Snapshots of the Past

Major John Wesley Powell – Vintage Print

Major John Wesley Powell, [no date recorded on caption card] — historic photograph
Major John Wesley Powell, [no date recorded on caption card]. Historic photograph from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

A window into the past: Major John Wesley Powell, preserved in this historic photograph. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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Major John Wesley Powell

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Major John Wesley Powell, the one-armed Civil War veteran who led expeditions down the Colorado River and later directed the U.S. Geological Survey, is the figure this portrait puts front and center. Powell lost his right arm at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, and he went on to explore the Grand Canyon by boat in 1869, a journey that made him famous. He became the second director of the U.S. Geological Survey, founded in 1879, where he championed mapping the western territories and studying their water resources. The record gives no date for this print, so it is best read as a portrait of a man whose scientific work shaped how the country understood its arid West.

Created / published[no date recorded on caption card]
Medium1 photographic print.
SubjectsMajor John Wesley Powell, Geologist--U.S. Geological Survey. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan993 × 1,536 px · prints to 3 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-110177

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