A.J. Russell (1829-1902) grew up in New York and worked as a painter and a teacher before moving to New York City in 1859 to learn the new art of photography. During the civil war he served as a military railroad photographer for the Union Army. After the war he returned to New York City but in 1868 he was hired by the Union Pacific Railroad to photograph the building of the transcontinental railroad. Between 1868 and 1870 he took over 800 glass-plate negatives and thousands of stereoview negatives. In 1870 Russell returned to New York City where he spent the rest of his career working as an artist and photographer for Leslie's Illustrated.

William Henry Jackson began his photographic career in Omaha, Nebraska in 1867. After briefly working for another photographer, he and his brother purchased a studio. Jackson first made a name for himself when he and his assistant Arundel Hull traveled along the newly completed Union Pacific Railroad photographing the line, the railroad towns, and scenic wonders in 1868 and 1869. Between 1870 and 1879 he was the photographer in charge for the Hayden Survey. He was the first photographer to reach Yellowstone National Park and his images played a part in the recognition of that area for special protection. In 1879 Jackson opened a studio in Denver, Colorado and in 1881 he began work for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. In 1892 he incorporated the W.H. Jackson Photography & Publishing company and traveled throughout the world as a photographer. In 1897 he moved to Detroit where the Detroit Publishing Company used his images as postcards. In 1924 the company went bankrupt and Jackson moved to Washington D.C. to publish his memoirs and paint historic western scenes.

C.W. Carter grew up in England and after converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, emigrated to the United States. Carter and his wife Sarah reached Salt Lake City in 1864 where he continued the photographic practice he began in England. Carter initially worked for C.R. Savage before starting his own studio in 1867. Over the years Carter partnered with a number of photographers including J.B. Silvis, C.W. Symons and Mikkael Faldmo. In 1906 he sold his collection of negatives to the Salt Lake City Bureau of Information for $400.

Carleton E. Watkins moved to Sacramento California in 1851 from Oneonta, New York. He worked as a clerk and as a carpenter before being trained by Robert Vance as a portrait daguerreotypist. He soon moved to outdoor photography and he took a variety of commissions around the San Francisco Bay area between 1856 and 1861. The images that would make him famous, however, were taken in 1861 of the spectacular Yosemite region. These photographs won praise throughout the United States and even in Europe. Although Watkins is best known for his Yosemite images, he traveled throughout the West Coast and in other western states in the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s. Watkins was, however, a poor businessman and he suffered a series of setbacks financially and personally and at one point he and his family were living in a railroad car. He was fortunate though to have the support of Collis Huntington, Josiah D. Whitney and others who supported him fiscally and encouraged him artistically.

Jack Hillers career as a photographer began in 1871 after John Wesley Powell hired him as a boatman for Powell's second expedition down the Colorado River. Hillers became interested in photography and worked as the assistant to E.O. Beaman, Clem Powell, and James Fennemore. None of these men, however, were completely satisfactory and Hillers became Powell's lead photographer in 1873. Hillers faithfully worked for Powell as part of the United States Geological Survey throughout the 1870s and later in Washington D.C. in the 1880s and 1890s. He is best known for his images of the Colorado Plateau and Southwest Indians.

Eadweard Muybridge grew up in England and emigrated to the United States in 1851. Eventually he made his way to San Francisco and worked as a book dealer. Muybridge gradually become interested in photography and in the late 1860s he dedicated himself to landscape photography. Between 1867 and 1877 Muybride traveled along the West Coast and into Nevada and Utah. His most famous images are of the Yosemite Valley, San Francisco, and the 1873 Modoc Indian War. In the 1870s he increasinly dabbled in motion-picture studies. He would eventually move to Philadelphia to continue his ground-breaking studies of locomotion.