Photographs such as this had a huge impact on the United States Congress.

As the United States Congress considered whether to give Yellowstone official protection and designate it as the first National Park, the photographs of William Henry Jackson played a pivotal role. Most members of Congress, and of course most Americans, had never been in the west. And they had never seen landscapes as stunning as those of Yellowstone.
There had been legends about Yellowstone's beauty passed by word of mouth, and many written descriptions had been published.

And painters, including Thomas Moran, who accompanied the same expedition as Jackson in 1871, had painted stunning landscapes of Yellowstone. But the public and the Congress felt that it could all be exaggerated.

The photographs of William Henry Jackson made a difference. They were not only works of art in their own right, they were obviously depictions of a beautiful reality.

In 1872 the Congress passed legislation making Yellowstone the first National Park, and historians have long contended that the photographs of William Henry Jackson were a vital inspiration for the creation of National Parks.