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JAMES, HENRY
Biography
Born, Keeseville, New York, 1843. Retoucher and artist
in Troy, New York studio, 1857; similar job in Rutland,
Vermont, 1860. Civil War volunteer 1861–63; returned
to Rutland studio. Artist in Burlington, Vermont studio,
1 864. Left New York City l 866, for West; various jobs
including builwhacking. Formed Jackson Brothers,
Photographers, 1867. Married Mollie Greer in 1869,
and photographed Wyoming. “Offi cial Photographer,”
for F. V. Hayden and U.S. Geological and Geographi-
cal Survey, 1870–1879. Moved to Washington in
1872, wife died in childbirth. Married Emilie Painter,
- Photographed members of Ute tribe, 1874.
Organized Survey’s exhibit, Philadelphia Centennial, - Founded The Jackson Photographic Co., Denver,
Colorado, 1879,’ work began as “offi cial railroad pho-
tographer.” Incorporated as W. H. Jackson Photograph
and Publishing Co., 1883. Exhibited and photographed
World’s Columbia Exposition, Chicago, 1893. World
Transportation Commission tour with Harper’s Weekly
assignments, 1894–1896. Part owner, The Detroit Pub-
lishing Go. Photographed actively until 1903-, retired
from the Detroit Publishing Co., 1924. Mural commis-
sion from Department of the Interior, 1936, paintings
for National Park Service in 1937. Honorary Fellow,
Royal Photographic Society, 1938. Watercolors com-
pleted for Oregon Trail Association., 1939. Published
autobiography, Time Exposure, 1940. Honorary degree
from University of Wyoming (Laramie), 1941. Died,
New York City, 30 June 1942.
Group Exhibitions
1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, Pennsylva-
nia. Awarded several medals 1889 Jubilee Exhibition,
Berlin, Germany. Highest Honors.
1895 Calcutta (India) Photographic Exhibition. Bronze
Medal 1902 Traveling exhibition in Santa Fe Railway
private car.
1936 Exhibition of Jackson Collection, Denver Public
Library.
1942 “Photographs of the Civil War and the American
Frontier,” Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
Selected Works
“156 Mountain of the Holy Cross,” 1875.
“Cañon of the Rio Las Animas,” ca. 1882.
“1068 Grand Cañon of the Colorado,” ca. 1892.
“573 The Choonbatty Loop on the East Bengal Rail-
way in the Himalayas,” 1895, “1091 Mammoth Hot
Springs on Gardiner’s River (Wyoming), after 1880
“296 View from Tequa Towards Moqui,” 1875.
See also: Landscape; and Ruskin, John.
Further Reading
Bossen, Howard, “A Tall Tale Retold,” Studies in Visual Com-
munication, vol/ 8, no. 1, Winter, 1982, 98–109.
Hafen, Leroy, The Diaries of William Henry Jackson, Glendale,
CA: Arthur H. Clarke, 1959.
Hales, Peter B., William Henry Jackson and the Transformation
of the American Landscape, Philadelphia: Temple University,
1988.
Jackson, Clarence S., Picture Maker of the Old West, William H.
Jackson, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1947/
Jackson, William H. and Howard R. Driggs, Pioneer Photogra-
pher, Yonkers-on- Hudson, NYk: World Book Co., 1929.
Jackson, William H., Time Exposure (1940), Tucon, AZ: The
Patrice Press, 1994.
Naef, Weston and James N. Wood, Era of Exploration: The Rise
of Landscape Photography in the American West, 1860–1885,
Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Gallery, 1975.
Newhall, Beaumont and Diane E. Edkins, William Henry Jackson,
Dobbs Ferry, NY, 1974.
Waitley, Douglas, William Henry Jackson: Framing the Frontier,
Missoula, MT, Mountain Press, 1998.
JAMES, HENRY (1803–1877)
English, patron, offi cer of the Royal Engineers
(Lieutenant 1831, Captain 1846, Colonel 1857,
Director General Ordnance Survey 1854–75)
Throughout his career, Colonel Sir Henry James was
a proponent of photography as an adjunct to the mis-
sion of the Royal Engineers and the Ordnance Survey
Offi ce, both in the work of surveying and mapping and
resultant publications. He pioneered the use of photog-
raphy as a method for reproducing maps and plans and
established a studio at the Ordnance Survey offi ces in
Southampton where maps, plans, and documents were
photographically reproduced. In 1859 he published
Account of Methods Employed for the Reduction of
Plans by Photography. Later he claimed the invention
of a photo-mechanical technique, photo-zincography,
which was developed by two men under his command
at the Ordnance Survey Offi ce in Southampton, Eng-
land, and at fi rst, starting in 1859, simply a method of
preparing a photo-lithographic transfer and applying it
to a zinc plate, afterwards printed from. Direct prints
from negatives were then made on the zinc plates. Pho-
tozincography may refer to a line or a half-tone process.
His fi rst successful photozincograph was a reproduction
of an etching in 1859. Sir Henry James read a paper
to the British Association “On photozincography” in
September 1861.
James also saw the utility of photography in fi eld
work and ordered the inclusion of photographic docu-
mentation in many of the Offi ce’s surveys: Ordnance