Flowing downstream and against the current: E. O. Beaman, survey photographer and writer with John Wesley Powell's geological survey of the Green and Colorado Rivers, in 1871--1872.

摘要

In 1869, the American public's image of the "Southwest" would not be the Grand Canyon, as the concept of a southwestern landscape had yet to emerge. Major John Wesley Powell's journeys down the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1869, and later in 1871-1872, combined with the reports, writings and photographs of E. O. Beaman and others who traveled through the Grand Canyon, helped to establish the foundation of what we now envision as the "Southwest." This thesis provides a comprehensive biographical sketch of Powell's first photographer, E. O. Beaman. May I suggest it establishes and recognizes the importance of Beaman's work, in its literary and photographic context, as well as his essential role in the survey. The thesis suggests that when the "proto-progressive" Powell clashed with the "romantic environmentalist" Beaman, the compelling story of nineteenth century meets twentieth century would unfold. E. O. Beaman's story offers an understanding of how the formation and endurance of the southwestern landscape in the American imagination in the world today has been both a 'valorization' of Powell and a political process that marginalized Beaman and promoted Powell.