Yellowstone Park Letter Collection
PI
Version: 4 (current) | Updated: 12/9/2025, 9:50:20 PM | Created: 12/9/2025, 7:36:12 PM
Added description
Description
Yellowstone Park Letter Collection
Overview
The Yellowstone Park Letter Collection is a digitized set of eight JPEG images that together reproduce a single handwritten letter dated August 28, 1894. The letter was written by “J. Butterball” to Elizabeth Alice Austen, a prominent Staten Island photographer and resident of the Alice Austen House Museum. The images capture the full text and marginal notes of the letter, which describes the writer’s recent visit to Yellowstone National Park and comments on photographs from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.Background
J. Butterball, whose full name is not recorded in the collection, was a contemporary of Alice Austen and appears to have been an avid traveler and photographer. The letter was sent to Austen while she was in Boston, as indicated by the mention of Trinity Church and the Acorn bicycle club. The document is part of the Alice Austen House archival holdings, reflecting the practice of preserving personal correspondence that illuminates the social and cultural milieu of late‑19th‑century America.Contents
The collection contains eight scanned pages (JPEG, ~850 KB–1 MB each) that together form the complete letter. Key themes include:- Yellowstone Park experiences: descriptions of geysers, high‑elevation camps, and rock formations, with comparisons to Boston’s Trinity Church.
- Photography: references to photographs taken at the park, the World’s Columbian Exposition, and the writer’s own film usage.
- Travel and leisure: mentions of the Acorn bicycle club, the Commodore’s boat house, and a planned sailing trip to Biscayne Bay.
- Personal relationships: the writer’s friendly tone toward Austen, as well as a brief note to “Zacht Watson,” a first mate.
The letter is written in English and includes informal salutations (“Chère Mlle. “Gabriel””) and a closing signature, “J. Butterball, Ex. 1st mate Zacht “Watson”.”
Scope
The collection covers a single dated correspondence (1894‑08‑28) and is limited to the textual content of that letter. It does not include any ancillary materials such as photographs or maps that the writer may have referenced. The geographic focus is Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, USA) and Boston (Massachusetts, USA), with incidental references to the World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, Illinois). The collection is valuable for researchers interested in late‑Victorian travel, early photography, and the personal networks of Alice Austen.Raw Cheimarros Data
@yellowstone_park_letter_collection:collection {title: "Yellowstone Park Letter Collection", creator: @j_butterball, institution: "Alice Austen House", created: @date_1894_08_28, language: "en", subjects: ["Yellowstone Park","Geysers","Travel","Photography","Nature","World's Columbian Exposition","Bicycling"], description: "Scanned images of a letter from J. Butterball to Alice Austen describing Yellowstone experiences and commenting on photographs from the World's Columbian Exposition.", place: ["Yellowstone Park","World's Columbian Exposition","Boston"]}
@j_butterball:person {full_name: "J. Butterball"}
@alice_austen:person {full_name: "Elizabeth Alice Austen", birth_year: @date_1866, death_year: @date_1952}
@letter:document {title: "Letter from J. Butterball to Alice Austen", date: @date_1894_08_28, language: "en"}
@zacht_watson:person {full_name: "Zacht Watson", role: "1st mate"}
@acorn:organization {name: "Acorn", type: "bicycle club"}
@trinity_church_boston:place {name: "Trinity Church", city: "Boston"}
@commodore:person {title: "Commodore"}
@geyser:concept {name: "Geyser"}
@date_1894_08_28
@date_1866
@date_1952
@j_butterball -> wrote -> @letter
@letter -> addressed to -> @alice_austen
@letter -> part of -> @yellowstone_park_letter_collection
@letter -> mentions -> @yellowstone_park
@letter -> mentions -> @geyser
@letter -> mentions -> @trinity_church_boston
@letter -> mentions -> @acorn
@letter -> mentions -> @worlds_columbian_exposition
@letter -> mentions -> @biscayne_bay
@letter -> mentions -> @commodore
@letter -> mentions -> @zacht_watsonMetadata
Files (8)
OCR Text
The Geysers Yellowstone Park 28 Aug '94 Chère Mlle. "Gabriel" The delightful surprise of your letter & photographs came to me in the Park a few days since. You had been so generous before with your really good pictures, that my poor ones will be a doubly meagre return now. I am afraid too that we will not run into any more rattlesnakes.
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this season. We are above the rattle-snake line & before we reach lower country again they will have gone into winter quarters. For nearly a month we have been at an elevation of from 6,000 to 10,000 ft. Three nights we camped above the snow. I made two trips, with the man whose outfit we have, out of the Park into a region which must be as wild as any this country has left. For striking rock formations on a gigantic
OCR Text
scale, I never saw anything like it. The Andes, of course, have more snow, & greater elevation, but in this region there are scores of weird shapes, such as one sometimes sees a few feet high, carried up into the thousands. One peak was a solid rock, rising about 3,000 ft. above its immediate valley, in shape strikingly like Trinity Church in Boston.
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To the North & South of us there was nothing visible, but sheer rock, & snow—not a spear of vegetation. Having neither map nor guide & very insufficient directions, I missed the exact spot I was trying to find, but saw what was immeasurably grander than the "Hoodoo Basin." Sitting here in a "Prairie Teahouse," with one ear on the alert for the sounds of a geyser going off, I expect I am writing incoherent—
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stuff, but if I wait for more favorable conditions, my thanks for the photographs might be delayed for a month or two to come. We have had fair luck in seeing, so far 5 of the larger geysers in action, but it looks now as if we were in for a rain-storm of a day or two, & there is no good camping ground near the Geyser Basin. I have taken photographs, which I hope may be good; for
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I have used almost all my films & cannot get another roll here, as I expected to. I was much amused looking over the pictures of our trip, especially at some of the attitudes you caught me in. One would think I was contemplating suicide in one of them. I did not venture to take photographs at the Fair so I am doubly glad to have yours. That of the Art Gallery, the Liberty Statue, & Columbus, are the best I have seen. I was tremendously
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enthusiastic over the buildings, were not you? The acorn was planted with other seeds in a box beside the Commodore's boat house. If he did not transplant it, what is left of it must still be there. You ask me what I think of your bicycle club. It seems to me an excellent thing. I believe in having girls do something more than sit in a rocking chair all day and eat sweets in the Spanish fashion.
OCR Text
If you should do any sailing in the Commodore's new boat or go to Biscayne Bay you must surely let me hear about it. With kind remembrances to the Commodore & many thanks for the photographs, I am Yours sincerely, "J. Butterball" Ex. 1st mate Zacht "Watson"
Version History (4 versions)
- ✓ v4 (current) · 12/9/2025, 9:50:20 PM
"Added description" - v3 · 12/9/2025, 8:59:04 PM · View this version
"Added knowledge graph extraction" - v2 · 12/9/2025, 7:54:22 PM · View this version
"Added PINAX metadata" - v1 · 12/9/2025, 7:36:12 PM · View this version
"Reorganization group: Yellowstone_Park_Letter"
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