Western Survey Expeditions of, 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874

Summary

Creators:

Timothy H. O'Sullivan and William Bell

Extent:

150 photographic prints ; stereograph, albumen ; 10 x 18 cm. 150 digital objects

Language:

English

Background

Scope and content:

This survey expedition stereograph collection consists of 150 albumen stereographs taken of and for the Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian from 1871-1874. The publisher is the War Department Corps of Engineers, U.S.A. The U.S. Geographical and Geological Surveys were implemented for the purpose of surveying, mapping, and studying the vast expanses of the previously unknown western landscapes of the United States. Timothy H. O'Sullivan and William Bell were the official photographers of the surveys.

The collection is distributed over four accession numbers as follows: 1905.17116 consists of 50 stereograph views taken by both photographers from the 1871-1874 expeditions, and includes images of Zuni, Navajo, Apache, and Ute Indians, Canyon de Chelly and the Grand Canyon, and other sites in New Mexico and Arizona. 1905.17117 consists of 23 stereograph images taken by O'Sullivan from the 1871 expedition, and includes images of Black Canyon and the Grand Canyon, and other New Mexico and Arizona sites. 1905.17118 consists of 39 stereograph views taken by Bell from the 1872 expedition, and includes images of the Canyon of Kanab Creek, the Grand Canyon, and various New Mexico and Arizona sites. 1905.17119 consists of 38 stereograph views taken by O'Sullivan from the 1873 expedition, and includes images of Zuni, Navajo, and Apache Indians, and Canyon de Chelly. Printed captions on the backs of the stereographs are partially reprinted in the container listing.

Biographical / historical:

Timothy H. O'Sullivan

Timothy H. O'Sullivan was born in 1840. He learned photography at the New York gallery of Mathew Brady, and accompanied Brady on a Civil War photography assignment. In 1863 O'Sullivan left Brady to establish his own gallery in Washington D.C. He published a series of "Photographic Incidents of the War" (1862-1865). In 1867 he joined the Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel, led by Clarence King, which was the first of the four great post-war surveys carried out by the United States Government. This expedition explored the area from the eastern edge of the Sierras and across the great Basin to the front range of the Rocky Mountains.

After three years as King's photographer, O'Sullivan was appointed Photographer to the Darien Surveying Expedition in 1870 by the Secretary of the Navy. The purpose of this expedition was to report to the government on possible routes for a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He returned to the West in 1871 with the Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, commanded by Lieutenant George M. Wheeler of the Corps of Engineers. The party surveyed Owens Valley, Death Valley, and the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Most of O'Sullivan's photographs during this expedition were ruined in transit. O'Sullivan was transferred back to a Clarence King survey in 1872, to a team that went to Wyoming. In the winter of 1872-1873, O'Sullivan printed two sets of his King survey photographs for an exhibition at the World's Fair in Vienna in 1873. In 1873 O'Sullivan accompanied Wheeler once again, this time to Arizona and New Mexico, photographing the mysterious Native American ruins of Canyon de Chelly, San Miguel Church in Santa Fe, and Zuni Pueblo. In 1874 he visited the West for the last time, working in northern New Mexico, southern Colorado, and Idaho. He became Photographer to the U.S. Treasury Department in 1880. O'Sullivan died of tuberculosis in Staten Island in 1882.

(Sources: Dingus, Rich. The Photographic Artifacts of Timothy O'Sullivan. Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1982, pp. 4, 12-13; Newhall, Beaumont and Nancy. T. H. O'Sullivan: Photographer. Rochester, N.Y.: The George Eastman House, in collaboration with The Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1966.)

William Bell

William Bell was born in Liverpool, England in 1830. His career as a photographer began as a daguerreotyper working for John Keenan beginning in 1848. In 1852 he opened his own daguerreotype gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1873 he took on William H. Rau as an assistant photographer and later became his partner (1870s). Bell's photographic collections include the Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian Expedition of 1872, and Expeditions of 1871, 1872, 1873 and 1874. He died in 1910 in Philadelphia.

(Source: Treadwell, T. K. and William C. Darrah. Stereographers of the World. [Byran, Texas] : National Stereoscopic Association, c1994, v. 2.)

Acquisition information:

Unknown.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

Website