Archives West Finding Aid

The Haynes Family Photographs are comprised of photographs taken by F. Jay Haynes (FJH), Jack Ellis Haynes (JEH), and others during the period 1866-1969. The photographs are portraits, candid snapshots, Haynes Inc. (HInc), Haynes Picture Shops (HPS), and Haynes Studios Inc. (HSInc) photographs, and other images covering a very diverse subject matter. The vast majority of the photographs are concerned with friends and family of the of the Haynes (FJH and JEH) and Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Additionally, there are also "Cabinet and Boudoir" photographs taken by FJH as the official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railroad (NPRR) and many photographs, numbered and unnumbered, in Haynes family photo albums. Additional images include artwork prepared for Haynes brochures, artwork by illustrator Fritz Schlanze, photos of paintings by W.H. Jackson, an extensive collection of reproductions of paintings by C.M. Russell sold by HInc and HPS in YNP, and other artwork and photographs related to the area surrounding YNP and the West in general.

The Haynes Family photographs are obviously very focused on the subject of YNP. This is due to the position held by FJH, JEH, and the various Haynes business ventures as the official photographers for YNP. As a result of this close relationship with YNP, a pictorial history of changes in the Park's architecture, society, culture, transportation, and man's relationships to nature and wildlife can be observed in the pictures. The "Cabinet and Boudoir" photographs of FJH and others show the cities, wilderness, and workers of the West while many of the commercial photographs from HInc and HPS focus on scenery and the supposedly tame animals in YNP.

In the production of this finding aid, attempts have been made to confront issues created in an earlier preliminary inventory of the materials. The organization of the collection remains largely intact, however, when applicable, the content of multiple folders has been combined with the intent to create a more coherent representation of the pertinent subject matter. The entire collection is grouped into series by origin, then divided generally by family member or focus, then (as is noted on the Folder titles) are arranged roughly chronologically or by genre. Each photo is numbered sequentially, including through the photo albums. To minimize preservation problems, for storage economy, and to ease retrieval large items have been removed from their frames. A substantial number of photos and the smaller framed items were received in steel storage boxes, fabricated for Isabel Haynes for her manuscript materials. These pictures are kept together with those removed from Collection 1504, the Jack Ellis Haynes and Haynes Inc. Papers, in series 2, Yellowstone National Park. It is apparent that many of the photographs in the Haynes Family Series have been previously mounted in and removed from albums. The original placement of these photos at the beginning of Series 5, Photograph Albums, indicates that IMH was beginning to disassemble the family albums. Note that within the albums there is substantial duplication of images. Descriptions found in the inventory are supplied by the processor unless quoted. Many identifications made by IMH are written to Lida and most seem to have been made from memory substantially later than when the pictures were taken. Not all notes on a photograph are transcribed to the inventory. In the Haynes Family Series, portraits clearly taken at the same sitting are generally identified together. Circa dates are supplied by the processor. Haynes' own negative numbers are recorded in brackets when available. File cards for negatives are kept with negatives.

During the composition of this finding aid, attempts have been made to improve the organization of the preliminary inventory. These attempts include renaming Series and Subseries titles. Additionally, expanded descriptions of these sections have been created with the intent of aiding the researcher. The researcher is advised that photos from a variety of subject areas relating to both the Haynes Family and the YNP Series exist in the Oversized Photos Series. The presence of this series is two-fold: 1) to maintain the original order of the photographs in this collection, and 2) to separate photographs intended for framing from those meant to be placed in albums or to be used by the various Haynes commercial interests.

Other issues which may be of concern include the identification system used, disjointed order in subject matter, and comments on the individual Series and Subject groups. The original numbering system of photographs from the preliminary inventory has been retained. This system extends through the entirety of the collection with the exception of bound photograph albums which are identified with the code "Bk n", where n is the number of the bound album within that group. Occasionally the order of subjects within a given series is unclear due to a lack of relevance between consecutively numbered groups of photographs in portions of the collection. While it might seem preferable to renumber or otherwise rearrange individual images of the collection, this operation would destroy whatever evidential value may exist in the original order of the images as arranged by Isabel Haynes. Individual series scope and content notes have been newly composed since the processor in charge of the preliminary inventory failed to include series descriptions or identify any changes he may have made in the original order imposed on these photos. Attempts have been made to interpret the logic of the original arrangement from the preliminary inventory, but these descriptions have been based on observations and research made several years after the inventory was composed and may vary from the intent of the original processor.

This "Virtual Finding Aid" was created with the financial assistance of the Montanaiana Regrant Program of the Montana Library Network.