Images of the West: Survey Photography in French Collections, 1860-1880

"As American settlement expanded westward in the 1860s, the United States government undertook large-scale investigations of its new territories. Images of the West: Survey Photography in French Collections, 1860-1880 presents memorable glass-plate photographs taken as part of these federal surveys. The selection includes views of such iconic sites as Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon, as well as lesser-known images of Native Americans taken by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, John K. Hillers, William H. Jackson and Carleton E. Watkins, among others. The accompanying essays discuss the complex ideologies underlying the use of photography to capture both American landscapes and Native Americans, and include research into how the distribution of these images at home and abroad contributed to the aggrandizement of the American West. All images are drawn from French public collections, which hold a number of these survey photographs published here for the first time. Images of the West provides a critical new examination of a bygone era."--BOOK JACKET.Griffith, Bronwyn is the author of 'Images of the West: Survey Photography in French Collections, 1860-1880', published 2007 under ISBN 9780932171542 and ISBN 0932171540.