Landscapes
on Glass:
Lantern Slides for the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition
Jack Turner
with Foreword by President Bill Clinton
ISBN 978-1-887805-31-5,
8.5” x 11”, COLOR, 127 pages
Price: $19.95
The nation was
in the throes of the Great Depression when dozens of scientists and
students descended
on the remote pinnacles and canyons of northern Arizona and southern
Utah.
Water interests wanted to dam the canyons;
pot hunters wanted to plunder thousand-year-old archaeological sites;
cattlemen wanted to graze their livestock;
bureaucrats wanted to make it all a living cultural park; and Native
Americans just wanted to be left alone.
One man decided to do something for the region. On his own time, and
at his own expense, Ansel Hall (then chief naturalist for the National
Park Service) organized a massive scientific expedition. For six years,
botanists, geologists, cartographers, archaeologists, zoologists,
paleontologists, ethnographers, and more came from major universities
and museums to spend summers
studying the landscape and its inhabitants, past and present, with
the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition.
To finance the project, Hall traveled the country, showing lantern
slides of the region
and soliciting support from philanthropists and foundations.
Landscapes on Glass: Lantern Slides for the Rainbow Bridge-Monument
Valley Expedition is the story
of what has been called the last great expedition in the American
West, and the man who made it happen.
Lavishly illustrated with the hand-tinted photographs Hall used in
his talks, this book is a tribute to the man, the expedition,
and the region they sought to protect.
From the Forword
by President Bill Clinton:
“Landscapes on Glass is a story for everyone. Ansel Hall's
lantern slides will inspire you as much
as they did everyone who was part of the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley
Expedition.
We owe much to the vision and leadership of these conservationists."
