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              Photographs


Photograph Collections

William Henry Jackson Collection

The collection consists of approximately:

7855 glass plate negatives ranging in size from 5X7 to 18X22 inches, plus copy prints printed directly from the original glass negatives
860 vintage albumen prints
230 stereographs
40 chromolithographs
72 albums containing roughly 4000 prints
200 Hayden Survey prints and stereographs
35 panoramas
375+ Detroit Photographic Company postcards
50 biographical prints of Jackson and family
supporting material in MSS 341 (William Henry Jackson) and MSS 1643 (Elwood P. Bonney)

Indexes to the glass plate negative collection are available in the Stephen H. Hart Library. The indexes are arranged by subject. One index lists Colorado images and general subjects; the other index lists images taken outside Colorado. To view a study print, a library visitor fills out a patron request form listing the negative number and size of the negative. Library staff will retrieve the requested study prints for viewing in the library. Many of the Jackson images are available for viewing on-line at http://photoswest.org.

William Henry Jackson (1843-1942) is one of the best known photographers of the American West. First as a photographer in Nebraska in the 1860s, and later as a government photographer during the F.V. Hayden expeditions of the 1870s, Jackson built a reputation for his western views. Jackson first came to Colorado at the apex of his career in 1873 with the Hayden expedition. From that time until the close of his active commercial photographic career in 1902, he was closely associated with Colorado.

In 1879 Jackson left the Hayden Survey and chose Denver as his new home. Jackson and his family remained in Denver for the next twenty years. From his studio located successively at 413 Larimer St., 1609 Arapahoe St., and 433 West Colfax Ave., Jackson traveled during the summer to every corner of Colorado and to every western state.

In 1897, Jackson became a director of the Detroit Publishing Company in a venture to publish color prints of his negatives. Jackson and his family settled in Detroit in 1898. The company used a photolithographic process to reproduce Jackson's black and white negatives in something approximating natural color. The society holds many of these "chromolithographs."

After retiring from the publishing company in 1924, Jackson moved to Washington, D.C. where he wrote and painted. In 1929 Jackson moved to New York City to become the research director of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association. The National Park Service contracted with Jackson in 1935 to paint four murals for the Interior Department Building. William Henry Jackson died in New York City in June 1942 of complications following a hip fracture. Jackson was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Contact the library for more information about the photograph collection.

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