ABSTRACT
The so-called Great Surveys of the American West in the late 1860s through the 1870s produced a wealth of scientific and visual material. This chapter argues that the Survey’s very idea of triangulation, the process that measured expanses by comparing distances from different points of view, offers a unifying way to understand this diverse assemblage. It demonstrates that even though a single image and even a single medium was limited in its ability to convey its subject, taken together, the multi-media array provided a synergism of both form and effect lending a nuanced portrayal of the land and its character.
