Walpi, Arizona

William Seltzer Rice

Rice traveled to the Southwest in 1907 to observe the desert landscapes and the architecture of the Hopi and Navajo tribes. Walpi, as it is now called, has since become a well-known destination for tourism, as it the First Mesa (of three) of the Mesa Tourism Program. It's located in the Hopi reservation in the northeastern part of the state. Villages like these are passed down matrillineally.

In June of 1916 Rice wrote an article for American Photographer magazine about his journey to the Southwest. He submitted his photograph of the Walpi village to illustrate the article (though he titled it "Entering the Village of Malpais"), the same photo he used as reference for this print.