William H. Jackson (1843-1942)

William H. Jackson (1843-1942)

THE ROYAL GORGE (GRAND CAÑON OF ARKANSAS) DENVER AND RIO GRANDE RAILWAY - THE SCENIC LINE OF AMERICA, c.1880, vintage albumen print, image size, 244 x 222mm, annotated verso in pencil and titled below in mount, small tear (35mm) to the upper margin of image, repaired

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This photograph was taken during Jackson's Denver era when he did extensive work for the railroads of Colorado and was given his own personal railroad car from which he based his photographic excursions and operations. This photograph is an example of the work Jackson did for the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. Jackson (1843-1942) began his career in photography in 1858, working as a retouching artist in a studio in Troy, New York. In the 1860s, after serving briefly in the Union Army, he worked at several studios in Vermont before moving to Omaha, Nebraska in 1867, where he established his own studio. He worked on an extensive series of views for the Union Pacific Railroad, which earned him enough notice to be recruited by Ferdinand Hayden for the U.S. Geological Survey team. With the Survey, Jackson explored and photographed vast areas of the West, including Yellowstone and parts of Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Nevada. In 1879, his work with the Survey at an end, he set up a commercial photography studio in Denver, marketing landscape photographs of the West. Jackson stayed in Denver until 1898, when he moved to Detroit.