To twenty-first-century observers, artistic training may seem an unnecessary frill in a soldier's education. But during the nineteenth and even the twentieth centuries, military officers were expected to sketch battlefields and design fortifications. Officers of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, which organized exploring expeditions, were asked to return with the information needed to map the expanding American West. Thus, the Military Academy at West Point incorporated art into its curriculum within a year after its creation in 1802.

West Point Points West celebrates the confluence of military mission and artistic pursuit. Five distinguished scholars--B. Byron Price, David Reel, John Pultz, Roger Echo-Hawk, and Joan Carpenter Troccoli--offer varying perspectives on the seminal role played by West Point and the U.S. Army in the development of western American art.