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South Side of Inscription Rock, N. M.

Artist Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, ca. 1840–1882)
Title South Side of Inscription Rock, N. M.
Plate Number Plate 14
Series Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, vol. 2
Date 1873
Medium Albumen print
Dimensions Image: 8 × 10 7/8 in. (20.3 × 27.6 cm)
Sheet: 8 × 10 7/8 in. (20.3 × 27.6 cm)
Mount: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 82.40.1

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About this Work

This monumental block of sandstone in the New Mexico desert has been an oasis for travelers since ancient times. It marked the spot where the Spanish conquistador Don Juan de Oñate thought he had discovered a passage to the Gulf of California in 1605. He recorded this event in an inscription on the rock face (also recorded by O’Sullivan as a detail). The alignment of this bit of Spanish “graffiti” with earlier petroglyphs left by ancestral Native Americans reflects a history of the region’s power shifts. O’Sullivan’s own errant scrawls on the photograph’s glass plate negative coincidentally suggest the English language tags left by U. S. military personnel who controlled the territory after the Mexican-American War in the 1840s.

Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection also includes O’Sullivan’s Cañon de Chelle (Eskenazi Museum of Art 2009.51).


Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

Plate Number Plate 14
Series Title Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, vol. 2

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"South Side of Inscription Rock, N. M. | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=82.40.1