Born in Pennsylvania in 1833, George M. Ottinger came to Utah in 1861. Upon arriving, Ottinger painted scenery for a Salt Lake theater and then joined photographer C.R. Savage, hand-tinting photographs. Though he worked in a variety of careers - from sailor, to fire chief and professor - Ottinger always returned to art and painting. The photographs in this collection reflect Ottinger's role as an artist and life in Utah from the late-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.