On 26 February 1919, President Woodrow Wilson established Grand Canyon national park. Today it attracts more than 6 million visitors a year, drawn to its extraordinary beauty. It has also been a home to Native American tribes such as the Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai and Navajo since long before it became a national park. Rare archival images, including those from the Grand Canyon Centennial Project, provide a rich visual record of this remarkable place.

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The adventurers and photographers Ellsworth and Emery Kolb on the Colorado river, circa 1911-12. ‘Ellsworth and Emery Kolb were the last of the Grand Canyon pioneers, and the most colorful,’ says Roger Naylor, who wrote a book about the brothers. ‘They dangled from ropes, clung to sheer cliff walls by their fingertips, climbed virtually inaccessible summits, ran seemingly impassable white-water rapids, braved the elements, and ventured into unknown wilderness – all for the sake of a photo’

Photograph: Courtesy of Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection

A party rides down the Angle trail on 16 March 1911. Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th US president, can be seen at the front

Photograph: Kolb Bros/Courtesy of Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection

A stereograph shows an armchair boat belonging to Maj John Wesley Powell, a geologist and explorer, on the Colorado River, circa 1872

Photograph: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Two women using a ‘donkey telephone’, circa 1906

Photograph: Kolb Bros/Courtesy of Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection

A man and woman at the Hopi House, a model tribal dwelling, circa 1920
Photograph: Courtesy of 100 Years of Grand: The Grand Canyon Centennial Project, Labriola National

American Indian Data Center Collection. ASU Library, Arizona State University.

A mule and rider crossing the Kaibab suspension bridge, circa 1930

Photograph: 100 Years of Grand: The Grand Canyon Centennial Project/Henry G Peabody Photographs (circa 1930). CP PEA. Greater Arizona Collection. ASU Library, Arizona State University

A waterfall in the Grand Canyon

Photograph: Frank Scherschel/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images

Vacationers cooling off in a stream at the bottom of the Grand Canyon at Phantom Ranch, date unknown

Photograph: George Strock/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images

Lord and Lady Halifax, of England, stand at Mather Point on 13 May 1944

Photograph: Kolb Bros/Courtesy of Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection

A view from the North Rim in 1942

Photograph: Buyenlarge/Getty Images