In the years following the Civil War, science and art came together in the
exploration of the America of the American West. Ambitious federal surveys,
funded between 1867 and 1878, mapped the nation in the common service
of scientific knowledge, military control, and industrial expansion.Some of
the largest surveys were led by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902).
Powell's surveys were heavily influenced by the drawings, pictures, and paintings done by the artists and draftsmen who accompanied him. Their work help to inspire the public sense of awe and fascination that helped to encourage further government funding for such endeavors. Exploration inspired a dramatic confluence of science and art.
In the 1870s, drawing, photography, and painting all played evidential, promotional, and even interpretive roles in the culture of exploration. Visual representation extended the processes of observation and recording that led to the development of modern physiography and geomorphology. Scientists and artists were politically and financially interdependent.
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