William Henry Jackson American, 1843-1942 Although considered primarily a photographer of the American frontier, William Henry Jackson's long life and early start in photography allowed him to bridge several different eras during his nearly 80 years in the field. Jackson (born in Keesville, New York) worked as a photographic retoucher in 1858 and served as a staff artist in the 12th Vermont Infantry, Company K, for the Union army in 1862. After the war, he worked at several establishments in the Northeast before opening a studio, Jackson Brothers, with his brother Edward in Omaha in 1867. Two years later he photographed along the newly opened Union Pacific Railroad, making approximately 10,000 stereoviews. In 1870 Jackson began an eight-year assignment as official photographer to the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of Ferdinand V. Hayden, producing important views of the American West: Wyoming and Yellowstone, Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, and lost cities in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. He went on to become a photographic publisher and entrepreneur in Denver, specializing in commissioned landscapes for the railroad. In 1893 Jackson was the official photographer for the World's Columbian Exposition. He painted as well, accepting a substantial mural commission in his 90s. Selected for a photography exhibition juried by Ansel Adams in 1939, Jackson also saw his work exhibited in 1942 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. His legacy includes thousands of negatives and prints that contributed to the picturing of America in the 19th century. It was Jackson's photographs of Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Mesa Verde that inspired the government to make these areas national parks. T.W.F.