Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap
In 1775 Daniel Boone led a group of prospective settlers into Kentucky on behalf of Richard Henderson, a North Carolina judge and self-appointed proprietor of a land speculation venture called the Transylvania Colony. Henderson’s venture soon collapsed, but Boonesborough was one of perhaps a dozen towns founded in Kentucky in violation of crown policy that summer. Boone became a folk hero, and in the mid-nineteenth century George Caleb Bingham painted this memorable scene. Using biblical imagery (the woman on horseback recalls Mary riding into Bethlehem on a donkey) and dramatic lighting, Bingham portrays Boone as an agent of progress bringing civilization to a howling and dangerous wilderness. George Caleb Bingham, Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap, 1851–52. Oil on Canvas, 36½ x 50¼”. Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis. Gift of Nathanial Phillips, 1890.