Frank Jay Haynes - Yellowstone Photographer

[Dan Dozer]

I am now the owner (passed down through the family from my grandfather) of a photograph by Frank Jay Haynes (the "official" photographer of Yellowstone National Park). However, before today, I new nothing of Haynes or his work. I've spent the day reading up on him in order to find out more about what he did and hopefully about this photograph. He worked primarily in the late 1800's and early 1900's photographing for the Northern Pacific Railroad and Yellowstone National Park. I did find this exact image of Yellowstone Falls on the NPS/Yellowstone database as done by him so I'm assuming it was taken in the late 1800's. Image is a hand colored 11 x 14 silver print. Could be an Albumum print, but I don't know anything about albumum to to tell the difference between it and silver from that era. It isn't signed, but it is stamped on the back and embossed in the corner with the Haynes Studio in St. Paul Minnesota.

One interesting thing is that my grandfather was a professional photographer in Minnesota and would have been practicing in the early 1900's when the Haynes studio was around in St. Paul. I'm wondering if the two of them knew each other or if he knew Frank's son who carried on the family business after Frank died.

Anyone out there know much of anything about Haynes other than the normal history stuff that you can find on the net. It would be nice to find out if this photograph is worth $20 or $1000 (I'm guessing more towards $20).

If anyone is interested, I could attach a photo of it, but I won't be back home for several days.

[Lenny Eiger]

A quick search found one in Andrew Smith Gallery in Santa Fe for $2,000. I also have one, somewhere around here. It could be much more valuable than you think....

Lenny

[Heroique]

It would be nice to find out if this photograph is worth $20 or $1000 (I'm guessing more towards $20).

“Original Haynes photos have been priced between $5,000 and $25,000 and some might command $50,000 today.”

Wiki’s typically mangled source for the quote above:


Corriel, Corriel (February 2009). “Images of the West: Through the Lens of History-Frank Jay Haynes, Yellowstone Park’s first ‘official’ photographer”. Big Sky Journal (Fly Fishing 2009).

Here’s hoping that its value is far above your modest expectations. :D

[Jim Jones]

The smaller unsigned sizes seem to be common and not very valuable.