ART & ARTISTS: 2012-07-29

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Powell Survey - part 2

John Wesley Powell

This is part 2 of a 2-part post showing archive photographs from John Wesley Powell's geographical Surveys undertaken between 1871 and 1878, one of which the artist Thomas Moran went on (in 1873), and found much inspiration for his work (see part 1 for details)

Grand Canyon

Green River Station, Wyoming

Green River, Beehive Point

Green River, Flaming Gorge, Wyoming

Green River, Labyrinth Canyon. On the dividing ridge at Bowknot Bend, looking up ( left ) and down ( right ) the river. 6 miles from one point to the other

Green River, Wyoming, Canyon of Lodore

Green River. Ashley Falls, looking up

Hand Rock, De Chelly Canyon, Apache County, Arizona

Marble Pinnacle, Kenab Canyon, Grand Canyon of the Colorado River

Monroe Canyon, Utah

Monument Canyon De Chelly, Arizona

Monument in Canyon De Chelly, Arizona. Apache County

Mt. Trumbell region, Arizona. The Innupin Picavu Witch's Waterpocket

Navajo Church near Fort Wingate, McKinley County, New Mexico

Near Foot of Toroweap, looking east at Grand Canyon

Old Time rocks. Tantalus Creek, Aquarius Plateau, Wayne County, Utah

On Boulder Creek, Aquarius, Plateau, Garfield County, Utah

Red Canyon, Green River-Ashley Falls from above, Utah

Reflected tower, Rio Virgin, Utah. "Angels Landing"

Rio Virgin, Utah

Santa Fe Railroad bridge over Canyon Diablo, Arizona, showing train and signs of Albuquerque, New Mexico

Santa Fe Railroad bridge over Canyon Diablo, Arizona

Steep-dipping bed at northwestern end of Zuni Uplift from west of Fort Wingate, New Mexico

The heart of Lodore, Green River-F.S

Yampa River

Zion National Park. The Three Patriarchs on the West side of Zion Canyon

Sunday, 5 August 2012

Powell Survey - part 1

You may recall the photograph above from part 1 of my recent post on painter Thomas Moran. It was of Moran on a survey carried out by John Wesley Powell in 1973. It was part of a survey carried out between 1871 and 1878.

Powell was accompanied by a team of photographers, who carried heavy equipment, like plate cameras and tripods, to record the survey. In the course of researching Moran’s work I stumbled across an archive of some the resulting photographs. While they are not ‘art’, they are certainly artistic, remarkable early photographs, and make a fascinating factual record of the terrain as Thomas Moran would have found it.

In the summer of 1873 Thomas Moran headed west to join John Wesley Powell on a trip to the Grand Canyon. Four years earlier Powell had captured the nation's attention when he led a small group of men in custom-crafted boats through the white-water of the Colorado River. Already planning a pendant for Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Moran accepted Powell's invitation to join him the following summer. Accompanying the party was Justin E. Colburn, a correspondent, who, during the trip, sent letters east for publication in the New York Times. Vivid, candid, and insightful, Colburn's letters offer a clear view of a forbidding landscape and a first-hand account of the often difficult journey he and Moran made with Powell to the Grand Canyon. Moran wrote his wife Mary a humorous and revealing account of his adventures on 13 August 1873.

John Wesley Powell (1834 – 1902) was a U.S. soldier, geologist, explorer of the American West and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He is famous for the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers that included the first known passage through the Grand Canyon.

Powell retraced the route in 1871-1872 with another expedition, resulting in photographs by three photographers, an accurate map and various papers. In planning this expedition, he employed the services of Jacob Hamblin, a Mormon missionary in southern Utah and northern Arizona, who had cultivated excellent relationships with Native Americans. Before setting out, Powell used Hamblin as a negotiator to ensure the safety of his expedition from local Indian groups. Powell believed they had killed the three men lost from his previous expedition. Wallace Stegner states that Powell knew the men had been killed by the Indians in a case of mistaken identity.

Powell served as second director of the US Geological Survey (1881–1894) and proposed policies for development of the arid West which were prescient for his accurate evaluation of conditions. He was director of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution where he supported linguistic and sociological research and publications.

This is part 1 of 2-part post: