Explore 19th Century Yellowstone!
Posted by Brent Schellhase on Aug 22nd 2026
We are pleased to present our book Souvenir Yellowstone National Park - The Lithographic Albums of F. Jay Haynes that explores Yellowstone as it was in the 1880s-1890s. More than 100 historic photographs are reproduced in beautiful quality and are accompanied by a brief history of the scene. In 1881, Frank J. Haynes visited Yellowstone for the first time and took photographs for his client, the Northern Pacific Railway. It was the beginning of a family business that lasted in Yellowstone until the 1960s. Establishing a studio in the Park in 1884, he sold photographs and souvenir albums during a time when photography required specialized equipment and training.
1883 Yellowstone National Park Souvenir Album
In 1883, Haynes published a small souvenir album, Yellowstone National Park, printing a selection of his photographs using a unique lithographic process that was popular at the time. The images are clearly his photographs but appear more art-like. In 1889, he published a larger album using the same lithographic technique, Souvenir Yellowstone National Park. Through good fortune, we obtained original editions of both albums and have reproduced them in fine detail for the first time.
Page from 1889 Souvenir Yellowstone National Park - F. Jay Haynes
Devil's Kitchen - 1884 - F. Jay Haynes
The images show Yellowstone in a different time... a time with few roads and accommodations... when nearly everyone traveled by train to the Park and then by stagecoach. We researched Haynes' photographs extensively and located most of those used for the albums. Some show features that no longer exist or which visitors can no longer experience. Devil’s Kitchen was a popular spot in the Mammoth area where visitors descended a ladder into an underground cavern. It was closed in 1939 due to unsafe levels of carbon dioxide. In 1888, Excelsior geyser erupted in enormous size, reportedly up to 300 feet high and 300 hundred feet wide… a size never seen before or since. Haynes captured it in photographs.
Excelsior Geyser - 1888 - F. Jay Haynes
The photographs are presented in the order you would have experienced Yellowstone in the 1880s on a stagecoach tour. We start at Mammoth Hot Springs, work south to Norris, on to Lower Geyser Basin, Middle Geyser Basin (then often called Hell’s Half Acre), Upper Geyser Basin, east to Yellowstone Lake, north to Canyon and back to Mammoth. Souvenir Yellowstone National Park - The Lithographic Albums of F. Jay Haynes makes a fine historical guide for today’s Yellowstone tourist.