William Henry Jackson was an American painter, Civil War veteran, geological survey photographer and an explorer famous for his images of the American West. One accomplishment of his was being first to photograph the prehistoric Native American dwellings in Mesa Verde, Colorado. "Portrait photography never had any charms for me, so I sought my subjects from the house-tops, and finally from the hill-tops and about the surrounding country; the taste strengthening as my successes became greater in proportion to the failures." -William Henry Jackson