Browse Items (32 total)

Russell, chief photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad, made one of the famous photographs of the ceremony joining the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. Following that event, Russell took an…

The U.S. government settled the West in part by promoting agricultural development, even in areas, such as the Pacific Northwest, that were not ideal for farming. Many settlers in the richly-timbered region often worked as loggers or in sawmills to…

Among the earliest American landscape photographers, Watkins became instantly famous for his views of the Yosemite Valley, which he first photographed in 1861. In an influential Atlantic Monthly article, Oliver Wendell Holmes praised Watkins for his…

Watkins achieved critical acclaim but had difficulty selling his photographs and often found himself unable to fund his photographic excursions. With a loan from American geologist J. D. Whitney (1819-1896), Watkins set out from California in 1867 to…

The cowboy came to be the icon of the American West in the mid-1880s, precisely when his traditional way of life began to disappear. By then Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska had closed their borders to cattle being herded from the south, and the open…

Lummis spent his entire career promoting the Southwest and its "Original Americans." An obituary in the Los Angeles Times described the American explorer, author, and amateur photographer as "one of the first writers to realize that the history of…

Savage immigrated to New York from England in 1855 after converting to Mormonism. By the time he left for Salt Lake City five years later, he had been trained in photography and immediately established himself as a professional photographer upon his…

Savage successfully operated a photography studio in Salt Lake City by balancing the demand for portraiture with his artistic preference for landscape photography. Savage's landscape work rivaled that of his friends Carleton E. Watkins, William Henry…

The Mormons began their westward migration in 1846 to escape religious persecution. They were largely responsible for settling the Utah Territory and had remarkable success as farmers there, despite the arid climate. In this photograph, likely of a…

On June 25, 1876, General George A. Custer led the Seventh Calvary into battle against Sioux and Cheyenne Indians along the Little Bighorn River in Montana. The utter defeat of Custer and his men at "Custer's Last Stand" is one of the defining…