Artwork Page for Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River

Details / Information for Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River

Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River

1872

William H. Bell

(American, 1830–1910)
Culture
America
Medium
Albumen print from glass plate negative
Measurements
Image: 35.5 x 27.8 cm (14 x 10 15/16 in.); Paper: 50.5 x 40.6 cm (19 7/8 x 16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of William and Margaret Lipscomb 2021.204
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Kanab is an anglicization of the Southern Paiute word for “willow.”

Description

William H. Bell was the staff photographer for the government-sponsored Wheeler expedition of 1871–73, whose mission was to survey and produce topographic maps of the Southwestern United States. In 1872, he recorded rivers, canyons, and landscapes in Arizona and Utah including Kanab Creek canyon in the Grand Canyon. For a westward view of the same location, see Bell’s Grand Cañon, Colorado River, Mouth of Kanab Wash, Looking West (1997.130).
A vertically oriented cream sheet features a central sepia photograph of a desert canyon. Steep, craggy rock walls rise along the edges, framing a massive, layered mesa in the distance. Deep shadows carve through a rocky wash in the foreground. Above the image sits a circular eagle emblem. Beneath, three lines of black text and an inscription, "No. 21," are stacked vertically, documenting the landscape with precise, formal typography (see "Inscriptions").

Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River

1872

William H. Bell

(American, 1830–1910)
America

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