Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, Nevada (1867): Art, History and Details

Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, Nevada (1867) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, 1840–1882).

The work and its context

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

This noontime scene conveys a desolate place discovered by a lonely explorer. The artist chose a vantage point and framing that blocked the horizon and showed a single wagon—the former Civil War ambulance that he converted into a portable darkroom—and only two sets of footprints. However, over the previous 25 years, more than 165,000 people had passed near here on their way to California.

Object facts

• Title: Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, Nevada
• Date: 1867
• Creator attribution: Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, 1840–1882)
• Culture: America
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative
• Dimensions: Image: 19.7 x 27 cm (7 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.); Mounted: 45.7 x 59.4 cm (18 x 23 3/8 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
• Collection: Photography
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2002.45

A detail from the museum

O’Sullivan took this while on a government expedition analyzing the future path of the transcontinental railroad.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.

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.