Desert Lake, near Ragtown, Nevada
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 22.3 x 29.1 cm (8 3/4 x 11 7/16 in.) Mat: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.1204
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Desert Lake, near Ragt, Nevada** (1867) captures the stark beauty of the American West through the lens of Timothy H. O'Sullivan, pioneering photographer known for his work with the U.S. Geologicalations of the Forti Parallel. This albumen silver print from a negative documents a remote desert lake near Ragtown—a fleeting Pony Express station and California Trail waypoint—amid the arid expanses of Nevada. Taken during Clarence King's ambitious surveys to map the region's geology and resources post-Civil War, the image reflects Manifest Destiny's drive to explore and exploit the frontier, ble...
About the Artist
Timothy H. O'Sullivan · 1840–present
Timothy H. O'Sullivan (c. 1840–1882) was a pioneering American photographer whose unflinching lens captured the raw devastation of the Civil War and the sublime vastness of the untamed West. Born in New York City—or possibly Ireland, with his family migrating soon after—his early life remains sparsely documented. As a teenager, he apprenticed under Mathew Brady at the famed daguerreotype studio on...