| Names: | Born: Edward Sheriff Curtis
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| | Dates: | 1868 - 1952, 19 October | | Born: | US, WI, nr. White Water | | Died: | US, CA, Los Angeles | | Active: | US | | Gender: | Male |
American photographer who created the 20 volume ‘The North American Indian‘ (1907-1930) - this is almost certainly the most extraordinary artistic work concentrating on an ethnic group.
His obituary in the New York Times (Oct 20, 1952, p.23) read:
"Los Angeles, Oct. 19 - Edward S. Curtis, internationally known authority on the history of the North American Indian, died today at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Bess Magnuson. His age was 84.
Mr. Curtis devoted his life to compiling Indian history. His research was done under the patronage of the late financier, J. Pierpont Morgan. The foreword for the monumental set of Curtis books was written by President Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Curtis was also widely known as a photographer."Preparing biographies
Biography provided by Focal Press
From 1900 to 1930, Curtis photographed about 80 Native American tribes of the Northwest, Southwest, and Great Plains, producing some 40,000 images, which resulted in The North American Indian (1907–1930). Curtis was not an objective documentarian. He suppressed evidence of assimilation and manipulated his images through romantic, soft-focus pictorial methods to create emotional and nostalgic views of the vanishing noble savage. Although criticized for treating native people as exotica, Curtis’ fabricated images provide the only evidence of artifacts, costumes, ceremonies, dances, and games of many tribes’ previous existence. Nobody wanted to look at the realism of reservation despair, but with the Native Americans’ complicity, Curtis used his narrative skills to recreate idealized symbols of a vanished time in the West and represent the timeless myth of the virtuous primitive.
(Author: Robert Hirsch - Independent scholar and writer)
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409]
(Used with permission)
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
Adam, Hans Christian, 2008, Native Americans: Edward S. Curtis, (Taschen) isbn-10: 3836507919 isbn-13: 978-3836507912 [Δ]
Adam, Hans Christian, 2012, Edward S. Curtis, (Taschen) isbn-10: 3836539284 isbn-13: 978-3836539289 [Δ]
Curtis, Edward S., 1907-1926, The North American Indian, Being a Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, (MA: The University Press, 1907-09 & The Plimpton Press, 1911-26) [Δ]
Curtis, Edward S., 1992, Native Nations: First Americans as Seen by Edward Curtis, (Boston: Little, Brown and Company) [Δ]
Curtis, Edward S., 1997, The North American Indian: The Complete Portfolio, (New York: Köln: Taschen) [Δ]
Davis, Barbara A, 1985, Edward S. Curtis: The Life and Times of a Shadow Catcher, (San Francisco: Chronicle Books) [Δ]
Lyman, Christopher M, 1982, The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions: Photographs of Indians by Edward S. Curtis, (New York: Pantheon Books; Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press) [Δ]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com | |
Family history
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
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Exhibitions on this website |
 | Edward S. Curtis: Harriman Alaska Expedition (1899) |
|  | Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian: Books |
|  | Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian: Frames |
|  | Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian: Plates |
|  | Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian: Plates: An Oasis in the Badlands |
|  | Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian: Plates: At the Old Well at Acoma |
|  | Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian: Plates: Lummi Type |
|  | Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian: Plates: Material culture |
|  | Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian: Plates: The Vanishing Race |
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All photographs by this photographer
Edward Sheriff Curtis
American, 1868-1952
Edward S. Curtis was born near Whitewater, Wisconsin. His father, a Civil War veteran and minister, moved the family to Minnesota, where Curtis became interested in photography. In 1892 he purchased an interest in a photographic studio in Seattle. He married and the couple had four children. He later settled in Los Angeles, where he operated photographic studios at various times on La Cienega Boulevard and in the Biltmore Hotel. As a friend of Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille, Curtis was commissioned to make film stills for some of DeMille's films, including the epic, The Ten Commandments. In 1899, he became the official photographer for the Edward Harriman expedition to Alaska and developed an interest Native American culture.
Curtis is best known for his documentation of Native American cultures published as The North American Indian. From about 1900 to 1930 he surveyed more than 100 tribes ranging from the Inuits to the Hopi, making more than 40,000 photographs. He made portraits of important and well-known figures of the time, including Geronimo, Chief Joseph, Red Cloud, and Medicine Crow.
Curtis’ project was time consuming and complex, because he needed vehicles, mechanical equipment, skilled technicians, scholars and researchers and the cooperation of the Indian tribes. His working method was to dispatch assistants to make tribal visits months in advance. Curtis then traveled by horseback or horse drawn wagon to visit the tribes. Once on site Curtis and his assistants interviewed the people and then photographed them outside, in an indigenous structure, or inside his studio tent with an adjustable skylight.
Curtis used a field or view camera, producing his images on glass plates. He developed his images in the field, then created a proof from each image, and sent it, with instructions, back to his Seattle studio where manager Adolph Muhr made the decisions relating to exposure time, retouching, and enlargement. The North American Indian consisted of 20 bound volumes containing approximately 2200 photogravures, written information about the Native American cultures Curtis photographed, and 20 supplementary photogravure portfolios. Each volume was devoted to a single or sometimes multiple groups, depending on their geographic proximity. The photogravures were hand-pulled from a steel-coated copper plate and then printed on one of three types of paper; a rice paper called vellum, a heavier water-marked paper known as Van Gelder and Japon tissue (mounted on vellum). Each volume was bound in leather and edged in gilt. In addition to the published volumes, Curtis’ output also included gelatin silver prints, platinum prints and orotones, such as At The Old Well at Acoma (1906).
Curtis intended to record Native American culture which was disappearing in the face of encroaching modern civilization. However, to preserve these vanishing native cultures, he constructed his portraits using “authentic” costumes, props, and staged ceremonies. Occasionally he used the incorrect cultural artifacts and costumes to document a particular tribe. Ironically, Curtis believed that the only way that Native Americans could survive was through assimilation. The last volume of The North American Indian was published in 1930. Although accounts vary, about 272 sets were sold. Eventually his 30-year project took its toll. Curtis’ wife divorced him, and later he suffered a physical and nervous break down. Declining interest in the American Indian and the Depression ultimately reduced sales. Curtis spent the remaining years of his life with his daughter Beth and her husband in Los Angeles. In 1952 Curtis died in Los Angeles, virtually unknown. Fortunately, Curtis’ work was discovered in the late 1970s-1980s.
His work is in several major public collections including the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian and several major universities.
Source: The Center for Creative Photography, the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division and the Public Broadcasting Service.
[Contributed by the Etherton Gallery]
Edward Sheriff Curtis
http://www.pbs.org ...
This is part of the excellent American Masters series of television programs broadcast by PBS in the USA.
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The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
• Auer, Michele & Michel 1985 Encyclopedie Internationale Des Photographes de 1839 a Nos Jours / Photographers Encylopaedia International 1839 to the present (Hermance, Editions Camera Obscura) 2 volumes [A classic reference work for biographical information on photographers.]
• Beaton, Cecil & Buckland, Gail 1975 The Magic Eye: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company) p.122 [Useful short biographies with personal asides and one or more example images.]
• Capa, Cornell (ed.) 1984 The International Center of Photography: Encyclopedia of Photography (New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. - A Pound Press Book) p.126
• International Center of Photography 1999 Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection (New York: A Bulfinch Press Book) p.213 [Includes a well written short biography on Edward S. Curtis with example plate(s) earlier in book.]
• Lenman, Robin (ed.) 2005 The Oxford Companion to the Photograph (Oxford: Oxford University Press) [Includes a short biography on Edward S. Curtis.]
• Witkin, Lee D. and Barbara London 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide (London: Secker and Warburg) p.116-117 [Long out of print but an essential reference work - the good news is that a new edition is in preparation.]
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If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
Photographic collections are a useful means of examining large numbers of photographs by a single photographer on-line.
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