In Search of Dominguez & Escalante: Photographing the 1776 Spanish Expedition through the Southwest
Santa Fe, NM: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2011. First edition. Hardcover. 232pp. Oblong octavo [23.5 cm] Full brown cloth with the title blind stamped on the front board and gilt stamped on the backstrip. In a dust jacket with light surface wear. Fine / very good. Item #62175
ISBN: 9780890135297
More than two hundred years later Greg Mac Gregor and Siegfried Halus have created a remarkable visual record of the expedition. Using Escalante’s journal as their guide, the photographers followed the expeditionary route, circling through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona, and documenting the frontier as first witnessed by the Spanish explorers on horseback. The expedition passed what today are major national parks and land forms: Zion Canyon; Dinosaur Monument; and the Grand Canyon. The photographs show many areas virtually unchanged over centuries; other images reveal the passage of time in pictures of dammed rivers, power lines, and towns where once stood virgin forests.
Quoting widely from Escalante’s journal, the authors present first hand accounts of the expedition alongside their photographic narrative. Essays by the photographers discuss their methodology and experiences as modern day explorers retracing the steps of the friars. In his historical essay, Joseph P. Sánchez writes about the lasting legacy of the Spanish expeditions.
Price: $75.00