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An uncommonly fine set of this important series of stereoscopic views from Lieut. George Wheeler's 1871-74 expedition in the West, one of the first systematic surveys of the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The expedition was a large-scale government topographical and geological survey of the region west of the 100th meridian, including Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Idaho. These photographs, taken by the expedition photographer, Timothy O'Sullivan, and his interim replacement, William Bell, are numbered 1 to 50 on the rear of the mounts, which also bear captions identifying the scenes. The series begins with an image of the starting point for O'Sullivan's photographic work on the expedition, aboard small boats about to ascend the Colorado from Camp Mohave, Arizona, and continues more or less chronologically. The photographic crew set their own pace, on a boat named Picture. Included here are photographs of the Grand Canyon, New Mexico pueblos, Zuni villages, Navajos, Apaches, and many beautiful landscapes, by these two major American photographers of the West. In 1872, O'Sullivan left the Wheeler survey to work for Clarence King's 40th Parallel Exploration; but he returned in 1873 to accompany Wheeler in Arizona, New Mexico, the Sierra Blanca Mountains, and Canyon de Chelly. During O'Sullivan's absence, a British-born photographer named William Bell served as his replacement. Late in 1873, O'Sullivan did his last work in the West, photographing Shoshone Falls on the Snake River (in southern Idaho). The last seventeen views here, though dated 1874, must be from 1873, since O'Sullivan had by then apparently returned east. This series of stereoscopic views was issued to display and promote the government-sponsored topographical survey of the West, and to publicize the majesty of the Grand Canyon. This is the complete set, in remarkably fine condition, together with the scarce original gilt cloth folding case. "In 1871, O'Sullivan joined Lieutenant George M. Wheeler's military survey called, 'The United States geographical Surveys Beyond the 100th Meridian.'…The dire circumstances of their expedition bothered O'Sullivan not a whit. He made some of his best pictures in the 3000-foot depth and heat of the Grand Canyon….O'Sullivan was possibly at his dramatic best in his 1873 views of the Canyon de Chelly [cards 21-25]. He photographed the towering sentinel rocks that guard the entrance to the canyon at various times of the day until he got just the right amount of shadow, as the huge obelisks look down upon the tiny white tents of the expedition far below. And then, nobody has caught the mysterious spirit of the Anasazi quite as well as O'Sullivan in his Ancient Ruins in the Canyon de Chelly….In O'Sullivan's photo, the dramatic contrast between the serene and timeless deserted Anasazi cliff house ruins and the gigantic wind-eroded cliff wall that hangs above it is striking. Indeed the picture is an overwhelming emblem of the whole Southwest….A reporter carrying most of O'Sullivan's wet plate photographs of the Grand Canyon was killed by Apaches in the Wickenberg Stagecoach Massacre of 1873, and most of O'Sullivan's photo-plates were destroyed" Goetzmann & Goetzmann, pp.201-203. A full list of the stereo views included is as follows: 1) "The start from Camp Mojave, Arizona. September 15, 1871." O'Sullivan. 2) "View across Black Cañon. The grand walls in perspective." O'Sullivan. 3) "View down Black Cañon from Mirror Bay. The walls repeated by reflection." O'Sullivan. 4) "Grotto Spring. Grand Cañon. Colorado River." O'Sullivan. 5) "Types of Mohave Indians." O'Sullivan. 6) "View of Grand Cañon Walls, near mouth of Diamond River." O'Sullivan. 7) "Mountain transportation. Pack mule, Pack and Packers." O'Sullivan. 8) "The Cañon of Kanab Creek, near its junction with the Grand Cañon of the Colorado." Bell. 9) "'The Bath,' a dripping spring in Kanab Cañon." Bell. 10) "The mouth of Kanab Creek." Bell. 11) "Mouth of the Paria, Colorado R.
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