Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River (1872): Art, History and Details

Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River (1872) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is William H. Bell (American, 1830–1910).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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).

Object facts

• Title: Canon of Kanab Wash, Looking South, Colorado River
• Date: 1872
• Creator attribution: William H. Bell (American, 1830–1910)
• Culture: America
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: Albumen print from glass plate negative
• Dimensions: 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.)
• Collection: PH - American 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2021.204

A detail from the museum

Kanab is an anglicization of the Southern Paiute word for “willow.”

Collection credit

Gift of William and Margaret Lipscomb

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.