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Vol. 26:4 ISSN 0160-8460 December 1998
Saving the Life Work of Two Daring Grand Canyon Photographers: The Emery Kolb Collection at Northern Arizona University's Cline Library
by Diane Grua
The turn-of-the-century Grand Canyon was a hopeful place. While prospectors still plied the rough country, the rapidly expanding tourist trade promised to be an even richer mine. Amidst the frenzied activity of the Santa Fe Railroad, the Fred Harvey company, and smaller tour operations run by locals, Emery and Ellsworth Kolb found their mother lode in emulsion and acetate.
The brothers Kolb hailed originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ellsworth, the elder, drifted west first, fleeing the danger and drudgery of steel mills. Arriving at the Grand Canyon in 1901, just months after the railroad, he found work at the Bright Angel Hotel. Emery joined him a year later. Eager to find a way to use his budding photographic skills, Emery was elated when the proprietor of a modest photo gallery in Williams - a small community not far from the Canyon - offered to sell him his business. The Kolbs set up shop, first in a tent, then in a building clinging to the rim of the Grand Canyon, and the legendary Kolb Studio was born.
The Kolbs specialized in photographing the tourists taking mule rides into the Grand Canyon. Water, however, was not readily available. Emery, a slight, energetic man, would run four and one-half miles down the Bright Angel Trail to a clear water source at Indian Garden where he could develop the films, and be back on the rim in time to sell the images to the returning mule parties. He frequently made the nine-mile round trip twice daily. It was not until 1928, when a more reliable water source became available at the Canyon rim, that print-making became a less aerobic endeavor.
Photographs of Grand Canyon scenery were also in high demand, and the adventurous pair went to great - and highly publicized - lengths to obtain them. They climbed cliffs, lassoed trees, and perched precariously on the edges of cliffs. One of their best-known images portrays Emery, view camera in hand, suspended by a rope from a log in a crevice while Ellsworth monitors the process from above.
Emery Kolb, belayed by brother Ellsworth, prepares to photograph the Grand Canyon from an unusual perspective. Photo from the Emery Kolb Collection, Cline Library, Northern Arizona University.
In exploring the region, the brothers decided a boat trip down the Colorado River would offer many fine possibilities for picture-taking, not to mention press coverage. On September 8, 1911, they launched two small wooden craft at Green River, Wyoming, taking out four months later in Needles, California. They wanted adventure, and they got it. They had to portage or line many of the rapids, which was dangerous, backbreaking work. On Christmas Eve, 1911, while running Walthenberg Rapid in Grand Canyon, Ellsworth was thrown from his boat. Emery, going to his brother's aid, crashed his boat on a submerged rock, tearing a large hole amidships. Acutely aware of the sensational appeal of such a story, the brothers posed with the wrecked craft, then spent Christmas Day repairing it. After the trip, Emery embarked on a nationwide lecture circuit, while Ellsworth, largely for the sake of a book he was writing, completed the river trip by rowing from Needles to Mexico. The brothers signed and sold thousands of copies of Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico, richly illustrated and laden with death-defying tales, at the Kolb Studio. The remarkable motion picture footage taken during the expedition formed the basis of a film which Emery showed daily at the studio from 1915 until his death in 1976.
Emery Kolb thrusts head and shoulders through a hole torn in his boat while rescuing brother Ellsworth on Christmas Eve, 1911. Photograph from the Emery Kolb Collection, Cline Library, Northern Arizona University.
The "big trip" proved to be only one of several adventures undertaken by the brothers. In 1919, Emery was a photographer for the National Geographic Society's expedition to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Alaska. In 1921 and 1923, the Kolbs served as boatmen and guides for the U.S. Geological Survey, whose engineers were searching for suitable locations for dams on the Colorado River. When Glen and Bessie Hyde disappeared during their attempted 1928 Grand Canyon river run, Emery and Ellsworth participated in the fruitless search for the infamous "honeymoon couple." Emery also accompanied a portion of the first commercial Grand Canyon River trip, in 1938, led by boatman Norman Nevills. Botanist Elzada Clover, who chartered the trip, and her graduate assistant, Lois Jotter, became the first women to successfully complete a Grand Canyon river trip.
While both Emery and Ellsworth were bold showmen, their fundamental personalities were quite different. Ellsworth was high-spirited and often reckless. A charismatic ladies' man, dozens of photographs portray him with attractive young women. A Grand Canyon National Park employee who was acquainted with both brothers remembered Ellsworth as a "gentle gentleman;" Emery he recalled as a "game rooster." Emery was more cautious than his older brother. In addition, he was a family man, marrying Blanche Bender in 1905. Two years later, Blanche gave birth to the couple's only child, a daughter named Edith. Edith was a favorite photographic subject of her father's, and one of the first Anglo children to be born and raised at the Grand Canyon.
Not surprisingly, Emery and Ellsworth Kolb ultimately had a parting of the ways. In 1924, Ellsworth moved to Los Angeles, while Emery stayed at the Grand Canyon to run the now thriving studio. Emery continued to photograph Grand Canyon's many visitors, residents, scenery, and notable events; narrate the film; and sell copies of Ellsworth's book. Through the decades, Kolb cameras captured Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, William Jennings Bryan, European royalty, and hosts of other dignitaries. By the time Emery passed away at age 95, he had amassed tens of thousands of photographs, letters from fans, and voluminous business records.
In 1979, three years after Emery's death and 19 after Ellsworth's, a $22,285 grant from the NHPRC helped assure that the tremendous legacy compiled by the Kolb brothers would be preserved. Some 17,000 images were cleaned and cataloged; 15,000 negatives printed; 7,000 copy and duplicate negatives made; 10,000 feet of films copied; and a set of 12,000 xerographic browsing copies prepared. Matching and state funds through the years have further augmented the work initiated by the NHPRC grant. A Paradox database enables ready searching and tracking of images, and 63,000 pages of manuscript documents were microfilmed. The Kolbs' film, reconstructed from footage and audio recordings, is available for viewing on videotape, as are the dozens of clippings of raw footage.
With visitation to the Grand Canyon steadily climbing, interest in the Kolb Collection continues to increase. The user base is broad, ranging from those searching for a captivating image to hang upon a wall to students preparing dissertations. Scientists from the fields of hydrology, geology, physical science, geography, archaeology, and biology frequently use Kolb images for the basis of repeat photography, enabling them to study change through time to the landscape. Within the publishing and motion picture worlds, a Kolb photograph is almost required for a Grand Canyon or river running book, periodical, or film. Videotape copies of the Kolbs' film are a favorite with Grand Canyon aficionados (and sell sufficiently well for us to keep a stock on hand). River guides revel in perusing the words and images of their forefathers, and frequently aid in providing more complete identification of places and boat types. Two years ago, the Grand Canyon Association (GCA) commissioned one of the more intriguing Kolb projects: an interactive computer program featuring stills, footage, audio recordings, and writings by and about the Kolbs. The program resides in a kiosk in the old projection booth within the Kolb Studio, and GCA is investigating the possibility of marketing it in a compact disc format.
Thanks in large part to the distinction and prominence of the Kolb Collection, the Cline Library Special Collections and Archives Department (SCA) has amassed a large number of other Canyon and river running collections. We now offer researchers a substantial amount of primary and published material representing a wide variety of viewpoints. The journals and papers of botanist Lois Jotter reflect her side of the 1938 Grand Canyon river trip story, for example. The work of renowned photographer Bill Belknap, who like the Kolbs participated in river trips and photographed many of the Canyon's more notable characters, complements that of his predecessors. By funding the original Kolb preservation project, the NHPRC created a strong collection base which continues to benefit the region's scholarly community, students, and the general public.
(Diane Grua is a library specialist at Northern Arizona University's Cline Library.)
The Kolb Studio, perched on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Photograph from the Emery Kolb Collection, Cline Library, Northern Arizona University.
