Yellowstone National Park (once laughingly dubbed "Colter's…

Yellowstone National Park (once laughingly dubbed "Colter's Hell" after John Colter, of the Lewis & Clark Expedition) is established by the U.S. Congress as the world's first national park and signed into law by President Grant on March 1, 1872.

Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, director of the United States Geological Survey, had finally been able to make another attempt to explore the region now known as Yellowstone Park, eleven years after his failed first effort.

With government sponsorship, Hayden had returned to Yellowstone region with a second, larger expedition, the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.

He has compiled a comprehensive report on Yellowstone, which includes large-format photographs by William Henry Jackson, as well as paintings by Thomas Moran.

Moran's vision of the Western landscape is critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park.

Hayden had invited Moran, at the request of American financier Jay Cooke, to join Hayden and his expedition team into the unknown Yellowstone region.

Hayden was just about to embark on his arduous journey when he received a letter from Cooke presenting Moran as.. "an artist of Philadelphia of rare genius.."

Funded by Cooke (the director of the Northern Pacific Railway), and Scribner's Monthly, a new illustrated magazine, Moran agreed to join the survey team of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 in their exploration of the Yellowstone region.

During forty days in the wilderness area, Moran had visually documented over thirty different sites and produced a diary of the expedition's progress and daily activities.