Yosemite Valley, Cal. In progress. [Washington, D .C.: U. S. Geological Survey, ca. 1880-1889]. Albumen print photograph, 9.875” x 13.375” on 10.875 x 13.9375” paperboard mount, gilt edges. Titled in the negative. Signed “Hillers, Photo” in negative at lower right. An uncommon view of Yosemite Valley from the U. S. Geological Survey’s California series. J. K. Hillers (1843-1925) was an important early photographer of the West, one of the first to photograph the Grand Canyon region. He began his career as a boatman on John Wesley Powell’s Second Expedition in 1871-2, was consequently hired by Powell in 1879 to be the Smithsonian’s first staff photographer, and was the chief photographer for the Geological Survey from 1881-1900. His survey work began with geology and topography and evolved to recording the traditional ways of life of the Hopi and Navaho people for the Bureau of American Ethnology. Hillers’ photographs of Yosemite subjects are far less frequently encountered than his southwestern subjects. CONDITION: Good, light foxing.
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