Hillers came to the United States in 1852. He was a policeman and then a soldier in theAmerican Civil War, first with theNew York Naval Brigade,[2] then in the army, he re-enlisted after the war and served with the Western garrisons until 1870. He worked as ateamster in Salt Lake City, when he metJohn Wesley Powell.
Originally hired as a boatman for the second Powell expedition down theColorado River in 1871, Hillers began to replaceWalter Clement Powell, John W. Powell's cousin and assistant to the expedition's photographers, first toE.O. Beaman[3] and then toJames Fennemore.[4]
Hillers was Powell's chief expedition photographer on the trip down theGrand Canyon the next year.
He went on to spend twenty years exploring and photographing the American West, and is known particularly for his portraits of Native Americans.[5]
3,000 negatives from the Powell Surveys and 20,000 negatives from his association with the Bureau of Ethnology have been credited to John K. Hillers.[9]
^Paula Richardson Fleming and Judith Luskey:The North American Indians in Early Photographs, Dorset Press, New York, 1988 [1st edition Harper & Row, New York, 1986], p. 104
^E.O. Beaman was a New York landscape photographer. He fell out with John W. Powell and left the expedition in January, 1872 and photographed Native Americans in Arizona and New Mexico(Fleming/Luskey, p. 108f. a. 130f. (photography), Jeremy Rowe:Photographers in Arizona, 1850-1920, A History & Directory, Carl Mautz, Nevada City, 1997, p. 77, Dennis Lesard:E.O. Who?, in:American Indian Art Magazine, Vol. 12, No. 2, (spring) 1987, P. 52-61)
^James Fennemore was a British-born Mormon photographer. He was an assistant at the Charles R. Savage's Gallery in Salt Lake City (Fleming/Luskey, p. 109f. and Jeremy Rowe, p. 83).
William Culp Darrah:Beaman, Fennemore, Hillers, Dellenbaugh, Johnson, and Hattan, in:Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol. 17, Nos. 1-4, 1949, pp. 491–503.
Don. D. Fowler:′Photographed All the Best Scenery′: Jack Hillers' Diary of the Powell Expeditions, 1871–1875, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1972.
Don D.Fowler:The Western Photographs of John K. Hillers: ′Myself in the Water′, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1989.ISBN0-87474-441-5
Don. D. Fowler:Cleaving an Unknown World: The Powell Expeditions and the Scientific Exploration of the Colorado Plateau, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 2012. (updated publication containing Hillers' diary and photography).ISBN978-1-60781-146-6
