The American Dream is fundamentally about hope—the hope that a better life awaits your initiative, your cleverness, your hard work. It’s about making your own future. In The Great American West, we see the American Dream as it used to be: in ancient maps and colorful broadside posters, in letters sent home by lonesome gold miners, in newspaper clippings about famous outlaws, in drawings and photographs and diaries from the frontier. Immersed in this unique collection of Western artifacts, we can answer the question: “Is the American Dream still alive today?”