The Geographical Survey was led by Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler and traveled throughout the mountains, plains, and deserts in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho and New Mexico. The purpose of these expeditions was to create maps and gain information that would be useful for future military operations, for the establishment of roads, and for potential railways. In addition, the survey was to catalog natural resources and record the location and population of the Indian tribes. Bell and O'Sullivan went on the survey not only to provide a visual record of the exploration, but also to give Wheeler an important public relations tool. Every year from 1871 to 1874 fifty images were selected from the various stereographic negatives taken that year and distributed to members of Congress. The set of stereographs in this collection was a compilation of views that was distributed in 1875.

Timothy H. O'Sullivan was born in 1840 either in Ireland or New York City. He spent his early life on Staten Island, New York and at a young age he was apprenticed to Matthew Brady in his Fulton Street Gallery. In 1861 he joined Brady's Photographic Corps managed by Alexander Gardner in Washington D.C. as a field photographer. Gardner and O'Sullivan became disgruntled with Brady and in 1863 they left to establish their own independent studio. Immediately following the Civil War, O'Sullivan and Gardner sold albums consisting of their war views. In 1867 Clarence King employed O'Sullivan to accompany his survey along the fortieth parallel in the West. O'Sullivan photographed with King until 1869. In 1870 he left King and joined Commander T.O. Sulfridge for an expedition to the Isthmus of Darien in Panama. O'Sullivan found making photographs in the jungle to be quite difficult and he returned to the West this time in the employ of Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler. O'Sullivan photographed with the survey team from 1871 to 1875 (although he rejoined King's survey briefly in 1872). In 1875 he left the West (never to return) for Washington D.C. He briefly worked for King in 1879 before accepting a position with the Treasury Department. In 1881 O'Sullivan was forced to resign this position due to a worsening case of tuberculosis. He died on January 14, 1882 in Staten Island, New York.

William W. Bell (often confused with another photographer Dr. William A. Bell) was born in Liverpool England in 1830. Many details of his life are not known, but he began his photographic career in Philadelphia working in his brother-in-law's studio in 1848. A veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars, Bell was appointed as chief photographer for the Army Medical Museum in Washington D.C. He later established his own studio in Philadelphia and in 1872 he temporarily replaced O'Sullivan in Wheeler's Geographical Survey. Bell, unlike most expeditionary photographers, spent his time attempting to perfect the new dry-plate process. He exposed full-plate and stereoscopic views of Kanab Canyon, Fern Springs, Marble Gorge and the Toroweep Valley, to name a few. Later he photographed for the Pennsylvania Railroad and on an expedition to Patagonia. He passed away in Philadelphia in 1910.

George Montague Wheeler (1842-1905) graduated from West Point in 1866. Wheeler was a surveyor in the Southwest until 1871 when he was put in charge of his own expedition. In 1872 his survey expanded in an effort to produce a usable overall map of the West. He lead several field surveys until 1879 when his appropriations were discontinued. Although he published numerous reports, his big map remained unfinished. He was on sick leave from 1880 to 1884 and he retired in 1888 due to ill health at the rank of Major. He died in New York City on May 3 1905.