Grand Canyon National Park Historic District: South Rim. Kolb Studio walkway and gate to lower levels.

Ellsworth L. Kolb and Emery C. Kolb played an important role in the early development of visitor services to the Grand Canyon.

Ellsworth and Emery came to the Canyon in 1902. Ellsworth worked as a bellman in the Bright Angel Hotel. The brothers eventually bought a photographic studio in Williams, Arizona and brought the equipment to the Grand Canyon. Their business started out photographing parties going down the Bright Angel Trail. Because water supplies were limited on the rim of the Canyon, they would photograph the mule passengers then run 4 1/2 miles to Indian Garden where they had set up a photographic lab. Water was available here for processing the film. Then they returned to the rim of the Canyon with the processed pictures ready for the mule passengers on their return.

Kolb Studio was constructed on this site from 1904 through 1926. It was a 2 1/2 story structure with the upper level on the rim of the Canyon. This building saw 23 years of expansion and alterations that brought it to its present day appearance. NPS Photo by Michael Quinn.