William Henry Jackson
1872
To capture Tower Falls using wet plate photography, Jackson selected the location of his camera at the base of the falls in advance, and then set up his dark box at the top of the canyon, as the climb down would have been too treacherous to risk transporting the delicate chemicals and box of glass plates. He then had to quickly scale the canyon to prepare the glass plate, climb down the canyon to take the photograph, and then climb back up to fix the negative in the dark box, all before the wet plate dried. Jackson described the feat as one of his crowning photographic achievements.
Gelatin chloride print on paper. H 10, W 18 cm
Scotts Bluff National Monument, SCBL 790