Lily Verna Snyder married her brother-in-law's former employee in January, 1878. Until F. Jay Haynes death in 1921, she was not only a wife and confidant to her photographer husband and mother of the Haynes' three children, but also a photo colorist and retoucher, photographic assistant, and studio manager. After their marriage, Lily managed the Moorhead, Minn., studio while her husband devoted much of his time to photography along the Northern Pacific Railroad in the western U.S. territories and Yellowstone National Park. She later oversaw Fargo, ND, studio business and supervised the business while Frank travelled with the Studio Car and went to Yellowstone. When the family moved to St. Paul, Minn., the photography business had expanded to the point that FJH could hire assistants for the studio work and his wife's unpaid labor was unneeded. Lily Haynes was an active church worker and St. Paul hostess. She died at home in 1927.
Correspondence 1876-1923, estate papers, diary, scrapbook. The collection is comprised primarily of the letters of F. Jay Haynes to his wife during business trips, providing a private insight into an important 19th century American photography business and concessionaire's businesses in Yellowstone Park and its attendant frustrations. Later correspondence covers the period after FJH's death in 1921 and the settlement of the estate. Letters from other family members are also included. The files after 1921 primarily contain information on her financial legacy from the FJH estate and letters from son Jack E. Haynes about the Yellowstone concession business. The collection includes a small file of letters to Lily's older sister, Loa Jackson, and a diary which has widely scattered autobiographical entries, most about family matters, husbands travelling, church activity with interleaved summary notes about travel, photography, and business activities in YNP circa 1883-1894. The collection also includes a scrapbook of clippings from Fargo, ND, newspapers consisting of poetry, Haynes advertisements and news items, miscellaneous humor and anecdotes, and descriptions of Yellowstone Park. Indexed by JEH.
This collection is open for research.
The Lily Haynes papers were received as part of the Haynes family materials gifted by daughter-in-law Isabel Haynes to the Montana State University Library in 1978. Most letters were extracted from Jack E. Haynes research files where they had been scattered as Jack compiled material for his unfinished book of Yellowstone history. A small amount of material had been maintained and housed separately, and a few personal family letters were filed alphabetically in son Jack E. Haynes' correspondence and in the "Personal File" created by Isabel Haynes from the family papers.
This collection was processed 2008 December 10