12 ASSORTED VIEWS OF VARIOUS REGIONS – GLACIER NATIONAL PARK.

12 ASSORTED VIEWS OF VARIOUS REGIONS – GLACIER NATIONAL PARK.

There are actually 25 prints with two of them being duplicates. Apparently, a combination of Kiser’s work fitted into the original transmittal envelop of the original 12. The prints are mostly panoramic views with each print marked with a circle around the letter c followed by Kiser. The circled c indicates the prints were after 1915.

Fred H. Kiser, an accomplished mountaineer and promoter, was one of the most successful and widely known landscape and commercial photographers in the American West during the first two decades of the early 20th century. His work is credited with popularizing Crater Lake National Park and the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon and establishing Glacier National Park in Montana. He and his brother Oscar also operated the Lewis and Clark Official Photographic Co. at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Or.

Brothers Fred H. (1878-1955) and Oscar H. Kiser (1883-1905) started photography as a hobby, but Fred gained recognition as one of the most successful commercial photographers and one of the best artistic mountain photographers in the nation during the first quarter of the 20th century. Through his Kiser Photo Company and other enterprises, he produced and sold prints, albums, stereographs, postcards, and glass lantern slides, many of which were hand-colored in oils.

 Beginning about 1909, Kiser and his team photographed the spectacular scenery of northwestern Montana, working from headquarters in a specially outfitted railway car provided by the Great Northern. An exhibit of more than 100 of his Artograph prints at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., was credited with providing the final push to gain Congressional approval for establishing Glacier National Park in 1910. Kiser marketed his Glacier Park photographs at the Great Northern’s tourist facilities for many years.

Each of the prints (10 x 8 inches) are in excellent condition. The transmittal envelope is rough.

Ref. Oregon Historical Society