Oct 21, 2008 - Sale 2158

Sale 2158 - Lot 20

Price Realized: $ 24,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000
O'SULLIVAN, TIMOTHY (1840-1882)
"Ancient Ruins in the Canyon de Chelle, N.M." Albumen print, 10 3/4x7 3/4 inches (27.3x19.7 cm.), on the two-toned Wheeler Survey letterpress mount, with O'Sullivan's credit, title, No. 11, and survey information in mount recto. 1873
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Additional Details

From the Witkin Gallery, New York City in 1975; to the present owner.
Timothy O'Sullivan: America's Forgotten Photographer, 310.
T.H. O'Sullivan: Photographer (1966), 37.


After completing an apprenticeship at the beginning of the Civil War with famed mid-nineteenth-century photographer Matthew Brady, Timothy O'Sullivan went out on his own, photographing wounded soldiers, battle fields, and the ravaged and war-torn American landscape. In 1867, two years after the war, O'Sullivan was appointed the photographer for the U.S. Geological Survey, which sought to use developing photographic technology to provide topological documentation of the ever-expanding United States. As this expedition headed farther west, Lieutenant George Wheeler, looking for an inland passage for troops from Idaho, through Utah to Arizona, included O'Sullivan in his team of scientists in order to have a visual record of his endeavor. During the trek, there was a conflict between the two men, and O'Sullivan journeyed on his own, bringing his large-scale photographic equipment with him as he explored Native American territories and the monumental natural land masses in those regions.


The Canyon de Chelle, located in northeastern Arizona, had a thriving Native American population in the late 19th century when O'Sullivan photographed the region. Navajo for "among the cliffs," the Canyon de Chelle today is home to the Navajo population in the United States, and designated Navajo Tribal Trust Land by the National Park Service, preserving Native American heritage and tradition. O'Sullivan's photographs are taken from a vast distance, further highlighting the immense and overwhelming scale of these ecological wonders.