are found in the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.
John Gast was a Prussian-born painter, printer, and lithographer who lived and worked most of his life during the 1870s in Brooklyn, New York.0
He is primarily remembered for one oil painting, "American Progress," which he painted in 1872 on commission for George Crofutt, the publisher of a popular series of western travel guides.
Few Americans saw the actual painting, but many encountered it in reproduction. Crofutt included an engraving of it in his guidebooks and produced a large chromolithographic version for his subscribers.1
Gast also filed seven new printing patents and was instrumental in establishing several businesses, including the Gast Banknote and Lithograph Company. He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., on July 26th, 1896, at the age of 55.2