Label Text:
This photograph, which scholars consider one of O’Sullivan’s best, highlights the placid water of the Colorado River and the majesty of the abutting canyon walls. A lone figure sits aboard O’Sullivan’s boat, “The Picture,” which carried his traveling darkroom. This small human presence is a poignant contrast to the grandeur of the landscape, but it also alludes to the documentary function of the photograph as part of O’Sullivan’s body of work for Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler’s U.S. Geological Survey West of the 100th Meridian.
Wheeler’s was one of four major surveys of the American West between 1860 and 1879 that explored and mapped large areas, gathering useful information for future settlement and economic ventures, such as railroads. Wheeler’s survey explored the Colorado River and portions of Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California. It produced seventy-one geographical and topographical maps and another seven focused on economic land use.
MD, 2011
Tags:
water; environment; mountains Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2000.376 |
