Black Canyon, From Camp 8, Looking Above
Timothy H. O'Sullivan, American, 1840 - 1882
1871; print about 1873
Albumen silver print from wet collodion negative, on original lithographed mount
Overall: 20 × 28 1/8 in. (50.8 × 71.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through gifts from the Class of 1955 in honor of their sixtieth reunion
2015.26
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
19th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Stamped, lower center, in blue ink: [in outer circle:] DIVISION OF PRINTS [inside middle circle:] L. C.; stamped, lower center, in purple ink: SURPLUS / DUPLICATE / LIBRARY / OF / CONGRESS; Numbered, lower center, in graphite: 47639 [the 9 of this number is overlapped with the beginning of the word “Duplicate” in the stamp previously described]
Label
The US Government sponsored four major Western surveys between 1867 and 1879, charting the territories west of the Great Plains. Minutely recording these lands’ topography for the first time, the surveys were crucial for planning settlements, constructing railroads, extracting resources, and assessing Native land and people in order to facilitate their forced removal.
Timothy O’Sullivan took this elegant photo of a bend in the Colorado River as the photographer for George M. Wheeler’s survey of lands west of the 100th meridian. The man in the boat—likely geologist Grove Karl Gilbert—looks down at his notebook, perhaps preparing his own documentation of the area.
Below, John K. Hillers records the lush valley and dramatic cliffs of southern Utah’s Zion Canyon, one of many similar scenes he captured on John Wesley Powell’s 1871 expedition exploring the Colorado River region.
From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
SART 29, Photography I, Christina Seely, Spring 2019
SART 29, Photography I, Christina Seely, Fall 2019
ARTH 48.02, History of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Winter 2020
Exhibition History
This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 12 - July 22, 2022.
Published References
Dingus, Rick. The Photographic Artifacts of Timothy O’Sullivan. Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1982.
Kelsey, Robin E. “Viewing the Archive: Timothy O’Sullivan’s Photographs for the Wheeler Survey.” The Art Bulletin. 85.4. (Dec. 2003) 702-723.
Provenance
The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York, New York; Sold to present collection, 2015.
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