Early Utah Photographs by Timothy H. O’Sullivan and William Henry Jackson (Winter 2016)

Timothy O’Sullivan

These Timothy O’Sullivan photographs were taken in 1869 during the 40th Parallel Survey that took place between 1867-1872. The expedition that surveyed northern Utah in 1869 was under the command of Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys and U.S. Geologist Clarence King. Among O’Sullivan’s photos include images of various points in the Wasatch and the Uinta Mountains, including King’s Peak, as well as of Ogden, Salt Lake City, and Promontory Summit. King’s Peak, the highest peak in Utah, is named for Clarence King, while the highest point in Arizona is named for Andrew Humphreys.

Born in Ireland, O’Sullivan worked for Matthew Brady in New York as a teenager just before the outbreak of the Civil War. Beginning in 1862, he joined Matthew Brady’s team of photographers, and late that same year he joined Alexander Gardner’s photographic team, ultimately publishing forty-four photographs, some of which are quite famous, including “Harvest of Death” depicting dead confederate soldiers in the field at Gettysburg and “Dead Confederate Sharpshooter at Foot of Little Round Top.”

O’Sullivan established a new career as a photographer of the natural beauty of he west and several Native-Americans, which was enhanced significantly by joining the 40th Parallel Survey. In 1882, O’Sullivan died of tuberculosis in Staten Island, NY at the age of 42.

William Jackson

We also publish a few photographs by William Henry Jackson, an O’Sullivan contemporary. Jackson accompanied Ferdinand Hayden on his geologic surveys of the Yellowstone River and Rocky Mountains in 1870 and 1871. His landscape photographs introduced the public to the scenery and grandeur of the American West and were instrumental in convincing Congress to designate Yellowstone National Park in 1872. Jackson died in 1942 at the age of 99 years.