E. L. (Ellsworth Leonardson) Kolb

Born in 1876, Ellsworth Leonardson Kolb was an American photographer, author, and Grand Canyon pioneer best known as one of the Kolb brothers. He and his brother Emery arrived at the South Rim in 1902 and built what became the famous Kolb Studio, where they made photographs of visitors and helped shape the visual record of canyon life.

Kolb is especially remembered for the 1911 river journey he and Emery made through the Grand Canyon, filming and documenting the trip at a time when such travel was still unusually risky and difficult. That adventure became the basis for Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico, the book most closely associated with his name.

His reputation rests on a rare mix of skills: showman, working photographer, and firsthand chronicler of the canyon. He died in 1960, but the Kolb Studio remains a lasting reminder of the brothers' role in the history and popular imagination of the Grand Canyon.