Gender and identity are deeply intertwined, and this paper will investigate how Manifest Destiny indirectly provided women the chance to change their narrative in society. In this paper, a painting from the Hudson River school encouraging manifest destiny will be linked to a letter by Isabella Bird to display how manifest destiny opened a door for women to gain a new purpose through settlement and exploration. Emerging around 1825, the Hudson River School was America’s first artistic fraternity and was composed of a variety of different landscape painters from New York City. The school was founded by landscape painter and English émigré, Thomas Cole. Although Cole played no significant role in the fostering of the school, his work was an inspiration that motivated others to follow his trail. Before his death in 1848, Thomas Cole was the teacher of Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt (Avery). This paper will highlight one of Bierstadt's paintings titled The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak (Appendix 1). This particular work was painted when Bierstadt returned from his travels in the west in