T. J. (Tomar Jacob) Hileman (1882–1945) was an American photographer born in

Manor Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania Manor Township is a township in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,190 at the 2020 census, a decrease from the figure of 4,227 tabulated in 2010. Geography Manor Township is located in central Armstrong Coun ...

, who is renowned for his photos of Glacier Park in

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, and

Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'', or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bl ...

people. After working a while in Chicago and graduating from Effingham School of Photography there, he moved to

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and began to take photographs. In 1911, Hileman moved to

Kalispell, Montana Kalispell (, Salish-Spokane-Kalispel language, Montana Salish: Ql̓ispé, Kutenai language: Kqayaqawakⱡuʔnam) is a city in Montana and the county seat of Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2020 census put Kalispell's population at ...

to open his own portrait studio. He and Alice Georgeson were the first couple to marry in Glacier National Park in 1913. Appointed the official photographer for the

Great Northern Railway Great Northern Railway or Great Northern Railroad may refer to: Australia * Great Northern Railway (Queensland) in Australia * Great Northern Rail Services in Victoria, Australia *Central Australia Railway was known as the great Northern Railway ...

in 1924, Hileman took photos of Glacier National Park and

Waterton Lakes National Park Waterton Lakes National Park is in the southwest corner of Alberta, Canada. The national park borders Glacier National Park in Montana, United States. Waterton was the fourth Canadian national park, formed in 1895 as Kootenay Lakes Forest Reserve ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada, moving bulky camera equipment by packhorse, even at times perching on a narrow ledge to get just the right image on film. He also photographed the

Prince of Wales Hotel The Prince of Wales Hotel is a historic hotel located in Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada. It is within Waterton Lakes National Park, overlooking Lake Waterton, Upper Waterton Lakes. It was designed by and built for the Great Northern Railway (U. ...

in Waterton, Alberta, which was built by the railway. In 1926, Hileman opened photo-finishing labs in both Glacier Park Lodge and Many Glacier Hotel, which were convenient for tourists who could drop off their film in the evenings and pick up their prints the next morning.

Photographs of local celebrities, Kainai and Piegan Indians

In 1985, the Glacier Natural History Association purchased more than a thousand of Hileman's

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion with the chemical formula . salt (chemistry), Salts containing this ion are called nitrates. Nitrates are common components of fertilizers and explosives. Almost all inorganic nitrates are solubility, soluble in wa ...

negatives, which were added to the collection of Hileman's albums which already contained more than 2,000 prints. Some 107 of these photos were purchased by the

Glenbow Museum The Glenbow Museum is an art and history local museum, regional museum in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The museum focuses on Western Canada, Western Canadian history and culture, including Indigenous perspectives. The Glenbow was establ ...

in Canada, where they comprise part of their collection relating to

history. These photos are especially valuable to researchers for their examples of

Kainai The Kainai Nation () (, or , romanized: ''Káínawa'', Blood Tribe) is a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in southern Alberta, Canada, with a population of 12,965 members in 2024, up from 11,791 in December 2013. tra ...

and

South Peigan The Piegan (Blackfeet: ''Piikáni'') are an Algonquian-speaking people from the North American Great Plains. They are the largest of three Blackfeet-speaking groups that make up the Blackfeet Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai are the oth ...

styles of clothing, hairstyles, ornaments, and housing.

Documentation of climate change

Hileman's 1938 photo of

Grinnell Glacier Grinnell Glacier is in the heart of Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana. The glacier is named for George Bird Grinnell, an early American conservationist and explorer, who was also a strong advocate of ensuring the creation of Glac ...

has been used as an early image documenting the state of that glacier in the first half of the 1900s. Subsequent photos in the ensuing decades, which have been taken from the same vantage point, show evidence of a steady state of retreat for that glacier.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hileman, T. J. 20th-century American photographers People from Forest County, Pennsylvania People from Kalispell, Montana 1945 deaths 1882 births