Natural resources are materials supplied by nature, such as wood, minerals, water, and wildlife. A natural resource important to the people, animals, and crops in the painting Mahantango Valley Farm was water.

A hobbyhorse, also called a rocking horse, is a toy that children can pretend is a real horse to ride.

A portrait shows a person or group of people. The Hobby Horse is a portrait of a boy and girl.

Explorers are people who travel into uncharted territory for adventure and discovery.

A settler is a person who moves to uninhabited area, called a frontier.

Folk tales are stories of a people. Stories about the Willey family in Crawford Notch became American folk tales.

A notch is a narrow pass with steep sides through the mountains.

A landscape is a painting of the outdoors. Crawford Notch is an example of a landscape painting.

An avalanche is a large mass of rocks or snow that slides down a mountain.

A stagecoach is a four-wheeled carriage pulled by horses. Thomas Cole painted one in Crawford Notch.

Geography is a science that studies how the earth’s physical features affect the life forms on it.

In the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the United States gained land from the Mississippi River west to the Rocky Mountains and from New Orleans north to Canada.

Genre paintings show scenes from everyday life. George Caleb Bingham’s The Jolly Flatboatmen is a genre painting.

Flatboats had a flat bottom and were used for carrying freight in shallow waters or on rivers. They were a popular means of transportation until the 1830s.

Steamboats are driven by steam power and were bigger and faster than flatboats.

The Indian Removal Act (1830) forced native Americans off their lands east of the Mississippi River.

In the Industrial Revolution (1790s-middle 1800s) power tools replaced hand tools. Mass production meant that goods could be made more quickly and cheaply.

In relief sculpture figures stick out from the background they are attached to. The Shaw Memorial is an example of a relief sculpture.

The American Civil War (1861-1865) was a war between two sections of the country, the North and the South.

Abolitionists wanted to end slavery.

The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) freed enslaved black people.