American

Artist

Jackson, William Henry

1843

1942

American (North American)

American photographer, 1843-1942

male

In 1858 Jackson began working as a retoucher and colorist at the portrait studio of C.C. Schoonmaker in Troy, New York. In 1867 Jackson set up a studio in Omaha, Nebraska with his brother Edward. The studio specialized in portraits and photographs of Amerindian villages. In 1869, Jackson travelled with A.C. Hull and photographed along the Union Pacific Railroad. From 1870 to 1877 Jackson was a photographer for the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories, commissioned by Professor Ferdinand Hayden. Jackson closed his Omaha studio at this time. Jackson photographed Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Idaho in 1871 and travelled to New Mexico in 1877 to photograph the native American villages. In 1879, Jackson founded the Jackson Photo Company in Denver, Colorado, where he sold pictures of his journey across the United States. He also produced Indian portraits and printed those by other photographers, for the American Bureau of Ethnology. In 1881, the firm Jackson Photographic Co. became Jackson & Rinehart, and then W.H. Jackson Photograph and Publishing Co. in 1883-1884. Jackson was hired by the architect Daniel Burnham to photograph the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. In 1894 Jackson travelled with the World's Transportation Commission to the Near and Far East, Australia, China, Siberia, and Russia. In 1897 Jackson acquired part interest in the Detroit Publishing Co. which printed and distributed his photographs. The Detroit Publishing Co. went bankrupt in 1924 and Jackson moved to Washington D.C. where he began to paint. In 1929 Jackson moved to New York City, New York.