A closer look
Ferdinand V. Hayden knew that boring geological reports wouldn’t secure federal funding for his 1872 Yellowstone expedition. His cynical, brilliant solution? He brought along a landscape painter and a pioneer photographer. Their romanticized, highly curated images of geysers and canyons functioned as the 19th-century equivalent of an Instagram PR blitz. It heavily manipulated a skeptical U.S. Congress into declaring Yellowstone the world's first national park, proving that breathtaking visuals have always been the ultimate political leverage.
