Photographed All the Best Scenery: Jack Hillers’s Diary of the Powell Expeditions, 1871–1875 presents the firsthand account of Jack Hillers, the photographer who accompanied John Wesley Powell on his famous explorations of the American West. Hillers’s diary offers a detailed, day-to-day record of life on the expeditions, capturing the challenges of travel, interactions with landscapes and Native peoples, and the practicalities of documenting the region through photography.
Edited by Don D. Fowler, the volume includes Hillers’s own photographs alongside thorough annotations, providing historical context and clarifying references that may otherwise be obscure to modern readers. The diary entries, though sometimes brief and primarily descriptive rather than reflective, reveal the rigor, ingenuity, and human dimension of 19th-century exploration.
This work is a valuable resource for historians, photographers, and enthusiasts of Western exploration, combining vivid imagery, practical expedition detail, and the authentic voice of a pioneering photographer documenting the American frontier.