ASU sits about 200 miles south of one of nature’s wonders, the Grand Canyon. A river valley situated in the Colorado Plateau, the Canyon spans some 277 miles and reaches a width of nearly 18 miles at various points and a depth of over a mile. The towering, craggy, bright-orange rock has become one of the iconic natural landmarks in the United States.
Though many people today recognize the Canyon as this natural wonder, that was not always the case. Europeans had dismissed it for centuries, and it was not until Clarence Dutton, Thomas Moran, and William Henry Holmes brought to the American public a set of tools to make sense of the Canyon. The maps and illustrations in the “Atlas”* complement Dutton’s evocative descriptions in the accompanying “History,” providing readers with a new way to understand the development of Canyon over time into the breathless wonder it has become. With the publication in 1882 of the “Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District, with Atlas,” this dismissed geological wonder became an iconic American landscape.
In celebration of our grand neighbor, Rare Books and Manuscripts and the Map and Geospatial Hub at ASU would like to share a few images from Dutton’s “Atlas.” We invite you to continue the journey with our contribution of more remarkable scenes for National Archives and Records Administration’s Archives Hashtag Party for April, “#ArchivesOnMyStreet”.
We also invite anyone interested to come see the original 1882 publication of Dutton’s “Atlas” in the Wurzburger Reading Room at ASU. Drop Ask an Archivist a note if you’d like to come see the “Atlas.”
All images scanned from the 1977 reproduction of the 1882 original. Images courtesy of ASU Library’s Map and Geospatial Hub.
--Julie Tanaka, Curator or Rare Books and Manuscripts
--Matthew Toro, Director of Maps, Imagery, and Geospatial Services