PHOTOGRAPHS
Hillers, John K.
Germany / U.S. (1843 - 1925)
Grand Canyon, Colorado River, Arizona
c. 1883
Albumen print
12 1/2 x 9 5/8 in. (31.8 x 24.4 cm) image and sheet size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.78

Grand Canyon, Colorado River, Arizona was created by John K. Hillers while employed as a photographer for both the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Ethnology. Under the direction of John Wesley Powell, Hillers made several trips to the West in order to document the frontier. In this image, the vastness of the canyon’s wall, emphasized by the dwarfed river, show a landscape unmarked by human habitation. The immensity of such natural wonders seems invincible in this context.

-- Label copy for Shifting Ground: Transformed Views of the American Landscape, February 10 to August 20, 2000.