Head of Cañon de Chelle, Looking Down. Walls about 1200 feet in height
Medium
Albumen print, No. 16 from the album "Geographical & Geological Explorations & Surveys West of the 100th Meridian," vol. 2
Dimensions
Image/paper: 20.2 × 27.7 cm (8 × 10 15/16 in.); Album page: 38.2 × 49.9 cm (15 1/16 × 19 11/16 in.)
Classification
albumen print from collodion negative
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
181359
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Timothy O’Sullivan’s 1873 albumen print the dramatic head of Cañon de Chelly from above, its sandstone walls rising some 1,200 feet. Created during Lieutenant George Wheeler’s Geographical and Geological Survey West of the 100th Meridian, the photograph belongs to an official government album intended to document the topography, resources, and potential of the American Southwest for Congress and the public. ’Sullivan, already celebrated for his Civil War battlefield images, brought the same clarity and compositional rigor to the western landscape. Working with a collodion-on-glass negative, he produced a sharp, richly toned albumen print that conveys both the canyon’s immense scale and the textured striations of its rock faces. The elevated viewpoint emphasizes verticality while inviting viewers to imagine the perilous descent into the gorge below. As both scientific record and work of art, the image helped shape national perceptions of the West. Its inclusion in a multi-volume survey report underscores photography’s emerging role in exploration, transforming remote geological wonders into accessible visual knowledge for nineteenth-century audiences.
About the Artist
Timothy O'Sullivan · 1840–1882
Timothy H. O'Sullivan (c. 1840–1882) emerged as one of America's pioneering photographers during a transformative era. His early life remains sparsely documented, with records suggesting he was born either in New York City or Ireland before immigrating young, possibly growing up on Staten Island. As a teenager, he apprenticed under Mathew Brady at his Fulton Street gallery in New York, mastering w...