Great Secrets of Our National Parks
Some of the best findings by accidental anthropologists and studied experts.
Categories: Featured Travel Stories , Photo Gallery
By: TW Editors 06/01/2008
Scotts Bluff, NE
Saving Yellowstone’s Savior
William Henry Jackson tramped around present-day Yellowstone, taking photographs of geysers and waterfalls that most had thought were tall tales.
He got the job thanks to his good work documenting reservation life in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Ferdinand Hayden hired him to photographically document the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) of the Yellowstone River in Wyoming Territory in 1871-72. Jackson’s images of Yellowstone convinced Congress to set aside the area as our nation’s first national park in 1872.
Who’s saving the photographs and paintings created by Yellowstone’s savior? Scotts Bluff, which houses the world’s largest repository of works by Jackson.
He opened his first photographic studio in Omaha in 1869. He worked for the USGS, documenting not only Yellowstone but other places that eventually became national parks such as Mesa Verde and Yosemite, until 1878. Then he opened his photographic studio in Denver, Colorado.
Jackson exchanged his camera for a paintbrush at the age of 81, illustrating the West for books and magazine articles. From 1924 until his death in 1942, he finished nearly 100 paintings.
Many of his originals are on display at the park’s visitor center, but this year, you’re really in for a treat. Since the open house in February, the Visitor Center’s reading room is housing a changing exhibit highlighting Jackson’s work until all 65 original paintings and 519 original photographs at Scotts Bluff have been put on display. What a wonderful chance to see a collection that would usually stay hidden in storage because of lack of exhibit space.
When you see Jackson’s photographs of Yellowstone, don’t forget to silently say “Thank you.”
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