Emery Kolb Collection

PH.568.1-11,370

Volume:: 65,270 negatives of Mule Trips, arranged by date, and 11,371 black-and-white photographs and negatives
Views include:: Grand Canyon; Grand Canyon Village; Cataract Canyon; Glen Canyon; Colorado River; Grand Canyon trails; ranching; San Juan River; Little Colorado River; trains; Rainbow Bridge; Lees Ferry; Marble Canyon; Kolb Brothers Studio; San Francisco Peaks; Sedona; Sunset Crater; Vermillion Cliffs; Green River; Alaska; Mexico; New Mexico; Pennsylvania; petroglyphs; pictographs; Gunnison River; Colorado; Utah; Wyoming; Pueblos; river expeditions dating 1911, 1913, 1921, and 1923
Portrait(s):: Grand Canyon historical figures; significant historical visitors to the Grand Canyon; the Kolb Family; Navajo Indians; Hopi Indians; Havasupai Indians
Biographic Note:: Emery and Ellsworth Kolb opened a photographic studio on the rim of the Grand Canyon in 1902, taking photographs of the trail parties into the canyon on the Bright Angel Trail. They also took exploration photographs of the Canyon to sell to the tourists.
In 1911 the Kolb Brothers made a motion picture and still photographs of their trip by boat down the Green and Colorado Rivers. In 1913 Ellsworth took a river trip from Needles to Mexico. Serving as guides and boatmen, the brothers worked for the USGS on a river trip from the upper canyons of the Colorado River down to Lees Ferry in 1921. In 1923 the USGS continued that expedition from Lees Ferry to Needles. Emery also accompanied the Norman Nevills river trip for a short duration in 1938, in which two female botanists became the first women to successfully complete the canyon run.
Ellsworth left the Canyon in 1924; Emery stayed, making photographs until his death in 1976 at the age of 95.

Cline Library
Special Collections and Archives Department
Northern Arizona University