id: 162771 accession number: 2003.292 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.292 updated: 2023-01-11 10:08:16.857000 Echo Cliffs, Grand River Canyon, 1900. William Henry Jackson (American, 1843–1942). Photochrome; image: 26.7 x 52.7 cm (10 1/2 x 20 3/4 in.); matted: 61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro 2003.292 title: Echo Cliffs, Grand River Canyon title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1900 creation date earliest: 1900 creation date latest: 1900 current location: creditline: Gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro copyright: --- culture: America, 19th century technique: photochrome department: Photography collection: PH - American 19th Century type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * William Henry Jackson (American, 1843–1942) - artist 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. --- measurements: Image: 26.7 x 52.7 cm (10 1/2 x 20 3/4 in.); Matted: 61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: Amtrak’s California Zephyr rolls through this canyon today; Interstate 70 now runs along the opposite side of the river digital description: This image, taken in 1887, shows the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad’s route alongside the Grand River (now the Colorado River) through present-day Glenwood Canyon, Colorado. The D&RG was racing another firm to reach Aspen first. Their haste is evidenced in the narrow-gauge tracks laid atop standard-gauge wooden ties. The route was converted to standard-gauge track in 1889–91. This print, made around 1900, is a photochrome, which is an ink-based process that produces color images from black-and-white photographic negatives. The museum also owns a photographic print of the image (2010.418), printed around 1893–1900. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES