Which photographer took the famous 1884 tornado photo near Howard, South Dakota?

The photographer who took the famous 1884 tornado photograph near Howard, South Dakota, was F. N. Robinson.

Robinson photographed the tornado from Howard in Dakota Territory on August 28, 1884. The storm passed roughly 20 to 22 miles west of town, allowing him to record the dramatic funnel and nearby cloud formations from a safer distance. The resulting image became one of the best-known early tornado photographs and was reproduced in weather histories and scientific publications.

The photograph was long described as the oldest known tornado photograph, but that distinction is no longer secure. An earlier image associated with A. A. Adams near Westphalia, Kansas, was taken on April 26, 1884. Robinson’s picture remains historically important because its attribution, date, and connection to a destructive tornado are unusually well documented.

The other options are common traps: T. T. Fujita was a twentieth-century tornado researcher, William N. Jennings photographed later storms, and A. A. Adams is associated with the earlier Kansas image.