| Foreword |
Theodore Roosevelt was moved to write in his
foreword to Volume 1 of The North American Indian
...Because of the singular combination of qualities with
which he has been blessed, and because of his
extraordinary success in making and using his
opportunities (Mr. Curtis) has been able to do what no
other man has ever done; what, as far as we can see, no
other man could do. He is an artist who works out of doors
and not in a closet. He is a close observer, whose
qualities of mind and body fit him to make his
observations out in the field, surrounded by the wild life
he commemorates. He has lived on intimate terms with many
different tribes of the mountains and the plains. He knows
them as they hunt, as they travel, as they go about their
various avocations on the march and in camp. He knows
their medicine men and their sorcerers, their chiefs and
warriors, their young men and maidens. He has not only
seen their vigorous outward existence. but has caught
glimpses. such as few white men ever catch, into that
strange spiritual and mental life of theirs; from whose
inner most recesses all white men are forever barred...." |
| 1868 |
Edward Sheriff Curtis was born in February, 1868
in White Water, Wisconsin. The Curtis family moved
soon thereafter to Minnesota, and he grew up near the
Chippewa, Menominee, and Winnebago Indian tribes.
Curtis' interest in photography started in his teens
when he built his own crude cameras and taught himself
photography from self-help guides. |
| 1887 |
Curtis and his father, Johnson Curtis, move to
Washington territory. During the same year, the
Reverend Curtis died and Edward was than responsible
for his entire family. He farmed, fished, dug clams
and did chores for neighbors, but nonetheless managed
to buy his first camera. |
| 1891 |
Curtis purchases a share in a photographic studio,
which became known as Rothi and Curtis, for $150. The
studio lasts less than a year. Curtis than formed a
partnership with Thomas Guptill as both Photographers and
Photogravers. |
| 1892 |
Curtis marries Clara Phillips. Clara brought three
family members to live with the three family members
form the Curtis family (mother, brother, and sister).
The Curtis' would have four children. Around this time
art became the aspiration of many photographers.
Influences from painting, drawing, and printmaking
found their way into photographs. Moreover,
photographers began drawing and painting on negatives,
and often employed printing processes such as platinotype, gum print, and photogravure
to produce soft and atmospheric appearance akin to that
achieved by the French Impressionistic painters. The
movement known as Pictorialism promoted personal vision
and expression in photography." |
| 1895 |
Curtis commences his Indian photography. It is
certain that "Princess Angeline", daughter of Chief
Seattle, was one of his first subjects. Curtis'
reputation as a photographer was growing. Curtis
invents gold and silver processes, which later will
become 'goldtones' and
"silver tints". |
| 1896-1930 |
Beginning in 1896 and ending in 1930, Curtis
photographs and documents every major native American
tribe, West of the Mississippi, taking over 40,000
negatives of eighty tribes. |
| 1897 |
Partner, Thomas Guptill, leaves the studio, which
now bears the name Edward S. Curtis, Photographer and
Photograver. |
| 1898 |
Photographs expedition on Mt. Rainier and writes
an article in Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine on the
Yukon Territory (although he never visited, his brother
Ashael did the work). Curtis wins first place in the Genre
Class at the National Photographic Convention and won
again the next year for Evening on Puget Sound,
The
Clam Digger, and The Mussel Gatherer |
| 1899 |
Curtis joins the famous Harriman Expedition to
Alaska, which was the last great nineteenth century
survey to ascertain the economic potential of
America's frontier. Curtis' relationship with
Harriman, Robert Grinnel, a leading ethnographic expert on Native Americans
and other members of the party had a great influence on
the rest of his life. After a trip of nine thousand miles
the party returned with five thousand pictures and over
six hundred animal and plant species new to science. new
glaciers were mapped and photographed and a new fjord was
discovered. Curtis photographed many of the glaciers, but
it was his Indian pictures on this trip which established
his artistic genius. Curtis produced a souvenir album of
photographs for the participants. |
| 1900 |
Curtis travels to visit the Blackfoot Indians in
Montana, his first known formal photographing venture.
The purpose of the visit was to photograph the sun
dance. Curtis described the ritual as "wild,
terrifying, and elaborately mystifying". He sells his
engraving business and took over the studio of Frank
La Roche, another famous photographer of Alaska and
the Indians. |
| 1901 |
The formal beginning of the than self and family
financed project to study all of the North American Indian
tribes. Curtis feels that the project will take fifteen
years, it takes thirty. Curtis is assisted in most of the
field work by W. E. Myers. Curtis visits Arizona and New
Mexico to photograph the Hopi, Zunis, Acomas, and Pueblos
of the Rio Grand Valley and the Mojaves, Maricopas, Yanas,
and Papajos of Arizona. later on in the same year, Curtis
visits the Sioux and Cheyenne of the Rocky Mountain
region. |
| 1903 |
Curtis sends a photograph of Marie Octavia Fischer
to The Ladies Home Journal in response to a solicitation
for images of "The Prettiest Children in America". After
his photograph is selected as one of twelve best, Curtis
is invited by Walter Russell, a noted portrait painter, to
make portraits of Theodore Roosevelt's sons to serve as
models for portraits Russell would paint. |
| 1904 |
On a trip back East, Curtis obtains the first
financing for his Indian project from Doubleday
Publishing. Obtaining the financing for this massive
project took much of Curtis' future time and finally lead
to its downfall during The Depression, especially the
commercial subscription portion, but somehow Curtis
persisted to finish the technical portion. |
| 1905 |
Curtis exhibits portions of his work in Washington
Club, Cosmos Club, and in many other galleries. The
project continues. What made Curtis so unique in this time
was his highly skilled art style combined with his concern
for ethnographic details. Curtis was present at the
dedication of the monument to Chief Joseph. |
| 1906 |
Curtis exhibits 1,000 photographs in the Seattle
area. At President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade,
Curtis was asked by Roosevelt to photograph Geronimo and
five other Native American chiefs on the lawn of the White
House. Roosevelt becomes one of Curtis' most ardent
supporters, which lead to a foreword to The North American
Indian, written by Roosevelt. After an introduction from
Roosevelt, J. P. Morgan offers Curtis $75,000 for series
on the North American Indian with 20 volumes and 1500
photographs. Morgan was to receive 25 sets and 500
original prints. Curtis wrote a series of articles for
Scribners magazine, beginning in 1906. |
| 1907 |
The first volume of The North American Indian is
completed. The New York Herald hailed The North American
Indian as "the most gigantic undertaking in the making of
books since the King James edition of the Bible". The
entire 20 volume set and accompanying portfolios,
consisting of 2232 portfolio and bound volume gravures and
text cost $1,500,000 to produce (272 total editions). At
least half of the funding came from J.P. Morgan and his
son, Jack by way of grants. The project continues. Curtis
photographs the area around The Little Bighorn, thirty one
years after the battle. Curtis rides with and photographs
Crow scouts from the US Cavalry that survived as well as
the Cheyenne and Sioux who had been their enemies. |
| 1908-1918 |
The Project Continues. Curtis asked the
Indians to re-enact famous battles or conduct ceremonies
for his camera. He than de-emphasized any assimilation
that had taken place with the culture of the white man,
sometimes by removal of contemporary dress and
objects. Curtis lived among the Indian peoples and studied
their ways in depth and by doing so gained their
friendship and trust. During this period Curtis filmed In
the Land of the Headhunters, re-creating Indian Life on
the North Coast. |
| 1919 |
Curtis' wife, Clara files for divorce and receives
as part of the settlement, the studio, all of his
negatives. The original filing was years earlier, but
Curtis was always in the field and could not be made to
come to court. She continues to manage the studio with her
sister. Curtis destroys all of his glass negatives at this
time. |
| 1920 |
Curtis moves from Seattle to Los Angeles with his
daughter Beth. He begins his involvement with the film
industry by assisting Cecil B. Demille (The Ten
Commandments). |
| 1921-1929 |
The Project Continues. Curtis' Indian
subjects, willingly participated in the picture making as
if they too wanted to recapture their daily past and
spiritual life. Throughout his career, Curtis would fight
to be accepted by scholars of North American Indians,
especially the approval of The Smithsonian Institute. |
| 1930 |
Volumes 19 and 20 of The North American Indian
are published, the project is finally completed. The
photogravures were by John Andrew and Son and The Suffolk
Engraving Company. The Publishers were The University
Press-Cambridge and The Plimpton Press-Norwood. Shortly
thereafter, The North American Indian Company goes
bankrupt, failing to sell enough subscriptions to pay for
the printing cost. The photogravure printing plates and
all other artifacts become the property of Curtis'
creditors, the printing companies and publishers that he
used. |
| 1936 |
Curtis went to South Dakota to film The
Plainsman. He sold it for $1,500, as he needed the money.
During the last part of his life, the interest that
occupied Curtis the most was gold mining. In the 40's
research for a book tentatively titled The Lure of Gold
became his passion. Because the project conceived was too
massive (like The North American Indian), it was never
completed. |
| 1952 |
Curtis dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles. Most
of his life in the forties and prior to his death were
involved in studio photography and working in the film
industry. The New York Times gave him a 76 word obituary
in which he was listed as an authority on the history of
The North American Indian. It was also noted that he was
known as a photographer. |
| 1977 |
The original copper photogravure plates for The
North American Indian were rediscovered at Lauriat
Bookshop. They were purchased by The Curtis Collection in
1982. Florence Graybill Curtis, one of his daughters,
publishes a distinguished history of her father, which is
still in print. |
| FINAL |
W .H. Holmes, Chief of the Bureau of American
Ethnology stated, in speaking of the value of The North
American Indian for posterity," The ordinary book of today
will last but a few generations. This publication should
last for a thousand years, and it would not be the part of
wisdom to undertake the expenditure required for its issue
without having a series of types satisfactory artistically
and covering the ground ethnologically.... The project is
a splendid one, and has an importance that can be realized
only by those having a true conception of the work
proposed, take the trouble to assume the point of view of
the student of human history a thousand years in the
future. |
| Credits: |
" Grand Endeavors of American Indian
Photography" by Paula Richardson Fleming and Judith Lynn Luskey; The Curtis Collection; "Portraits from North
American Indian Life Edward S. Curtis" by Promontory Press
with Introductions by A.D. Coleman and T.C. McLuhan:" The
Art of Edward S. Curtis-Photographs from the North
American Indian" by Tom Beck |
