The Kolb brothers

Ellsworth Kolb, born in 1876, and his younger brother Emery, born in 1881, came to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at the start of the 1900s and set up as photographers. From 1904 their studio, perched on the rim at the head of the Bright Angel Trail, photographed the mule parties going down. In 1911 they ran the Colorado River through the canyon in boats and filmed the whole journey.

Emery stayed at the studio until his death in 1976. The building, which grew in stages between 1904 and 1926, was both the family's home and their studio; after Emery died the Park Service took it over, and it is now a gallery, bookstore and information center run by the park's nonprofit partner. Mary Colter's Lookout Studio next door was built in 1914 to compete with them. On our walk, step inside Kolb Studio, then walk a few steps west to the start of the Bright Angel Trail, where the brothers photographed the mule parties.