Album caption: Stevenson, Turnbull, Elliott, Beaman, "Potato John" (cook). 1870. Note: "Potato John" is seated in the right foreground. Notes on album caption: None. Index card: Jackson, W. H. 896 (portraits) - "Potatoe John" - Stevenson, Turnbull, Elliott, Branson, "Potatoe John" (cook). 1870. (Stereo view available on photo 1674 or jwh01674.) Descriptive Catalog of the Photographs of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, W. H. Jackson, Photographer, Second Edition, Illustrated, 1870 Series, page 21, No. 303: Members of the survey in camp at Red Buttes. Handwritten notes on back of duplicate photograph: HS-896. The men are preparing their bird specimens after a days work in the field by the light of [...]
Summary
Album caption: Stevenson, Turnbull, Elliott, Beaman, "Potato John" (cook). 1870. Note: "Potato John" is seated in the right foreground.
Notes on album caption: None.
Index card: Jackson, W. H. 896 (portraits) - "Potatoe John" - Stevenson, Turnbull, Elliott, Branson, "Potatoe John" (cook). 1870.
(Stereo view available on photo 1674 or jwh01674.)
Descriptive Catalog of the Photographs of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, W. H. Jackson, Photographer, Second Edition, Illustrated, 1870 Series, page 21, No. 303: Members of the survey in camp at Red Buttes.
Handwritten notes on back of duplicate photograph:
HS-896. The men are preparing their bird specimens after a days work in the field by the light of the camp kept going by "Potatoe John" Raymond, cook. He received this nickname because he boiled potatoes overnight without any success, due to the high altitude and the low boiling point of water.
Original stereo negative destroyed. HH-S-896 - Stereo caption in M.P. #5, "Jackson Canyon, near Red Buttes."
Typed information on back of duplicate photograph:
57-HS-896: Photography by W.H. Jackson, taken on the Hayden Survey, showing the men preparing a day's work at bird collecting. At the left is James Stevenson, Hayden's chief assistant and camp manager. To the left of Stevenson are Turnbull, Elliot, Branson, and "Potato John." Potato John, one of the two cooks with the Hayden Survey, received his nickname after an unsuccessful attempt to boil potatoes. After cooking the potatoes overnight without visible effect, Potato John discovered that water has a low boiling point at high altitude. The National Archives dates this photo as probably taken in 1870. However, The Pioneer Photographer by Jackson and Driggs (World Book, 1929) includes it in a chapter dealing with 1871 explorations. The location is unknown, although it may be the Uinta Mountains.
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Material Request Instructions
Available in the U.S. Geological Survey Denver Library Photographic Collection, Jackson, W.H. Collection.
Duplicate available in the W. H. Jackson Collection - Misc. Photos I.
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