THE BRINTON MUSEUM - Key Persons
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- Grounds and Facilities Director
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- Administrative Assistant
- Bookkeeper
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- Interim Curatorial Director
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- Membership & Sponsorship Coordinator
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- Bistro & Catering Services Manager
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- Business Operations Manager
Jim Jackson, an internationally recognized artist, is a leather tooler in the tradition of Otto F. Ernst and Don King. Jim gives demonstrations and holds classes and clinics for all ages in this art so closely associated with Sheridan. In alignment with one of The Brinton's core missions of education, Jackson's efforts not only preserve techniques of leather tooling and stamping, but convey them to future generations. In addition, samples of Jackson's leather and mixed media creations are for sale at the Brinton Museum Store.
Job Titles:
- Pioneer Photographer of the American West
The Brinton Museum presents William Henry Jackson: Pioneer Photographer of the American West, featuring a selection of historically important 19 th century photographs. Perhaps the most famous, and highly-regarded, of the 19 th century photographers to photograph the great American West, artist and Civil War veteran William Henry Jackson started his impressive photographic career in Omaha, Nebraska in 1867. In this period, he photographed the Osages, Otoes, Pawnees, Winnebagoes and Omahas. In 1869, he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad documenting the construction of the transcontinental line and the majestic scenery along its route.
Perhaps the most famous of all the great Western photographers, the artist and Civil War veteran William Henry Jackson (1843 - 1942) started his photographic career in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1867. In this period he photographed the Osages, Otoes, Pawnees, Winnebagoes, and Omahas. In 1869, he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad documenting the construction of the transcontinental line and the resplendent scenery along its route. He joined the 1870 U.S. government survey, led by Ferdinand Vanderveer Hayden, of the Yellowstone River and Rocky Mountains, and continued with Hayden's 1871 Geological Survey. He befriended the American painter Thomas Moran, who was also a member of the Hayden expedition. Jackson and Moran worked closely together to document the beautiful Yellowstone region. Moran's paintings and Jackson's magnificent photographs contributed to the establishment by Congress of Yellowstone National Park in 1872.
Jackson often traveled with three cameras: one to make stereoscope cards; a "medium size" 8×10-inch format; and a "mammoth plate" 20×24-inch camera. The rugged terrain of the West presented enormous logistical and artistic challenges. Jackson had to carry all his photographic equipment: large cameras and heavy tripods, glass plates, bottled chemicals and numerous trays, all of which were loaded on the backs of pack mules. On one such expedition in the scenic Rocky Mountains, Jackson lost a month's worth of completed negatives when a mule lost its footing and fell.
Jackson continued through Hayden's last survey, of 1878, when the expedition departed from Cheyenne and travelled through the Wind River Mountains to northwestern Wyoming Territory and into Yellowstone Park. Following the Hayden expeditions, Jackson established his own business in Denver, producing photographs for the railroads, tourists, and collectors.
The last phase of his career began in 1897, when Jackson sold his vast stock of negatives to the Detroit Publishing Company and then was hired as president of the company. In this new role, Jackson oversaw the production and popular sale of a vast number of photographs of both American and foreign subjects. These included color prints made by the new "photochrom" technique-a photographic variation on the chromolithographic process of the era. Jackson lived to the age of 99, surviving all of his fellow photographers of the "golden age" of nineteenth-century Western photography. Recognized as one of the oldest Civil War veterans, he was buried in Arlington Cemetery in 1942.