How We Saw Yellowstone: Snapshots 1900 -1980

Yellowstone, the world’s first national park and one of the most visited, has welcomed sightseers for nearly 150 years. The remarkable collection of snapshots in How We Saw Yellowstone captures their experience exploring the Park between 1900 and 1980. 

In that time, annual visitation rose from less than ten thousand to more than two million. Hotels were built and razed, bridges were redesigned, roads were paved and widened, and boardwalks spread throughout the geyser and hot spring basins. Cars replaced horses, and as hemlines went up, Wylie Camps came down. Yellowstone scenes transformed from black and white into color. 

All the while, Old Faithful erupted on schedule and the Yellowstone River, one of the greatest trout streams of the world, tumbled north over the Upper and Lower falls. Wildlife drew visitors into the Lamar and Hayden valleys. The growing popularity of Yellowstone only furthered our commitment to its preservation.

The snapshots in this collection (more than 500) are found treasures, having been lost or discarded by the photographer, the travelers, or their families. The dates are known by either a photographer’s note on the print or slide, the style of the Kodak slide mount, or the date stamp showing when the film was developed.

From hoop skirts to hot pants, from petticoats to pantsuits, from bloomers to bell-bottoms, How We Saw Yellowstone reveals, above all, the breadth of our common experience in Yellowstone National Park.