All Denver Public Library locations will close early at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 27, and will be closed all day on Thursday, November 28 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. More information.

Acclaimed Western Photographers ~ William Henry Jackson

William Henry Jackson, a giant among photographers, captured the New American West like no other, with his work more widely distributed than any other by a wide margin.

Our Digital Collections include many W.H. Jackson images.

Acclaimed Western Photographers

glass plate negatives

A prospector with a sledgehammer stands outside his chink and log cabin in Teller County, Colorado; shows a cast-iron stove outside the door of the cabin, a jug, broom, lunch pail, pans, cans, and a dog and her puppies under a table.

View of three of the twenty-eight domes in the ceiling of the Colorado Mineral Palace, Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Each dome is decorated with Colorado wildflowers.

A view a building with four porch entrances. The sandstone row house features towers, bays, porches, recessed porches, transom windows, arches, stone chimneys and a carriage portico.

View of Native American (Taos) Taos Pueblo, New Mexico; shows adobe buildings with wood decks, adobe wall and ovens.

View of mountain and tree reflections in pool on Fountain Creek with railroad tracks, trestle, and cattle, El Paso County, Colorado.

View of the Iron Silver Mine in Leadville, Lake County, Colorado. Shows Mine buildings, smokestacks and a trestle for ore cars.

View of Cathedral Spires, a sandstone rock formation at Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs (El Paso County), Colorado. Shows a dirt road and brush.

Men pose near a toll gate on the Otto Mears toll road in Ouray County, Colorado. A horse-drawn buggy, wood frame building, and a man on horseback are nearby. Bear Creek Falls is under the bridge.

Two men and a dog are outside a log store for miners in Fremont (Cripple Creek, Teller County), Colorado. The sign above the store reads "J.L. Niebergall, Headquarters for Gents Furnishings Boots & Shoes." Shirts, pants, jackets, gloves, socks, shoes and boots are arranged on boxes and hung on beams outside the cabin. A sign outside the cabin includes price list. Suspenders hang in the window. A sign: "Lodging," is on a stack of building materials beside a plank building under construction.

View of the Horace Ferguson Ranch in Estes Park, Larimer County, Colorado. Shows a ranch house, cabins and a barn.

View of five miners and dog at log cabin with dirt roof, Colorado.

View of the statue of King-Coal against a backdrop of gilded plasterwork and ornate wallpaper in the Colorado Mineral Palace, Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. The statue is made of coal, diamonds, and diamond dust, the figure is seated on a pedestal of copper and nickel with a glass display case below. Illumination is supplied by four dual-bulb floor lamps, one at each corner of the pedestal. A sign reads: "King-Coal of Trinidad." Shows a stairway to an upper floor through an archway.

Six men are gathered on the front deck of the The Crusher, the first newspaper in Fremont (Cripple Creek, Teller County), Colorado. Oakley Spell, a young boy, holds a bundle of newspapers under his arm; a sign on the log building reads: "The Crusher."

Close-up view of the statue of King-Coal in the Colorado Mineral Palace, Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. The statue is made of coal, diamonds, and diamond dust, the figure is seated on a pedestal with a glass display case below. Lighting is supplied by four dual-bulb floor lamps, one at each corner of the pedestal. A sign reads: "King-Coal of Trinidad." Shows part of the stage with stalactite and stalagmite decoration. A pipe organ is nearby with a sign that reads: "The Pueblo Smelting [?]"

View of Seven Castles rock formation near Basalt (Eagle County), Colorado. A Colorado Midland Railway locomotive and train parallels the Fryingpan River.

Assayers work in a lab probably in Colorado. A stove, mortars, pestles, tongs, and other equipment are in the room.

View of a Colorado Midland locomotive, baggage and mail car, and excursion car high on a railroad trestle in a gorge near Buena Vista, Chaffee County, Colorado. Shows employees of the rail company on the train. A wood frame building is in the valley

A Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge locomotive stops on a high wooden trestle over the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River near Lake Fork Junction, Gunnison County, Colorado. Workmen look out from the engine cabin. Shows boulders and brush.

View of group of men with meal at chuckwagon, shows barn, tent and horse, Colorado.

View of group of girls on donkeys with man, carriage and ornate gazebo at Ute Iron Spring Chateau, Manitou Springs, El Paso County, Colorado.

View of a mule drawn wagon with supplies set behind it, possibly the photographer's, near large jagged sandstone rock formations in what is now Roxborough State Park, Douglas County, Colorado. Shows a man by the wagon; two men pose by a small rock formation in the foreground.

View of Glenwood Canyon and the Colorado River with the "Glenwood Extension" of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad line in Garfield County, Colorado. Shows telegraph poles.

A man poses in Cliff Palace, a Native American (Anasazi) cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park, in Montezuma County, Colorado. Shows masonry ruins and a stone overhang.

View of the oldest house in Salt Lake City (Salt Lake County), Utah; shows a one story hewn log cabin with chinking and a hewn board roof, a double horizontal window with panes of glass, a door and stone chimney. A man and two young boys stand and sit on chairs and benches near the house. Shows a small dirt yard with garden, a cold frame, a wooden push cart with one wheel, a wooden gate, trees. Shows part of a two story brick masonry house.

A man poses with burros that carry wooden casks in the mountains of Colorado.

View of John A. McMurtrie home at 1007 Pennsylvania Street, Capitol Hill neighborhood, Denver, Colorado; features rusticated stone, turrets, arches, a covered porch, and ornate chimneys.

View of the Ouray - Silverton road, the Otto Mears toll road, in Ouray County, Colorado; log retaining structures bridge sections of the road. The Uncompahgre River is in the valley below.

Miners pose near mud plastered dugout houses (a duplex) in Colorado. they wear hats with miners lights. One man smokes a pipe.

View of men in chain of ore carts being pulled by General Electric engine with frame building, a man stands beside the door, Colorado.

A driver in a horse-drawn buggy and a man on horseback stop on the Otto Mears toll road on a high cliff probably Ouray County, Colorado. Shows talus and rock formations, the narrow road is buttressed with logs. A passenger sits by the road.

View of snow-capped Mount Hood, a volcano located between Hood River County and Clackamas County, Oregon. Shows clouds near the summit, and heavily forested foot hills.

Panoramic view of Marshall Pass in Chaffee County Colorado. Shows Denver and Rio Grande trains on switchbacks on the pass. , Mount Ouray is in the distance.

View of eroded striated bluffs and cliffs, the pillar Tollgate Rock and The Palisades on Green River in Sweetwater County, Wyoming.

View of an arcade at Mission San Juan Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano, California. Plants grow from the top of a colonnade, and rubble is piled against a wall. Plants grow wild in the central patio of the mission. The adobe walls and flagstone arches of the mission have missing plaster. The buildings have red clay tile roofs.

View of Glacier Point and Half (South) Dome and Yosemite Valley with group of men atop rock precipice, Yosemite National Park, California.

View of Lake Magog, a glacier, and Mount Assiniboine in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. Shows an alpine lake at the foot of rugged snow covered peaks.

View of Sapphire Pool, a hot spring with mineral incrustations, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Sitting studio portrait of Native American (Tabeguache band, Southern Ute) Chief Ouray, and Otto Mears, an interpreter and businessman. Ouray wears beaded moccasins, leggings, shirt, and fringed coat, Mears wears a three piece suit.

View of Hymen Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Shows thermal pools and terraces, the Liberty Cap, an extinct hot spring cone, and two-story buildings with red roofs, probably Fort Yellowstone.

View of Castle Geyser in the process of eruption and a hot spring pool in Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

View of a leafless Silk cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra), with a buttressed trunk, near a two story building in Nassau, Bahamas. The building has porches and shuttered windows. A fence surrounds the tree. A house is in the distance.

North American Indian (Pawnee) men and women sit and stand on and near earthen lodges at sunset probably in Nebraska. They are wrapped in blankets. Shows fences made of twigs or brush, and a plaza with an American flag that flies near the entrance to a lodge.

A wagon train moves towards the North Platte River and Chimney Rock, on the Oregon Trail, in Morrill County, Nebraska. Shows Conestoga wagons pulled by oxen, a herd of horses, men on horseback, and women and children. A boy holds a rifle and a dead rabbit and two young girls pick wildflowers. Rock formations are in the distance.

A view of the library in the Denver, Club at 17th (Seventeenth) and Glenarm in Denver, Colorado. The interior has upholstered wooden chairs, tables, bookcases, paintings in gilded frames, chandeliers, and a fireplace.

A panoramic view of Denver, Colorado; shows the Brown Palace Hotel and the Kittredge building.

A view of Lawrence and 15th (Fifteenth) streets in Denver, Colorado; shows pedestrians, cable cars, utility poles, smokestacks, and commercial buildings. Signs read "Wright Clothing" and "Golding, Loftus & Breunert Carpets and Draperies.

A panoramic view of Denver, Colorado; shows 16th (Sixteenth) Street, the Denver City Hall, the Arapahoe County Courthouse, the Kittredge Building, and the First Congregational Church. The Front Range is in the distance.

View of the pavilion near City Park (Ferril) Lake in City Park, Denver, Colorado. The Spanish Colonial Revival style building has towers with tile roofs and an arcade. People sit on chairs at the shore of the lake with parasols as groups in rowboats go by. A band can be seen in the bandstand on the lake.

View of Long Lake and Navajo Peak, Apache Peak, and Shoshoni Peak, in the Indians Peaks in Boulder County, Colorado. A man stands on a spit with trees on the lake.

Panoramic view of Boulder (Boulder County), Colorado. Shows houses on probably Hill Street (Mapleton Avenue). Downtown public and commercial buildings include the domed Boulder County Courthouse and the Masonic Temple Building. The University of Colorado and houses are on University Hill, and The Flatirons are in the distance.

View of North American Indian (Ancestral Puebloan) dwellings in Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Shows masonry and mud square and round ruins under a cliff overhang on Chapin Mesa. Cliff Canyon is in the distance.

Panoramic view of unidentified lakes or ponds, a plain scattered with trees, and the Spanish Peaks in Huerfano County, Colorado.