![John K](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/John_K._Hillers.jpg)
John Karl Hillers (1843,
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
– 1925) was an American government
photographer
A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographe ...
.
Hillers came to the United States in 1852. He was a policeman and then a soldier in the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, first with the
New York Naval Brigade, then in the army, he re-enlisted after the war and served with the Western garrisons until 1870. He worked as a
teamster
A teamster is the American term for a truck driver or a person who drives teams of draft animals. Further, the term often refers to a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union in the United States and Canada.
Origi ...
in Salt Lake City, when he met
John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...
.
Originally hired as a boatman for the second Powell expedition down the
Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
in 1871, Hillers began to replace
Walter Clement Powell, John W. Powell's cousin and assistant to the expedition's photographers, first to
E.O. Beaman and then to
James Fennemore.
Hillers was Powell's chief expedition photographer on the trip down the
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...
the next year.
He went on to spend twenty years exploring and photographing the American West, and is known particularly for his portraits of Native Americans.
He was the first staff photographer of Powell's
Bureau of Ethnology
The Bureau of American Ethnology (or BAE, originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Interior D ...
(from 1879) and after returning to Powell's
US Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, an ...
in 1881 continued
Bureau of American Ethnology
The Bureau of American Ethnology (or BAE, originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Interior D ...
work until he resigned in 1900. Although he officially retired in 1900, he continued to take photographs for the
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
until 1919.
He was the photographer of the first
James Stevenson expedition to the Southwest, which brought
Frank H. Cushing to
Zuni.
3,000 negatives from the Powell Surveys and 20,000 negatives from his association with the Bureau of Ethnology have been credited to John K. Hillers.
John Karl Hillers is the namesake of
Mount Hillers
Mount Hillers is a summit in the Henry Mountains range, in Garfield County, Utah, in the United States. Its elevation is .
It was named by Almon Harris Thompson for John Karl Hillers, a government photographer.
Climate
Spring and fall are the ...
, in
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
.
References
Sources
* William Culp Darrah: ''Beaman, Fennemore, Hillers, Dellenbaugh, Johnson, and Hattan'', in: ''Utah Historical Quarterly'', Vol. 17, Nos. 1-4, 1949, pp. 491–503.
* Don. D. Fowler: ''′Photographed All the Best Scenery′: Jack Hillers' Diary of the Powell Expeditions, 1871–1875,'' University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1972.
* Don D.Fowler: ''The Western Photographs of John K. Hillers: ′Myself in the Water′'', Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1989.
* Don. D. Fowler: ''Cleaving an Unknown World: The Powell Expeditions and the Scientific Exploration of the Colorado Plateau'', University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 2012. (updated publication containing Hillers' diary and photography).
External links
A short biographyHistorical Photograph Collections from th
University of Oregon LibrariesPhotography of J.K. Hillersfrom the
USGS
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
br>
Photographic LibraryStereoviews of Indians and the Colorado River from the J.W. Powell Survey, ca. 1869-1864, (includes photography by John K. Hillers) finding aid and online photo collection,
Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...
, University of California, Berkeley
Inventory of Photographs Made by John K. Hillers of Zuni, Hopi and Navaho Country [graphic], 1879at
The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...
The John K. Hillers Photographs of Zuni, Hopi, and Rio Grande River Pueblosa
The Newberry Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillers, John K.
American photographers
1843 births
1925 deaths
United States Geological Survey personnel
Hanoverian emigrants to the United States
People of New York (state) in the American Civil War