William Henry Jackson
Mills on the American Shore, Niagara Falls

1899
chromolithograph on paper from photograph
3.5 x 7 in.
2012.77
Gift of Peter M. Baillon

Beginning in the 1870s, numerous industrial manufacturing companies and large operation mills began to appear on the American Shoreline of Niagara falls. Using canals of diverted water, these operations exploited the natural surge of the falls to power industry and commerce. With the emergence of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company in 1881, electricity in large enough amounts to power cities was produced for the first time in the United States.

In this photograph, William Henry Jackson, best known for his photographs of the American West, captures a drastically changing moment in American history—one with unintended consequences. Pollution from industrial waste in the form of smog and river discharge degraded the landscape and by the turn of the century had become a major source of social and economic conflicts between industry and citizens. Jackson’s widely disseminated photos serve both as records of the time and as catalysts for social change.  As a result of the pollution and an increased awareness of its effects through photographic documentation, over the next four decades, the majority of industrial facilities and mills would be removed from the American Shoreline and the American environmental movement would begin.

Joshua Torkelson ‘17
Lasting Legacy 2017