Stephen H. Willard

Stephen Hallet Willard (March 8, 1894–1966)[1][2] was an American painter and photographer who produced many images of Western scenery, especially desert views.

[1] In 1925 their daughter Beatrice Willard was born, she would become a noted American botanical researcher specializing in high alpine and arctic tundra.

[4] He spent more than 20 years taking photographs of the Colorado and Mojave Deserts in the winter and the Eastern Sierra in the summer.

[2][6] In 1936, Minerva Hamilton Hoyt enlisted Willard to take photographs of parts of the Mojave Desert.

[3] Hoyt then used these photographs as part of a successful argument to Franklin Delano Roosevelt to create Joshua Tree National Monument.