William Henry Jackson William Henry Jackson, a man of ambition who loved to paint, write, and explore, but his greatest love was photography. Throughout his entire life, he devoted himself to the scenic and historic sites of the West, producing over a hundred thousand negatives. “He was the first person to photograph the wonders of Yellowstone and other places in the American West, as well as documenting the Civil War in a number of sketches.” (Weiser, 2003) Jackson was born in the small town of Keesville, New York in 1843 to a loving Mother who was a water-colorist and a father who was an amateur daguerretypist. It was in this rural community that spent his childhood, attending school, working on the family farm, and playing
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Within a few years he soon realized he could make a living creating photographic images for shopkeepers and helping a political agenda. (Jackson, 1947) Frank Mowry, a New York photographer, from Rutland, Vermont, hired Jackson when he was just 13 years old, doing tedious work of retouching and adding color to photos. The job was not glamorous but “as he washed water-color over the stolid black and white prints, his mind was quick to note every operation that was performed in the studio. The new art of photography fascinated him. (Jackson, …show more content…
In February 1872 Mollie died giving birth to a daughter who lived only briefly. That summer Jackson was with Hayden again, this time in newly created Yellowstone National Park and in the Teton Mountains. (Jenkins, 2001) For seven years, Jackson and Hayden worked together as a team surveying and documenting the secrets of Western America, but when he published his most famous image, the Mount of the Holy Cross, the photo became popular and graced homes all over America. “For years, stories of a mountain with a large cross etched in its side had been circulating, but it wasn’t until Jackson risked climbing Colorado’s western slope of the Rocky Mountains that its existence was proven.” (Weiser, 2003) Many times over the years, Jackson returned to the very spot where he photographed the “ Mount of the Holy Cross”, trying to recreate the image that became so famous, but with no
Within a few years he soon realized he could make a living creating photographic images for shopkeepers and helping a political agenda. (Jackson, 1947) Frank Mowry, a New York photographer, from Rutland, Vermont, hired Jackson when he was just 13 years old, doing tedious work of retouching and adding color to photos. The job was not glamorous but “as he washed water-color over the stolid black and white prints, his mind was quick to note every operation that was performed in the studio. The new art of photography fascinated him. (Jackson, …show more content…
In February 1872 Mollie died giving birth to a daughter who lived only briefly. That summer Jackson was with Hayden again, this time in newly created Yellowstone National Park and in the Teton Mountains. (Jenkins, 2001) For seven years, Jackson and Hayden worked together as a team surveying and documenting the secrets of Western America, but when he published his most famous image, the Mount of the Holy Cross, the photo became popular and graced homes all over America. “For years, stories of a mountain with a large cross etched in its side had been circulating, but it wasn’t until Jackson risked climbing Colorado’s western slope of the Rocky Mountains that its existence was proven.” (Weiser, 2003) Many times over the years, Jackson returned to the very spot where he photographed the “ Mount of the Holy Cross”, trying to recreate the image that became so famous, but with no