Description
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.
Background
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.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.
Extent
150 photographic prints ; stereograph, albumen ; 10 x 18 cm.
150 digital objects
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted
in writing to the Curator of Pictorial Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library
as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must
also be obtained by the reader.
Availability
Collection is available for use.