After serving in the Civil War, Jackson and his brother set up a photography studio in Omaha, Nebraska. Portrait photography, however, did not suit Jackson and he began photographing the western regions, completing work commissioned by geologists and railroad entrepreneurs, and exhibiting at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and before Congress. In fact, Jackson’s photographs of Yellowstone were instrumental in Congress declaring it the first national park. The following year, his images were used again to convince Congress to underwrite further exploration of the Western frontier. Because Jackson used the wet plate collodion process, he had to develop his fragile glass plates as he traveled, improvising along the way. In all, Jackson amassed 80,000 photographs of the West, an impressive oeuvre for which the Explorer’s Club honored him in 1942. Dunn was the author of many books including Rimrock Trail, Forced Luck, The Girl of Ghost Mountain, The Treasure of Atlantis, and The Odyssey of Boru. Under the pseudonym of Joseph Montague, he penned other works including the one referenced in our letter, Ol’ Jim Bridger. A frontiersman and explorer, James Bridger (1804-1881) headed west from his native Virginia as a member of a fur trapping enterprise. In 1824, he became the first non-native to visit the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah and, soon after, established the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. As a trapper, he earned a reputation for his courage and daring, working in hostile Native American territory, including collaborating with the famous scout Kit Carson. Fort Bridger, which he established in Wyoming and which was later photographed by Jackson, became a vital stop on the Oregon Trail and, later, a Pony Express station. Folded with light wear and in very good condition. Letters by Jackson are astonishingly rare.