Photographs Showing Landscapes, Geological and Other Features, of Portions of the Western Territory of the United States, Obtained in connection with Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, Season of 1871
Medium
Albumen silver prints from glass negatives
Dimensions
Image (each, approximately): 10 7/8 × 7 7/8 in. (27.6 × 20 cm) Sheet (each, approximately): 10 7/8 × 7 7/8 in. (27.6 × 20 cm) Printed Border (each): 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 28 cm) Mount (each): 19 3/4 × 15 3/4 in. (50.1 × 40 cm) Overall: 20 1/16 × 17 3/16 × 2 1/4 in. (51 × 43.6 × 5.7 cm)
Classification
Albums|Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1986
Accession Number
1986.1054 (1–35)
Art Historical Context
This remarkable album compiles photographs made by Timothy H. O’Sullivan during Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler’s 1871 survey west of the 100th meridian. Commissioned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the expedition sought to map remote territories, assess natural resources, document geological formations across Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. O’Sullivan’s images—ranging from towering canyon walls to arid basins—served both scientific and promotional purposes, helping the federal government understand and publicize the vast lands acquired after the Mexican-American War. Created a...
About the Artist
Timothy H. O'Sullivan|Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler · 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...