The Man who Documented the Last American Tribes

[MerryBlooms]

His lifework documenting the North American Indian was once hailed as “the most ambitious enterprise in publishing since the production of the King James Bible.” Today I found his photographs deep in the Flickr’s archives with no copyright restrictions, free for use. At the height of Edward Curtis’ career, he had one of the most powerful bankers of his era, J.P. Morgan, personally financing him. But much like the subjects Curtis chose in his photographs, he and his work seem to have been tragically forgotten in the past…

http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/07/29/the-man-who-documented-the-last-american-tribes/

[Adsos Letter]

1. We have five of his original photographs

Handed down to me by a great-grandfather who new Curtis from his studio in Seattle, back in the first decade of the 20th century.

[MerryBlooms]

2. Wow! How fortunate to have such an incredible family treasure.

Are there descriptions or any written history accompanying the photos?
Do you display them?

[Adsos Letter]

4. The photos are all titled works

...and can be found in his multi-volume "The North American Indian."

Two are portraits/head shots, and the other three are of Native Americans in various scenes. All are in their original dark oak studio frames.

We display all but one of them. It has condition issues which prohibit any lengthy exposure to natural light. We looked into having a professional restoration outfit in Chicago restore it, but holy cow, cost was prohibitive.

No real documentation, just some numbers in the bottom corner which link each photo to his own records, and some notations on the paper on the backs of the frames. Anything else is from stories handed down through the family (always to be taken with a grain of salt).

Great-grandpa must have been a regular fan because we also have family portraits taken at the Curtis studio in Seattle, which he operated with a partner.

[MerryBlooms]

5. Awesome.

[pansypoo53219]

13. my favorite ebayer, aka341 has 5 curtis photos for sale right now.

he tends to sell his stuff high. he starts at $9, but rarely stay there. so far, they are pretty affordable.

[Adsos Letter]

16. These are original prints

several thousand dollars for each. I could never afford them on my own, but was fortunate enough to inherit them.

[GusBob]

3. Book on this: "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher...." by Timothy Egan

pretty good read. Worked his ass off for his art. Died poor and virtually unknown. Had a lot of respect for his subject matter wanted to document their history rather than exploit it. I think he even made recordings on long lost Native languages

[MerryBlooms]

6. Thanks for the book reference; I'll check it out. n/t

[MerryBlooms]

8. Just a glance on Amazon, and there are a few that I think I will have to pick up.

[GusBob]

14. let me know which ones ya like

[MerryBlooms]

20. I will do an update post whent the time comes.

[hlthe2b]

7. Curtis is an absolute favorite of mine.... I never tire of looking at his photos.

[MerryBlooms]

9. I'm sure I've seen his work before today, it has such a familiar feeling to it.

I think I will pick up a few of the books for this winter.

[hlthe2b]

10. There have been a number of "coffee table" books produced of his works over the years..

They are usually quite expensive, but I'd intended to watch B&N to look for a possible clearance. Unfortunately, i always forget.

[MerryBlooms]

11. I've bookmarked the link I shared, and just put a note on my holiday list.

Hopefully, we both don't forget and at least one of us will end up with one.

[eppur_se_muova]

17. I believe I've seen a "cube book" of his work at B&N, clearance priced ...

Amazon has one at $11; maybe the same one.

[hlthe2b]

21. Oh, my.... I think I must go checki it out today!

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

12. Thank you for this post. Beautiful work. nt

[lovemydog]

15. Many of his subjects dressed up for his photos, since they

were more used to wearing blue jeans & work shirts. That & many other amazing stories are featured in some of the biographical material about Edward Curtis. A remarkable artist who followed his passion and portrayed so many various tribes of our native americans.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. View the online collection at Northwestern Univ (link) ...

http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/

Choose one of the 20 volumes, then click on any picture title, and you can use the forward/back buttons to scan through them rapidly.

[MerryBlooms]

22. Outstanding! Thanks so much.

[hlthe2b]

23. Great link!

[riderinthestorm]

19. For any DUers who missed this yesterday... an am kick for a political respite nt

[MerryBlooms]

24. Thanks.

[echochamberlain]

25. Beautiful pics.

What a pleasure to give you a rec - there's something particularly poignant about the gloomy, dusky sepia tones; almost metaphorical for a culture fading into an alien and hostile century.

[merrily]

26. First Nations

First Nations arrived in this part of the planet thousands of years before the birth of Amerigo Vespucci, for whom North and South America were named by Europeans, on the mistaken theory that Amerigo had "discovered" something here. Amerigo was not even the first European to have arrived here and neither was Columbus.