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of a single picture, operators like the Bissons devised
ways to secure multiple views that, when assembled in
total, comprised a panoramic vision evoking the original
encounter. The French geologist Aimé Civiale provides
an especially intriguing case of the use of panoramas
with specifi c correlation between photography and ge-
ology. He produced hundreds of views in the Alps and
Pyrenees between 1859 and 1866, including carefully
calculated multi-plate panoramas designed to elicit a
sense of spatial presence of the ranges from a full 360
degree scope.
The majority of wilderness and expeditionary pho-
tographers generally had multiple intentions for their ex-
ploits; undoubtedly many understood that photographs
of geological phenomena might have importance for
the support of theoretical discussion as well as visible
authentication of regions of political and economic
concern. Samuel Bourne, who had established himself
as a commercial operator in Simla with partner Charles
Shepherd in 1863, undertook his third photographic
expedition into the Himalayas in 1866 with the British
surgeon and amateur geologist George Rankin Playfair.
Playfair directed Bourne to focus on specifi c “curious”
and “singular” geological formations, some of which
were directly linked with descriptions of the renowned
geologist Charles Lyell. Robert Schlagintweit, one of
several German brothers who traveled to India and the
Himalayas and Central Asia lent his knowledge of pho-
tography to their scientifi c expeditions. The photographs
from such projects became available to the scientifi c
community and the interested public either through
detailed reports, as in the case of the Schlagintweits, or
through the acquisition of individual prints and albums
of selected views, as in the case of Bourne.
The U.S. government sponsored a number of im-
portant surveys immediately following the Civil War,
several of which were led by men with considerable
knowledge of latest geological controversies. ClarenceGEOLOGY
Fennemore, James. Mukuntuweap
Valley (Zion Canyon), Utah.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los
Angeles © The J. Paul Getty Museum.