Colorado, Mouth of Kanab Wash, Looking West. Colorado River Series. No. 23, from Report upon United States Geographical surveys west of the one hundredth meridian, in charge of First Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler... U.S. Army. Atlas.

In the late 1860s and early 1870s, government-funded expeditions of the American Southwest sought to map the topography of the landscape, paying special attention to mineral deposits, routes for railways, and ideal sites for military posts. In 1872 the photographer William Bell replaced his now more well-known contemporary Timothy O’Sullivan on the Wheeler survey. Bell contributed greatly to the Colorado River series, which, alongside the Geological series, was one of the largest and most integral groupings. By compositionally including a clear foreground, middle, and background, Bell’s photographs capture the grandeur of the canyon walls and fluvial landscape. Indeed, the surveys valued photography’s ability to establish a relative sense of scale and scenic features, rather than using it as a tool to convey practical scientific data.