His photographs were widely published in articles, journals, and books, and turned into stereographs and postcards in the late 19th and early 20th century.

After several traveling salesman jobs, F. Jay ended up in Ripon, Wisconsin and secured a position as an apprentice in the Doctor William H. Lockwood's Temple of Photography.

[3] In September 1876, F. Jay left the Lockwood Studio to start his own photographic business in Moorhead, Minnesota with the backing of his brother-in-law, Gus Henderson.

Jack Ellis Haynes (1884–1962) inherited his father's business in Yellowstone in 1916 and continued as official park photographer until his death in 1962.

However, in the fall of 1879, F. Jay closed his Moorhead studio and moved west across the Red River to Fargo, North Dakota, where he lived until 1889.

His job was to supply publicity photos and stereoscopic views of rolling stock, depots, sights along the railway and construction activities from St. Paul, Minnesota to Bismarck, North Dakota.

The Secretary was unable to confer that position, but did, with Norris's backing, grant F. Jay a lease for a small photographic studio within the park along that was not made official until 1884.

In September, 1881, traveling overland from Glendive, and with explicit support from Charles Fee, F. Jay made his first visit to Yellowstone National Park.

[9] On skis and shoeshoes, pulling sleds laden with gear Schwatka, Haynes and eleven other guides made their way from Mammoth to Norris in two days.

Haynes, and three other guides he knew and could depend on, decided to continue the expedition, visiting the lower and upper geyser basins and Yellowstone Falls before trouble struck.

In an attempt to get to Yancey's from Canyon, the party got stranded for 72 hours on the slopes of Mount Washburn in a frigid and blinding snowstorm with little or no food or shelter.

Additionally Albright had a large granite boulder taken from the Golden Gate section of the Mammoth to Norris road shipped to St Paul, MN to be placed on F. Jay's grave.

[6] Many of F. Jay Haynes' original photographs are highly valued collectors items, especially his larger 20-24 inch mammoth prints of the Yellowstone region.