Revisiting the enigmas of Timothy O'Sullivan

This paper seeks to shed new light on the much-discussed survey work of American photographic pioneer Timothy H. O'Sullivan through a close analysis of a hitherto unnoticed collection of King Survey photographs at the Univrsity of California's Bancroft Library. Among the notable features of this collection is the appearance, in seven rare views of Eastern California, of a ‘T.H.O'S.’ monogram, as well as the existence of a double set of captions, the one more serious or official, the other more informal and sometimes quite humorous. These features, along with the eastward orientation of the collection and the particular selections of images inserted in the collection's opening and closing sequences, suggest a narrational reading of the set that tends to displace, or at least to redefine, traditional arguments about O'Sullivan's oeuvre in relation to the institutional demands of his employers. The double hypothesis of a humorous and narrational reading embodied in the collection in turn suggests new ways of interpreting the many narrative or reflexive bits contained in O'Sullivan's Western photographs. Keywords: Timothy H. O'Sullivan (1840–1882)Clarence R. King (1842–1901)William Ashburner (1831–1887)survey photographycaptioningphotographic signatureshumor in photographyphotographic narration

Art · Art history · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Performance art · Reflexivity · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Archaeological Research and Protection · History · Philosophy · Photography and Visual Culture · Visual Culture and Art Theory

• The gardner collection of photographs

  Heather Ross Munro•History of Photography•1991

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• The Enigmas of Timothy O'Sullivan

  Estelle Jussim•History of Photography•1982

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• The Photographic Artifacts of Timothy O'Sullivan

  Bradley B Williams, Rick Dingus•Western Historical Quarterly•1984

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