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 betwee ...

– 1925) was an American government

photographer A photographer (the 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 photographers As in oth ...

. 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 Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

, 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. H ...

. 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 watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

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 James H. Fennemore (1849–1941) was an American photographer. The Getty Museum has a collection of his work. The Library of Congress also has his work in their collection. The James Fennemore House in Beaver, Utah is listed on the National Regis ...

. 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, and ...

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, 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 its ...

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 biography

Historical Photograph Collections from th
University of Oregon Libraries

Photography of J.K. Hillers
from 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, ...

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 reta ...

, University of California, Berkeley
Inventory of Photographs Made by John K. Hillers of Zuni, Hopi and Navaho Country [graphic], 1879
at

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 Pueblos
a
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