O'Sullivan, Timothy, and William Bell:

$15,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[SET OF FIFTY STEREOSCOPIC VIEWS, TAKEN ON THE 1871 - 1874 EXPEDITIONS OF THE WHEELER SURVEY]. 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

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