Thomas Cole (1801 – 1836) painted these in 1835 – 1836. The originals are in the New York Historical Society
The Course of Empire
Savage
Pastoral or Arcadian
Consummation
Destruction
Desolation
There is the moral of all human tales;
‘Tis but the same rehearsal of the past.
First freedom and then Glory – when that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption – barbarism at last.
And History, with all her volumes vast,
Hath but one page…
— Lord Byron Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
