Ancient Ruins in the Cañon de Chelle, N.M. In a niche 50 feet above present Cañon bed.

In 1871 Timothy O’Sullivan, an experienced outdoor photographer, was recruited to contribute to a survey of the American Southwest with goals of assessing the native population, selecting sites for future military installations and railways, identifying mineral and other resources, and clarifying the border with Mexico. Working with cartographers and natural scientists, O’Sullivan documented lands unexplored by non-Native Americans, providing highly detailed photographs such as this image of Canyon de Chelly in northwestern northeastern Arizona, which had been continuously inhabited by the Anasazi and Navajo for nearly 5,000 years. Here O’Sullivan depicted the White House ruins, the striations of the canyon wall, and two small figures below, conveying the site’s monumental character. Although O’Sullivan’s famously sparse views are considered by some as forerunners to the modernist aesthetic of the early 20th century, such documents were likely intended only to imitate the graphic simplicity of maps and charts.