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  • Teton Range from the East

  • 1882
  • William Henry Jackson (American 1843-1942)
  • Albumen print photograph 1667
  • 55.6 x 152.2 cm., 21-7/8 x 59-7/8" image
  • Gift of Mrs. C.L. Horberg, 1955 to Augustana College Geology Department, 1990.56

Essay by Michael B. Wolf, Professor of Geology, Fritiof M. Fryxell Chair in Geology and Director of Fryxell Geology Museum

In today's world of instant point and shoot imagery snapped by pocket-sized digital cameras, we tend to forget just what an effort it took to create a photograph like William Henry Jackson's 1878 image, 1667. The Teton Range from the East. Mules and wagons were needed to carry the glass bottles of chemicals and glass plates (ranging in size from 5 x 8" up to 20 x 24"). A supply of water and a complex series of chemical procedures were necessary to fix the negative image. Careful packing, sure-footed mules and luck were needed to get those delicate glass plates safely back the thousand miles to home. This particular large (22 x 60") photograph, printed in 1882, was seamlessly stitched together from three separate negative plates.

Above all other media, William Henry Jackson's photographs of the west brought those distant mountains back to the eastern populations and spurred westward expansion by sparking the imagination of masses of city dwellers. At least in those days the camera did not lie. In contrast to the Hudson River School painters' romantic depictions of the Appalachian, Adirondack, Rocky, and Sierra Nevada Mountains, Jackson's wet plate images portrayed the true West. What you saw was what you were going to get when you got there, and those sights truly were inspirational; even today, in this era in which any image from anywhere on Earth (and beyond-web gallery 210) can be accessed instantly via the web, people still make pilgrimages of thousands of miles around the world to special, sacred mountains. Jackson's photographs promoted a sense of national pride and helped spur Congress to establish the world's first national park in order to preserve the region's beauty for future generations.

Many people believe that knowing more about the natural world will lessen its spiritual value. I believe the opposite. As long as we don't confuse knowledge with wisdom, I strongly affirm that the more we understand about the natural world, be it physically, chemically, biologically, or geologically, the more wondrous it becomes. As Dr. Fritiof Fryxell, renowned, long-time Augustana geology professor and Teton ranger, wrote in his book, The Tetons: An Interpretation of a Mountain Landscape, "True appreciation of landscape comes only when one is alive to both its beauty and its meaning."

Beyond the beauty portrayed, a wealth of scientific data still can be gleaned from these old images. In order to assess the effects of global warming, modern climate researchers have used this photograph to study the retreat of alpine glaciers prior to the advent of modern measuring studies. Jackson would have been proud that his photographic contributions as part of the F. V. Hayden United States Geological Survey of the Territories in the 1870s are still valued for their artistic and scientific qualities even today.