Jackson, William Henry

Jackson, William Henry, 1843–1942, American artist and pioneer photographer of the West, b. Keeseville, N.Y. After serving with the Union army in the Civil War he traveled overland to California (1866–67), part of the way on a Mormon wagon train, and then settled in Omaha, Neb. (1868). Engaged in photography after 1858, Jackson devoted himself to recording the scenic grandeur and historic sites of the West. He photographed the building of the Union Pacific RR, the mining booms at Cripple Creek and Leadville, and the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. His 1871 photographic series on the Yellowstone region was instrumental in having the area set aside as the first national park the following year. In 1924, Jackson moved to Washington, D.C., began painting, and at the age of 93 executed a series of murals on the Old West for the new Dept. of the Interior Building.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1940) and his diaries, ed. by L. R. and A. W. Hafen (1959); C. S. Jackson, Picture Maker of the Old West (1947); B. Newhall and D. E. Edkins, William H. Jackson (1975).

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Jackson, William Henry

(born April 4, 1843, Keesville, N.Y., U.S.—died June 30, 1942, New York, N.Y.) U.S. photographer. As a boy, he worked for a photographic studio in Troy, N.Y. After the American Civil War he went west and opened a studio in Omaha. He was the official photographer for the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (1870–78), and his photographs were instrumental in the establishment of Yellowstone National Park.

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Jackson, William Henry (1843–1942) photographer; born in Keesville, N.Y. Photographer for seven U.S. Geological Surveys of the Territories (1870–78), he traveled by mule to take the first pictures of Pike's Peak, Yellowstone, and Mesa Verde Mountain.