The collection contains 23 sepia-toned 8 x 10 prints, mounted on black construction paper and bound into a photograph album with black leather covers. In a separate folder are typewritten captions for the photographs and detailed identification for one of the group shots. The images were reproduced circa 1940 by Jack Ellis Haynes, probably from his father's original negatives. The original images were taken by F. Jay Haynes in August 1883 to document President Chester A. Arthur's visit to Yellowstone National Park (Wyo.) and the state of Wyoming. Arthur was the first President to visit the Park and his tour increased interest in the Park as an attraction as well as focusing attention on the need for better preservation efforts, which ultimately resulted in the military taking command. The images depict Fort Washakie (Wyo.), including the post trader's store and the Washakie Hot Springs. There are also a variety of views of the President's traveling party and military escort, both mounted and dismounted, as well as views of the party at lunch, fording the Snake and Gros Ventre Rivers, visiting the Upper Geyser Basin, and camping at "Camp Arthur", "Camp Bishop", and "Camp Hampton". There are also views of the President's "ambulance, " or stagecoach train, the packhorses, and wagons. Landscape views include Crow Heart Butte, Wind River Range, Crosby Canyon, Dinwiddie Lake, Head Wind River, and Teton Mountains. Several group shots show delegations of Shoshone and Arapahoe tribal leaders. Photograph #23 is identified as showing Colonel Michael V. Sheridan, General Anson Stager, Captain Philo Clark, Judge Rawlins, Colonel James F. Gregory, Montana Governor John Schuyler Crosby, General Philip Henry Sheridan, Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, and Senator George Graham Vest. Although no corresponding image is identified, the index lists the following Native American tribal leaders as accompanying the President--the Shoshone (Shoshoni) include: Dick Washakie, Teir-en-got-sie, Te-yah-wo-vet-sie, Indian Dick; and the Arapahoe (Arapaho) include: Sage, Wallowing Bull, Bill Friday, and Eagle Head. There is one loose photographic portrait of an unidentified man, probably Shoshone or Arapaho member of the party.

Frank Jay Haynes was born on October 28, 1853, in Saline, Michigan. He began work in his father's mercantile store, but the business failed in 1874. Haynes worked briefly as a traveling salesman and then secured a position with S.C. Graham, a photographer in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Following his apprenticeship with Graham, Haynes worked for Wisconsin photographer William H. Lockwood before opening his own studio in Moorhead, Minnesota, in 1876. He quickly received a contract from the Northern Pacific Rail Road (NPRR or NP) to take high-quality views of the "bonanza" farms in the Red River Valley. Numerous other commissioned trips for the NPRR to photograph the railroad's construction route in the Dakota and Montana Territories followed. In January 1878, Haynes married Lily Snyder, Lockwood's sister-in-law, whom he had met while working in the Wisconsin studio. The following year, Haynes moved to a new, larger studio in Fargo, North Dakota. Haynes continued to travel on contracts for the NPRR, while Lily retouched negatives and oversaw gallery operations. By 1885, Haynes was touring the Northwest in his Haynes Palace Studio Car, an adaped railroad car. Haynes moved his studio from Fargo to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1889. In 1905, the studio car ceased operation and Haynes ended his close association with the Northern Pacific. Haynes made a NP-sponsored trip to Yellowstone Park in 1881 and immediately recognized the photographic and business opportunities offered by the area. Within a few years, he had established branch photographic operations in Yellowstone National Park. With the assistance of his son, Jack Ellis Haynes, the family developed a lucrative photographic business photographing and marketing hundreds of views of scenery, wildlife, and tourist activities. By 1916, because of failing health, Haynes transferred his photographic interests to his son Jack Ellis Haynes. F. Jay Haynes died at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 10, 1921. Born in 1884, Jack Ellis Haynes followed his father into the family photography business, selling commercial photographs of the Park and publishing the Haynes Guides, an annual tourist guidebook. Haynes married Isabel Nauerth in 1930. Isabel recruited Minnesota college students as seasonal employees and managed the Yellowstone stores during the season. Isabel and Jack's only child, Lida, was born in 1932, but died suddenly in a car accident in 1952. Following Jack's death in 1962, Isabel took over management of the Haynes Picture Shops until selling out to Hamilton Stores in 1969. Isabel Haynes passed away in Bozeman April 7, 1993. [Biographical information drawn from the finding aids of the Frank Jay Haynes Papers, Montana Historical Society, and the Isabel Haynes Papers, Special Collections & Archives, Montana State University.]