Yellowstone and the Great West: Journals, Letters, and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition James Pritchard Iowa State University, [email protected]

Natural Resource Ecology and Management Natural Resource Ecology and Management Publications

6-2000 Yellowstone and the Great West: Journals, Letters, and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition James Pritchard Iowa State University, [email protected]

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Abstract Although Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden submitted the voluminous "Fifth Report" detailing the exploration of Yellowstone's high country in 1871, important parts of this expedition's story were omitted. Later accounts of the expedition by Hayden and by the photographer William Henry Jackson, though prepared from their field notes, contained mistakes caused by faulty memories. Unfortunately, the original field notes of both men have been lost. In Yellowstone and the Great West, Marlene Merrill presents the edited and annotated diaries of other expedition members, the geologist George Nelson Allen and the mineralogist Albert C. Peale.

Keywords high country, western exploration, national parks, fossils, geology, scientists

Disciplines Geology | Natural Resources and Conservation | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Paleontology | United States History

Comments This book review is from Isis 91 (2000): 375. Posted with permission.

This book review is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/nrem_pubs/56 Review Author(s): James Pritchard Review by: James Pritchard Source: Isis, Vol. 91, No. 2 (Jun., 2000), pp. 375-376 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/236987 Accessed: 04-03-2015 16:02 UTC

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This content downloaded from 129.186.176.217 on Wed, 04 Mar 2015 16:02:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BOOKREVIEWS-ISIS, 91: 2 (2000) 375 administration.Nor is such distortion atypical. ously thought. Despite his focus on the geo- Ruse has G. LedyardStebbins putting in a good graphicalpuzzles before him, Hayden also took word for radicals as a faculty memberat Berke- a particularinterest in collecting fossils from the ley during the late 1960s, when in fact he had Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. Merrill aptly moved to Davis in 1950. explains the importantcontributions of lesser- A positivistic stage theory is of itself a super- known team members, such as the entomologist ficially historicized version of an earlier con- Cyrus Thomas and the expedition artist Henry struct,the scala naturae, and a projectionof so- Elliott, who mapped Yellowstone Lake. These cial hierarchyupon the cosmos as a whole. In diaries also reveal the humanside of exploration. this light it becomes easy to see why Ruse is so Several membersof the expedition are identified obsessed with prestige. In a hierarchicalsociety for the first time, among them the high country based on privilege ratherthan merit, one gets a guide Jose, whose last name remains a mystery. system that has been characterizedas bad man- While published reports emphasized the suc- ners organized.Those in the middle bully those cesses of the expedition, the diaries and com- below and toady up to those above. Ruse's be- mentaryreveal the attendanthardships and mis- havior toward systematists looks like jealousy haps, such as George Allen's leaving the manifestingitself as spite. Without a solid back- expedition for health reasons and the tragic sui- groundin the science itself, he tried to fill what cide of the topographerAnton Schonbornshortly at the time looked like an intellectual vacuum after the journey's conclusion. and went into the philosophy of biology. Ironi- This book is particularlyvaluable in helping cally, the majorbreakthrough in that field was in readersunderstand what it meantto be a scientist the philosophy of systematics,and he missed the in the field during the late nineteenth century. boat entirely. Although he has been a prolific Though he was interested mainly in geology, author, such tokens of prestige as a chair at a George Allen found himself unexpectedly ap- first-rateuniversity have not been forthcoming. pointed expedition botanist, a turnof events that What business does someone like him have tell- demonstratesthe wide trainingand expertiseex- ing scientists how to run their lives? pected of naturalhistorians. His diary hints of MICHAELT. GHISELIN naturaltheology and gradualisttheories of geo- logical change. The institutionalties that aided Hayden's explorations become evident: Smith- Marlene Deahl Merrill Yellowstone sonian SecretaryJoseph Henry forwardedletters (Editor). to for and co- and the Great West: Journals, Letters, and Im- newspapers publication, Hayden's the 1871 xxx + operationwith railroadslowered his transporta- ages from Hayden Expedition. tion costs. Merrill has letters from 315 illus., tables, bibl., index. Lin- interspersed pp., apps., to Baird at coln: of Nebraska Press, 1999. Hayden Spencer (assistant secretary University the into the $29.95, ?19.95. Smithsonian) journals' narrative, manifesting the expedition's connections with Although FerdinandVandeveer Hayden submit- scientific institutions.Common prejudices of the ted the voluminous "Fifth Report"detailing the day toward Native Americans and immigrants exploration of Yellowstone's high country in are revealed, particularly, in George Allen's 1871, importantparts of this expedition's story journal, which not only shows a transforming were omitted. Later accounts of the expedition West but also offers clues to class divisions and by Hayden and by the photographerWilliam the social statusof scientists. The rigors of camp Henry Jackson,though preparedfrom their field life are well capturedby these diaries, which de- notes, containedmistakes caused by faulty mem- tail long days in the saddle, camps plagued by ories. Unfortunately,the original field notes of mosquitoes, and nightly guard duty. both men have been lost. In Yellowstoneand the Merrill's endnotes are important and infor- Great West, MarleneMerrill presentsthe edited mative enough that one wishes footnotes had and annotateddiaries of other expedition mem- been employed instead. Artfully produced, the bers, the geologist George Nelson Allen and the volume includes chapter titles illustrated by mineralogistAlbert C. Peale. unique segments of Henry Elliott's panoramaof The publicationof these accounts makes sev- the expedition's route, as well as fifty photo- eral contributionsof interest to historianswork- graphs from the expedition. Augmented by a ing on geology, western exploration, the U.S. useful glossary of geological terms, maps, and West, or nationalparks. The diariesdemonstrate biographicalsketches, the book serves as an ex- that Hayden was more involved in scientific as- cellent resource and representsa useful addition pects of the exploration enterprise than previ- to the existing literatureon Hayden and the sur-

This content downloaded from 129.186.176.217 on Wed, 04 Mar 2015 16:02:05 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 376 BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 91: 2 (2000) veys of the AmericanWest. The editor uses pri- tour with the World's TransportationCommis- mary documents and secondarysources to good sion. Afterward,his business and financesin dis- effect, clearing up some questions: the identity array, he joined forces with the Detroit Photo- of the mysteriousMount Madison, how well the graphic (later Publishing) Company in 1897, Yellowstone area was known to trappers and contributinghis negatives and staying with the guides before 1870, and the timing of claims firm until it went out of business in 1924. Never staked out with the intent of developing Mam- idle, he filled the years until his death in 1942 moth Hot Springsfor tourism.Merrill concludes by serving as research secretaryfor the Oregon with Hayden's recommendationson the parkbill Trail Memorial Association, producing four and the observationthat the 1871 expedition di- murals for the new Departmentof the Interior rectly aided in the creation of Yellowstone Na- museum in Washington, D.C., and painting the tional Park and, thus, in the preservationof its western scenes now at Scotts Bluff. geological wonders. It was indeed a remarkablelife, and Waitley JAMES PRITCHARD recountsit well, if briefly, utilizing Jackson'sau- tobiography Time Exposure (Putnam's, 1940), the diaries he kept during various periods, and general secondary sources. Three maps help the Douglas Waitley. William Henry Jackson: reader follow Jackson's travels, and there is a Framing the Frontier. vi + 217 pp., frontis., color section some of his paintings as illus., bibl., index. Missoula, Mont.: Mountain featuring well as a selection of his Press 1998. $36 (cloth); good photographs. Publishing Company, Those who want to delve furtherinto the mean- $22 (paper). ing of Jackson's work should next consult Peter While visiting the museum at the Scotts Bluff B. Hales's brilliant and provocative William National Monument near Gering, Nebraska, in Henry Jackson and the Transformationof the 1995, Douglas Waitley, an author of books on American Landscape (Temple, 1988). Also, by steam locomotives, Floridahistory, and otherdi- checking the two web sites thatWaitley includes verse subjects, was intriguedto see a numberof in his references, readers can quickly discover western paintings by William Henry Jackson. Jacksonbibliographies, complete informationon The noted nineteenth-centuryphotographer had the paintingsat Scotts Bluff, and a section on the made the watercolors during the 1930s, basing Detroit Publishing Company in the American them in part on scenes he had sketched while Memory Historical Collections, a component of traveling along the Oregon Trail in the mid the Libraryof CongressNational Digital Library 1860s. Jackson himself had helped dedicate the Program,featuring twenty-five thousandimages museum in 1936, returningtwo years later to accessible by keyword or subject. A few more point out the spot at nearbyMitchell Pass where clicks bring one to Westcliffe Publishersof En- he had camped in 1866. Fascinated with Jack- glewood, Colorado, which is marking the mil- son's life and work, Waitley determinedto tell lennium with the 1999 publicationof Colorado, his story. 1870-2000, a large-formatvolume of Jackson Born in 1843, William Henry Jackson was photographs paired with contemporary color working as a retoucherin a Rutland, Vermont, views of the same subjects, accompaniedby an photographystudio when service with a Union educational program, a traveling exhibit, and regiment took him to Gettysburgin 1863. After newspaperand television series. Clearly,interest the war he went west as a bullwhackerwith a in William Henry Jackson continues unabated wagon train before founding his own studio in more than half a century after his death, and Omaha in 1868. Between 1870 and 1878 he Waitley's book fills a niche by providing a cur- ranged over the western territorieswith Ferdi- rent, nontechnicalintroduction to the photogra- nand V. Hayden's geological survey, taking the pher's life and to the thriving industrybased on Yellowstone photographsthat helped convince his legacy. Congress to create the country's first national MAXINE BENSON park in 1872. When the Hayden Survey ended he set up shop in Denver in 1879; the Colorado capitalremained his headquartersfor most of the next two decades as he continued his picture- Susan Heuck Allen. Finding the Walls of Troy: taking excursions along the railroadsthen open- Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemannat His- ing up the West. In 1893 he photographedthe sarlik. xiv + 410 pp., frontis., illus., figs., bibl., World's ColumbianExposition in Chicago, fol- index. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: Univer- lowing that assignmentwith a seventeen-month sity of CaliforniaPress, 1999. $35, ?27.50.

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