Frank Jay Haynes

Frank Jay Haynes , known as F. Jay or the Professor to almost all that knew him, was a professional photographer, publisher and entrepreneur from Minnesota who played a major role in documenting through photographs, the settlement and early history of the great Northwest. He became both the official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railway and of Yellowstone National Park as well as operating early transportation concessions in the park. His photographs were widely published in articles, journals, books and turned into stereographs and postcards in the late 19th and early 20th century.

F. Jay was born in Saline, Michigan on October 28, 1853 to Levi H. Haynes, a merchant and Caroline Oliphant. When he was a small boy, the family moved east to Detroit, Michigan. F. Jay worked in his fathers store and took various other odd jobs. As a boy, he had visited the photographic studios of Mrs. Gillette in Detroit and became interested in photography. After several traveling salesman jobs, F. Jay ended up in Ripon, Wisconsin and secured a position as an apprentice in the Doctor William H. Lockwoods Temple of Photography. He worked for Lockwood formonths, learned the photography trade and met his future wife, a coworker, Lily Snyder. In September, 1876 F. Jay left the Lockwood Studio to start his own photographic business in Moorhead, Minnesota with the backing of his brotherinlaw, Gus Henderson.

Source: Wikipedia