Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River

1872

Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River, 1872. William H. Bell (American, 1830–1910). Albumen print from glass plate negative; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William and Margaret Lipscomb 2021.204 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). Kanab is an anglicization of the Southern Paiute word for “willow.”