Gibbon Paint Pots, Y.N.P., No. 1055

An exposure from Solomon D. Butcher’s 1904 visit to Yellowstone, this view of the Gibbon Paint Pots was commercially printed c. 1909. Its negative predates the bulk of the known series, confirming his practice of reprinting older work and establishing a timeline of multiple park expeditions. The chosen subject, a less photographed thermal feature on the Gibbon River, signals an early and sustained interest in views beyond the standard tourist itinerary. The composition isolates a purely natural landscape, a restraint found in his later work.