Machine Makers on the Brink

When Henry Washburn led the first serious expedition to Yellowstone in 1870, it was a remote locale accessible only to indigenous peoples and the most adventuresome explorers. The following year, widespread interest in the region was sparked when expedition member Charles Moore’s rough sketches were reworked by Thomas Moran and published in Scribner’s Monthly.

Recognizing the artistic potential of Yellowstone, Moran joined photographer William Henry Jackson on Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden’s historic survey of the region in 1871. Hayden also understood the power of imagery and arranged to show works by Moran and Jackson in the Capitol following their return. Along with Hayden’s testimony, their watercolors and photographs persuaded Congress to pass the Yellowstone Park bill, which Ulysses S. Grant signed into law on March 1, 1872.

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“I cast all my claims to being an artist into this one picture of the Great Cãnon . . . It was of the first importance to get the big picture out before anyone else had dabbled with the subject.”

- Thomas Moran to Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, March 1872

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With public interest in Yellowstone on the rise, other painters, such as landscape giants Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Hill, were soon at work in the park. Artists thus played an important dual role in ensuring Yellowstone’s official protection and in making it one of America’s most famous landscapes.