How the Wild West REALLY looked: Gorgeous sepia-tinted pictures ...

MAIL Online ^ | PUBLISHED: 09:11 EST, 25 May 2012 | Rob Cooper

[brityank]

How the Wild West REALLY looked: Gorgeous sepia-tinted pictures show the landscape as it was charted for the very first time

By Rob Cooper
PUBLISHED: 09:11 EST, 25 May 2012 | UPDATED: 13:39 EST, 25 May 2012

These remarkable 19th century sepia-tinted pictures show the American West as you have never seen it before - as it was charted for the first time.

The photos, by Timothy O'Sullivan, are the first ever taken of the rocky and barren landscape.

At the time federal government officials were travelling across Arizona, Nevada, Utah and the rest of the west as they sought to uncover the land's untapped natural resources.

 

Breathtaking landscape: A view across the Shoshone Falls, Snake River, Idaho in 1874 as it was caught on camera by photographer Timothy O'Sullivan during Lt. George M. Wheeler's survey west of the One Hundredth Meridian that lasted from 1871 to 1874. Approximately 45 feet higher than the Niagara falls of the U.S and Canada, the Shoshone Falls are sometimes called the 'Niagara of the West'. Before mass migration ...

 

Portrait: Native American (Paiute) men, women and children pose for a picture near a tree. The picture is thought to have been taken in Cottonwood Springs (Washoe County), Nevada, in 1875. Known for his dispassionate views towards native Americans on his travels, O'Sullivan was more interested in photographing the true lifestyles of the indigenous people and not a preconceived image ...

 

[a fool in paradise]

If these photos were taken by Mr. Sullivan over 120 years ago, how are they still protected by HIS copyright?

He himself expired long ago.

[a fool in paradise]

At least Getty isn’t claiming ownership. Yet...

[donna]

How wonderful. For me, it’s one of those moments in time as I scrabbled to the lookout and then saw the canyon for the first time.

I’m almost afraid to ask, to break the spell, what does she say about actually living there?

[Hoffer Rand]

Shoshone Falls here we come!

You won't regret it. They are gorgeous.

[Melas]

Your mother lives in Tuba City?

[brityank]

At least Getty isn’t claiming ownership. Yet...

Maybe - but they do have some of his works in their museum. Suspect the Mail added the copywrite notation to keep themselves on the 'right' side of the pernicious US laws!

Found this one at another site, Masters of Photography. He did a lot of work on the Civil War:

 

Timothy O'Sullivan
A Harvest of Death,
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
July, 1863

[dr_lew]

Here's a Google Street View of the twin buttes at Green River, WY. It's from I80 looking roughly back along the line of sight of the photo, with a Hampton Inn in the foreground. I believe the Hampton Inn lies on the flat middle ground of the photo, just to the left of the nearest butte, consistently with the Street View POV.

[brityank]

Thanks for that. It’s amazing just how the wind and rain have eroded those buttes in that manner. Tim also captured some of Green River City at the top of his shot, with what looks like buildings along a rail spur in its foreground.

[sweetiepiezer]

Does she know Elizabeth Warren?

[The KG9 Kid]

She spends some of the summertime in Chinle. She works with Indian kids and loves it.

I just talked to her last night and now she's up in the mountains waiting for fall when it cools down. Too hot to spend the summertime in the little copper mining town where her actual home is.

[The KG9 Kid]

It's just a month during late spring where she teaches Hopi kids, so it's not her permanent home. Most of the hottest months of the year she's up in the White Mountains near Show Low, where it's grassy and cool.

She does interesting work, that's for sure. She's certainly 100% full-blooded Arizona lady.

[donna]

That sounds just right. She gets to enjoy it without losing any of the magic. Now when I remember Canyon de Chelly, I’ll think of your mom teaching children there. Nice.

[Vermont Lt]

They were usually 8x10 plates that were carried by mules, and processed on site. Most of the prints would have been contacts, so there is no resolution issues at all—it is a 1:1 print.

I went to many of these places a couple years ago. Just walking around in these places without a huge camera and hundreds of pounds of equipment made me envy their stamina.

The whole time I was out in the southwest, I kept wondering hoe the hell the pioneers made it out there.

Some of the greatest land I’ve ever seen.

[Melas]

Smart woman. Up in the mountains is where I should be.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks brityank. Modern, but I think this should be pinged. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Popman]

Bm

[Paisan]

Timothy O’Sullivan

A seldom recognized photographer of the Civil War. Many of the images attributed to Matthew Brady were actually Mr. O’Sullivans. Brady was mostly a ‘studio’ photographer. He rarely ventured into the field

[Bernard Marx]

Shoshone Falls here we come!

Since it's spring the Bureau of Reclamation or whoever controls flow from upstream reservoirs is probably still releasing water into the river. I've visited the "falls" when they were almost bone dry, but I think that's usually later in the summer when reservoir water is being conserved.

[Monkey Face]

A lot of those photos were of places I have been and love to this day. When I first saw them, however, the developers hadn’t ruined the beauty with “progress.”

Thanks for posting this!

[Monkey Face]

A lot of the land is still “empty” but it is beautiful. Thank you for visiting “my” part of the country!

‘Face