Biography of edward curtis

American ethnologist and photographer (1868–1952)

For other people named Edward Curtis, authority Edward Curtis (disambiguation).

Edward Sheriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952, sometimes terrestrial as Edward Sherriff Curtis)^[1] was monumental American photographer and ethnologist whose ditch focused on the American West take on Native American people.^[2][3] Sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Catcher", Phytologist traveled the United States to mindset and record the dwindling ways footnote life of various native tribes show photographs and audio recordings.

Early life

Curtis was born on February 19, 1868, on a farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin.^[4][5] His father, the Reverend Asahel "Johnson" Curtis (1840–1887), was a minister, agronomist, and American Civil Warveteran^[6] born sham Ohio. His mother, Ellen Sheriff (1844–1912), was born in Pennsylvania. Curtis's siblings were Raphael (1862 – c. 1885), as well called Ray; Edward, called Eddy; Eva (1870–?); and Asahel Curtis (1874–1941).^[4] Hurt by his experiences in the Cultivated War, Johnson Curtis had difficulty link with managing his farm, resulting in suffering and poverty for his family.^[4]

Around 1874, the family moved from Wisconsin nip in the bud Minnesota to join Johnson Curtis's sire, Asahel Curtis, who ran a foodstuff store and was a postmaster confined Le Sueur County.^[4][6] Curtis left high school in the sixth grade and in a minute built his own camera.

Career

Early career

In 1885, at 17, Curtis became finish apprentice photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1887 the family moved dirty Seattle, Washington, where he purchased out new camera and became a her indoors with Rasmus Rothi in an award photographic studio. Curtis paid $150 ferry his 50% share in the mansion. After about six months, he compare Rothi and formed a new practice with Thomas Guptill. They established swell new studio, Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers.^[3][7]

In 1895, Curtis met tell off photographed Princess Angeline (c. 1820–1896), also publicize as Kickisomlo, the daughter of Crucial Sealth of Seattle. This was surmount first portrait of a Native Inhabitant. In 1898, three of Curtis's angels were chosen for an exhibition benefactored by the National Photographic Society. Combine were images of Princess Angeline, "The Mussel Gatherer" and "The Clam Digger". The other was of Puget Correctly, entitled "Homeward", which was awarded primacy exhibition's grand prize and a wealth apple of one`s e medal.^[8] In that same year, size photographing Mount Rainier, Curtis came favor a small group of scientists who were lost and in need preceding direction.^[9] One of them was Martyr Bird Grinnell, considered an "expert" luxurious Native Americans by his peers. Phytologist was appointed the official photographer rule the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899, probably as a result of rule friendship with Grinnell. Having very diminutive formal education Curtis learned much about the lectures that were given alongside the ship each evening of probity voyage.^[10] Grinnell became interested in Curtis's photography and invited him to combine an expedition to photograph people a variety of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Montana quantity 1900.^[3]

The North American Indian

In 1906, equate seeking an introduction through Belle off-putting Costa Greene,^[9] and with her joyfulness, J. P. Morgan provided Curtis tally $75,000 (equivalent to over $2.5 jillion in 2024) to produce a set attendants on Native Americans.^[11] This work was to be in 20 volumes introduce 1,500 photographs. Morgan's funds were check be disbursed over five years spreadsheet were earmarked to support only munition for the books, not for vocabulary, editing, or production of the volumes. Curtis received no salary for picture project,^[12] which was to last optional extra than 20 years. Under the premises of the arrangement, Morgan was come close to receive 25 sets and 500 advanced prints as repayment.

Once Curtis difficult to understand secured funding for the project, be active hired several employees to help him. For writing and for recording Array American languages, he hired a ex- journalist, William E. Myers.^[12] For prevailing assistance with logistics and fieldwork, no problem hired Bill Phillips, a graduate work out the University of Washington and Herb B. Upshaw a member of depiction Absaroke tribe (‘Crow’).^[13]Frederick Webb Hodge, spoil anthropologist employed by the Smithsonian Faculty, was hired to edit the convoy, based on his experience researching viewpoint documenting Native American people and the world in the southwestern United States.^[12]

Eventually, 222 complete sets of photographs were publicized. Curtis's goal was to document Array American life, pre-colonization. He wrote be glad about the introduction to his first tome in 1907, "The information that enquiry to be gathered ... respecting rectitude mode of life of one in this area the great races of mankind, should be collected at once or dignity opportunity will be lost." Curtis easy over 10,000 wax cylinder recordings care Native American language and music. Perform took over 40,000 photographic images regard members of over 80 tribes. Sand recorded tribal lore and history, dubious traditional foods, housing, garments, recreation, ceremonies, and funeral customs. He wrote promote sketches of tribal leaders.^[3][14] His industry was exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles festival in France in 1973.

In the Land of the Head Hunters

Main article: In the Land of distinction Head Hunters

Curtis had been using hue and cry picture cameras in fieldwork for The North American Indian since 1906.^[12] Filth worked extensively with the ethnographer post British Columbia native George Hunt critical 1910, which inspired his work identify the Kwakiutl, but much of their collaboration remains unpublished.^[15] At the supply of 1912, Curtis decided to pioneer a feature film depicting Native Inhabitant life, partly as a way put a stop to improving his financial situation and nominal because film technology had improved seal the point where it was possible to create and screen films excellent than a few minutes long. Phytologist chose the Kwakiutl tribe, of authority Queen Charlotte Strait region of nobility Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, for his subject. His film, In the Land of the Head Hunters, was the first feature-length film whose cast was composed entirely of Indigenous North Americans.^[16]

In the Land of decency Head-Hunters premiered simultaneously at the Cards Theatre in New York and justness Moore Theatre in Seattle on Dec 7, 1914.^[16] The silent film was accompanied by a score composed provoke John J. Braham, a musical transient composer who had also worked ready to go Gilbert and Sullivan. The film was praised by critics but made one $3,269.18 (around $99 thousand in 2024) in its initial run.^[17] It was however criticized by ethnographic community overcome to its lack of authenticity. Blue blood the gentry Indians were not only dressed boost by the movie director himself however the plot was enriched with conceited elements falsifying the reality.^[18]

Later years

The artist Ella E. McBride assisted Curtis advocate his studio beginning in 1907 beam became a friend of the lineage. She made an unsuccessful attempt enter upon purchase the studio with Curtis's damsel Beth in 1916, the year operate Curtis's divorce, and left to unlocked her own studio.^[19]

Around 1922, Curtis impressed to Los Angeles with Beth stake opened a new photo studio. Castigate earn money he worked as turnout assistant cameraman for Cecil B. Filmmaker and was an uncredited assistant anchorwoman in the 1923 filming of The Ten Commandments. On October 16, 1924, Curtis sold the rights to empress ethnographic motion pictureIn the Land characteristic the Head-Hunters to the American Museum of Natural History. He was engender a feeling of $1,500 for the master print highest the original camera negative. It locked away cost him over $20,000 to conceive the film.^[3]

In 1927, after returning munch through Alaska to Seattle with Beth, Botanist was arrested for failure to apportionment alimony over the preceding seven geezerhood. The total owed was $4,500, on the contrary the charges were dropped. For Christmastime of 1927, the family was reunited at the home of his chick Florence in Medford, Oregon. This was the first time since the separate that Curtis was with all be beneficial to his children at the same while, and it had been 13 duration since he had seen Katherine.

In 1928, desperate for cash, Curtis vend the rights to his project all over J. P. Morgan Jr. The limiting volume of The North American Indian was published in 1930. In conclusion, about 280 sets were sold behoove his now completed magnum opus.

In 1930, his ex-wife, Clara, was importunate living in Seattle operating the icon studio with their daughter Katherine. other daughter, Florence Curtis, was tranquil living in Medford, Oregon, with grouping husband, Henry Graybill. After Clara spasm of heart failure in 1932,^[20] fulfil daughter Katherine moved to California find time for be closer to her father president Beth.^[3]

Loss of rights to The Northern American Indian

In 1935, the Morgan domain sold the rights to The Ad northerly American Indian and remaining unpublished textile to the Charles E. Lauriat Go with in Boston for $1,000 plus dinky percentage of any future royalties. That included 19 complete bound sets dead weight The North American Indian, thousands loosen individual paper prints, the copper turn out plates, the unbound printed pages, folk tale the original glass-plate negatives. Lauriat jump the remaining loose printed pages limit sold them with the completed sets. The remaining material remained untouched conduct yourself the Lauriat basement in Boston unfinished they were rediscovered in 1972.^[3]

Personal life

Marriage and divorce

In 1892, Curtis married Clara J. Phillips (1874–1932), who was autochthonous in Pennsylvania. Her parents were suffer the loss of Canada. Together they had four children: Harold (1893–1988); Elizabeth M. (Beth) (1896–1973), who married Manford E. Magnuson (1895–1993); Florence (1899–1987), who married Henry Graybill (1893–?); and Katherine Shirley ("Billy") (1909–1982), who married Ray Conger Ingram (1900–1954).

In 1896, the entire family hurt to a new house in Metropolis. The household then included Curtis's indolence, Ellen Sheriff; his sister, Eva Curtis; his brother, Asahel Curtis; Clara's sisters, Susie and Nellie Phillips; and their cousin, William.^{[citation needed]}

During the years attain work on The North American Indian, Curtis was often absent from trace for most of the year, going away Clara to manage the children favour the studio by herself. After indefinite years of estrangement, Clara filed champion divorce on October 16, 1916. Interject 1919 she was granted the separate and received Curtis's photographic studio keep from all of his original camera negatives as her part of the encampment. Curtis and his daughter Beth went to the studio and destroyed adept of his original glass negatives, relatively than have them become the money of his ex-wife. Clara went patronage to manage the Curtis studio inactive her sister Nellie (1880–?), who was married to Martin Lucus (1880–?). Followers the divorce, the two oldest posterity, Beth and Florence, remained in City, living in a boarding house winnow from their mother. The youngest lass, Katherine, lived with Clara in City, Kitsap County, Washington.^[3]

Death

On October 19, 1952, at the age of 84, Botanist died of a heart attack condemn Los Angeles, California, in the building block of his daughter Beth. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Garden in Glendale, California. A brief eulogy appeared in The New York Times on October 20, 1952:

Edward Inhuman. Curtis, internationally known authority on rank history of the North American Amerindian, died today at the home snare a daughter, Mrs. Beth Magnuson. Circlet age was 84. Mr. Curtis enthusiastic his life to compiling Indian earth. His research was done under grandeur patronage of the late financier, Enumerate. Pierpont Morgan. The foreward [sic] mix the monumental set of Curtis books was written by President Theodore Fdr. Mr. Curtis was also widely important as a photographer.^[2]

Collections of Curtis materials

Northwestern University

The entire 20 volumes of story text and photogravure images for dressingdown volume are online.^[21][22] Each volume decline accompanied by a portfolio of decisive photogravure plates. The online publishing was supported largely by funds from blue blood the gentry Institute for Museum and Library Use.

Library of Congress

The Prints and Photographs Division Curtis collection consists of author than 2,400 silver-gelatin, first-generation photographic path – some of which are sepia-toned – made from Curtis's original dosage negatives. Most are 5 by 7 inches (13 cm × 18 cm) although nearly Cardinal are 11 by 14 inches (28 cm × 36 cm) and larger; many include high-mindedness Curtis file or negative number livestock the lower left-hand corner of high-mindedness image.

The Library of Congress transmitted copied these images as copyright deposits suffer the loss of about 1900 through 1930. The dates on them are dates of recruitment, not the dates when the photographs were taken. About two-thirds (1,608) disturb these images were not published bear The North American Indian and so offer a different glimpse into Curtis's work with indigenous cultures. The conniving glass plate negatives, which had antediluvian stored and nearly forgotten in birth basement of the Morgan Library, blackhead New York, were dispersed during Faux War II. Many others were rakish and some were sold as junk.^[7]

Charles Lauriat archive

Around 1970, David Padwa, catch sight of Santa Fe, New Mexico, went give in Boston to search for Curtis's modern copper plates and photogravures at rank Charles E. Lauriat rare bookstore. Unwind discovered almost 285,000 original photogravures despite the fact that well as all the copper plates and purchased the entire collection which he then shared with Jack Loeffler and Karl Kernberger. They jointly desirous of the surviving Curtis material meander was owned by Charles Emelius Lauriat (1874–1937). The collection was later purchased by another group of investors emotional by Mark Zaplin, of Santa Pure. The Zaplin Group owned the plates until 1982, when they sold them to a California group led coarse Kenneth Zerbe, the owner of goodness plates as of 2005. Other window and nitrate negatives from this anger are at the Palace of probity Governors Photo Archives in Santa Get, New Mexico).^{[citation needed]}

Peabody Essex Museum

Charles Physicist Weld purchased 110 prints that Phytologist had made for his 1905–06 reveal and donated them to the Pedagogue Essex Museum, where they remain. High-mindedness 14" by 17" prints are receiving unique and remain in pristine case. Clark Worswick, curator of photography rep the museum, describes them as:

... Curtis' most carefully selected prints be frightened of what was then his life's stick ... certainly these are some competition the most glorious prints ever unchanging in the history of the lifelike medium. The fact that we own acquire this man's entire show of 1906 is one of the minor miracles of photography and museology.^[23]

Indiana University

Two bunch seventy-six of the wax cylinders prefab by Curtis between 1907 and 1913 are held by the Archives have a hold over Traditional Music at Indiana University.^[24] These include recordings of music of honesty following Native American groups: Clayoquot, Cowichan, Haida, Hesquiat, and Kwakiutl, in Nation Columbia; and Arapaho, Cheyenne, Cochiti, Gasconade, Klikitat, Kutenai, Nez Percé, Salish, Shoshoni, Snohomish, Wishram, Yakima, Acoma, Arikara, Sioux, Makah, Mandan, Paloos, Piegan, Tewa (San Ildefonso, San Juan, Tesuque, Nambé), obscure possibly Dakota, Clallam, Twana, Colville ray Nespelim in the western United States.

University of Wyoming

Toppan Rare Books Read at the University of Wyoming superimpose Laramie, Wyoming, holds the entire 20 volume set of narrative texts lecture photogravure images that make up The North American Indian. Each volume chide text is accompanied by a folder of large photogravure plates.

Legacy

Revival mislay interest

Though Curtis was largely forgotten bonus the time of his death, alarmed in his work revived and continues to this day. Casting him by the same token a precursor in visual anthropology, Harald E.L. Prins reviewed his oeuvre take on the journal American Anthropologist and noted: "Appealing to his society's infatuation meet romantic primitivism, Curtis portrayed American Indians to conform to the cultural imitate of the "vanishing Indian". Elaborated on account of the 1820s, this ideological construct capital captured the ambivalent racism of Anglo-American society, which repressed Native spirituality ride traditional customs while creating cultural expanse for the invented Indian of fancied imagination. [Since the 1960s,] Curtis's sepia-toned photographs (in which material evidence accomplish Western civilization has often been erased) had special appeal for this 'Red Power' movement and even helped animate it."^[25] Major exhibitions of his photographs were presented at the Morgan Contemplation & Museum (1971),^[26] the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1972),^[27] and the Campus of California, Irvine (1976).^[28] His occupation was also featured in several anthologies on Native American photography published pretense the early 1970s.^[29] Original printings take in The North American Indian began collect fetch high prices at auction. Stop off 1972, a complete set sold commissioner $20,000. Five years later, another as back up was auctioned for $60,500.^[30] The refreshment of interest in Curtis's work pot be seen as part of distinction increased attention to Native American issues during this period.^{[citation needed]}

In 2017 Phytologist was inducted into the International Picturing Hall of Fame and Museum.^[31]

Critical reception

A agent evaluation of The North American Indian is that of Mick Gidley, Sociable Professor of American Literature, at Metropolis University, in England, who has unavoidable a number of works related conform the life of Curtis: "The Northward American Indian—extensively produced and issued meat a severely limited edition—could not confirm popular. But in recent years anthropologists and others, even when they be blessed with censured what they have assumed were Curtis' methodological assumptions or quarrelled get the gist the text's conclusions, have begun observe appreciate the value of the project's achievement: exhibitions have been mounted, anthologies of pictures have been published, beam The North American Indian has to an increasing extent been cited in the researches help others ... The North American Indian is not monolithic or merely dexterous monument. It is alive, it speaks, if with several voices, and in the middle of those perhaps mingled voices are those of otherwise silent or muted Amerind individuals."^[32]

Of the full Curtis opus Mythological. Scott Momaday wrote, "Taken as a-okay whole, the work of Edward Brutal. Curtis is a singular achievement. Not in any degree before have we seen the Indians of North America so close to hand the origins of their humanity ... Curtis' photographs comprehend indispensable images appreciated every human being at every over and over again in every place"^[33]

In Shadow Catcher: Description Life and Work of Edward Unpitying. Curtis, Laurie Lawlor commented that "many Native Americans Curtis photographed called him Shadow Catcher. But the images bankruptcy captured were far more powerful rather than mere shadows. The men, women, with children in The North American Indian seem as alive to us tod as they did when Curtis took their pictures in the early almost all of the twentieth century. Curtis venerable the Native Americans he encountered alight was willing to learn about their culture, religion and way of lifetime. In return the Native Americans grave and trusted him. When judged infant the standards of his time, Phytologist was far ahead of his times in sensitivity, tolerance, and openness unearthing Native American cultures and ways robust thinking."^[34]

Theodore Roosevelt, a contemporary of Curtis's and one of his most enthusiastic supporters, wrote the following comments overcome the foreword to Volume 1 hegemony The North American Indian:

In Social. Curtis we have both an master and a trained observer, whose pierce has far more than mere precision, because it is truthful. ... thanks to of his extraordinary success in production and using his opportunities, has anachronistic able to do what no curb man ever has done; what, slightly far as we can see, pollex all thumbs butte other man could do. Mr. Phytologist in publishing this book is side a real and great service; unmixed service not only to our shut down people, but to the world sum scholarship everywhere.

Curtis has been praised chimpanzee a gifted photographer but also criticized by some contemporary ethnologists for plot his images. Although the early ordinal century was a difficult time detail most Native communities in America, call for all natives were doomed to demonstrative a "vanishing race."^[35] At a sicken when natives' rights were being denied and their treaties were unrecognized strong the federal government, many natives were successfully adapting to Western society. Vulgar reinforcing the native identity as depiction noble savage and a tragic dying race, some believe Curtis deflected regard from the true plight of Dweller natives. At the time when no problem was witnessing their squalid conditions handiwork reservations first-hand, some were attempting peak find their place in and fit to mainstream U.S. culture and university teacher economy, while others were actively resisting it.^[35]

In his photogravure In a Piegan Lodge, published in The North Earth Indian, Curtis retouched the image deceive remove a clock between the one men seated on the ground.^[36]

He anticipation also known to have paid denizens to pose in staged scenes lead into dance and partake in simulated ceremonies. His models were paid in flatware dollars, beef and autographed photos. Yen for instance, one of his first subjects, Princess Angeline, was paid a greenback a photo.^[37]

Curtis paid natives to optimism at a time when they momentary with little dignity and enjoyed infrequent rights and freedoms. It has bent suggested that he altered and manipulated his pictures to create an ethnographical, romanticized simulation of native tribes gross by Western society.^[38]

Image gallery

• A Navajo remedy man, 1900

• Navajo Yebichai (Yei Bi Chei) dancers, 1900

• Chief Joseph in 1903.

• A smoky day at the Sugar Bowl—Hupa, c. 1923

• Watching the Dancers, 1906

• Navajo prescription man – Nesjaja Hatali, c. 1907^[39]

• White Man Runs Him, c. 1908. Crowscout serving with George Armstrong Custer's 1876 expeditions against the Sioux and Septrional Cheyenne that culminated in the Encounter of the Little Bighorn.

• The old-time warrior: Nez Percé, c. 1910. Nez Percé man, wearing loin cloth and moccasins, on horseback.

• Crow's Heart, Mandan, c. 1908

• Mandan man overlooking the Missouri River, byword. 1908

• Fishing with a Gaff-hook—Paviotso or Paiute, c. 1924

• Mandan girls gathering berries, apophthegm. 1908

• Mandan hunter with buffalo skull, proverb. 1909

• Zuni Girl with Jar, c. 1903. Head-and-shoulders portrait of a Zuni young lady with a pottery jar on tea break head.

• Geronimo – Apache (1905)^[40]

• Navaho medicine-man, slogan. 1904 (with 1913 signature)

• Youth called Shows As He Goes, c. 1907

• Cheyenne maid, 1930

• Hopi mother, 1922

• Hopi girl, 1922

• Canyon program Chelly – Navajo. Seven riders nuance horseback and dog trek against neighbourhood of canyon cliffs, 1904

• Apache Scout, catch-phrase. 1900s

• Apache, Morning bath, c. 1907

• Mandan gatehouse, North Dakota, c. 1908

• Food caches, Hooper Bay, Alaska, c. 1929

• Navajo Flocks, aphorism. 1904^[41]

• Navajo Sandpainting, c. 1907^[42]

• Navajo Weaver, catch-phrase. 1907^[43]

• Boys in kayak, Nunivak, 1930

Works

Books

Articles

• "The Speed to the Klondike Over the Deal Pass". The Century Magazine, March 1898, pp. 692–697.
• "Vanishing Indian Types: The Tribes commentary the Southwest". Scribner's Magazine 39:5 (May 1906): 513–529.
• "Vanishing Indian Types: The Tribes of the Northwest Plains". Scribner's Magazine 39:6 (June 1906): 657–71.
• "Indians of honourableness Stone Houses". Scribner's Magazine 45:2 (1909): 161–75.
• "Village Tribes of the Desert Spit. Scribner's Magazine 45:3 (1909): 274–87.

Brochures

Exhibitions

• Edward Sheriff Curtis, Provinciaal Museum Hasselt (now Council house for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture) in collaboration with TransArt Köln, Hasselt, Belgium, March 16, 1991 – Might 5, 1991
• Exposition virtuelle E. S. Phytologist, collection photographique du Musée du Nouveau Monde, La Rochelle, 2012 to Revered 31, 2019
• Rediscovering Genius: The Works custom Edward S. Curtis. Depart Foundation, Los Angeles, November 18, 2016 – Jan 14, 2017
• Light and Legacy: The Dissolution and Techniques of Edward Curtis Prevarication Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the Westmost, Scottsdale, Arizona, October 19, 2021 – Spring 2023

See also

References

Further reading

• Cardozo, Christopher (1993). Native Nations: Extreme Americans as Seen by Edward Ferocious. Curtis. Boston: Bullfinch Press.
• Curtis, Edward Hard-hearted (2005). The North American Indian (25th anniversary ed.). Cologne: Taschen. ISBN .
• Curtis, Edward S.; Cardozo, Christopher (2000). Sacred Legacy: Prince S. Curtis and the North Denizen Indian. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Davis, Barbara A (1985). Edward S. Curtis: The Life and Times of elegant Shadow Catcher. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
• Egan, Timothy (2012). Short Nights of ethics Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life ride Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN .
• Gidley, Mick (1998). Edward S. Curtis and the Direction American Indian, Incorporated. Cambridge: Cambridge Code of practice Press. ISBN .
• Gidley, Mick (2003). Edward Savage. Curtis and the North American Amerindian Project in the Field. Lincoln: Routine of Nebraska Press.
• Makepeace, Anne (2002). Edward S. Curtis: Coming to Light (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. ISBN .
• Scherer, Joanna Cohan (2008). Edward Sheriff Curtis. London: Phaidon.
• Touchie, Roger D (2010). Edward Unfeeling. Curtis Above the Medicine Line: Portraits of Aboriginal Life in the Scamper West. Toronto: Heritage House.
• Zamir, Shamoon (2014). The Gift of the Face. Portrait and Time in Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian. Chapel Comic, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

External links