William Henry Jackson

Born in Keeseville, New York, in 1843, William Henry Jackson grew up drawing and painting before moving into photography. After serving in the Civil War, he headed west, where his skill with a camera and an artist’s eye made him one of the most important recorders of the American landscape.

Jackson became famous for his photographs of the American West, especially his work with government survey expeditions in the early 1870s. He is often remembered as the first person to photograph Yellowstone’s great wonders, and his images helped persuade people in the East that these places were real and worth protecting.

Over a career that lasted decades, he worked not only as a photographer but also as a painter and visual chronicler of a changing nation. His photographs of mountains, railroads, towns, and travel helped popularize the West for a wide public, and his work remains a lasting visual record of 19th-century America.