See Pioneer Photographer William Henry Jackson’s Spectacular Photos of America’s Natural Wonders

After two days of strenuous hiking, Jackson captured the first photograph of the legendary Mount of the Holy Cross in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. “View of Mount of the Holy Cross in the Rocky Mountains” by Jackson, circa 1880–1900. Public domain

When New York businessman George Jackson gave his son William Henry Jackson (1843–1942) a camera in the mid-1800s, photography was in its infancy. Neither father nor son knew how that gift would set the younger Jackson on a path to fame and fortune as one of America’s favorite landscape artists of the American West.

George provided the camera, but it was William’s mother Harriet, a talented painter, who taught William composition and style, instilling in him an appreciation of art.