December 9, 2008 – March 22, 2009 —
The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) celebrates the photographic career of William Henry Jackson by mounting the exhibition Vistas de México. Jackson, adventurer and photographer extraordinaire, is known to have visited Mexico at least twice in his lifetime. In 1883 he was commissioned by the Mexican Central Railway to document the inaugural excursion between Juarez and Mexico City. The artist returned in 1884 to photograph the completion of the railway line, and to climb and photograph Mount Popocatapetal.
The starting point for this exhibitionis a special “art”ifact. An album of photographs taken during one of Jackson’s visits to Mexico is an item of ephemera from the MONA collection, showcased for the first time. The accordion-style album once belonged to Dr. Lynn Cornell, a dentist who traveled with William Henry Jackson on one of his expeditions to Mexico. The album contains 62 albumen images of life in 1890s Mexico, and topics include scenic views, man-made monuments, and life moments of the common worker. The photographs, in two sizes, are affixed to both sides of a heavy-weight linen paper. This gift was donated some time ago to the Museum by Dr. Cornell’s niece, Tancie Martin, and her husband, David.
The exhibition includes other images of Mexico as well, including various photographic formats – albumen photographic print, photochrom, magic lantern slide, and stereocard. Though these images are certainly not his best known body of work, they provide an intriguing glimpse into the diversity of William Henry Jackson’s photographic career. Also exhibited are art loans from collector David Butler, DeGoyner Library at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and Meibohn Fine Arts Gallery, Aurora, New York. Two Nebraska museums, Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, Grand Island, and Dawson County Historical Museum, Lexington, have provided period artifacts to accompany the exhibition.
William Henry Jackson is renowned for his many artistic endeavors. A westward-ho bullwhacker turned photographer, Jackson purchased a professional studio in Omaha in 1867 that he and his family maintained for more than a decade. During this time, he explored the West several times with Ferdinand Hayden’s scientific survey crew, compiling images of such astonishing natural magnitude that the U. S. Government was persuaded to make Yellowstone our nation’s first national park. Also at this juncture, Jackson documented the growth of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1879 the artist opened a studio in Denver and continued to photograph the progress of several railroad lines. In the early 1890s, he replaced another photographer as the official imager of the World’s Columbian Fair in Chicago, and 1894 found the artist traveling worldwide documenting scenes for the World’s Transportation Commission.
From 1897 to 1924, Jackson was associated with the Detroit Publishing Company. This business held the rights to a special color lithographic process developed in Switzerland. The resulting products called photochroms were marketed as inexpensive color pictures and postcards. Jackson brought his own vast collection of images to the company, and his negatives became the basis for the business. Following the close of the company, the artist received various commissions including several from the government, and was awarded honors by numerous organizations. At this time of his life, he turned to painting images of the old west by memory and by photograph. He was productive until his death in 1942, just short of a century in age.
