Plenty Coups - Apsaroke (Pl. 124)

Artist Edward Sheriff Curtis (American, 1868-1952)

DimensionsOverall: 22 5/16 x 18 3/8 in. (56.6 x 46.7 cm);
Image: 15 3/4 x 11 11/16 in. (40 x 29.7 cm);
Plate: 17 3/4 x 13 1/8 in. (45.1 x 33.4 cm)

MediumPhotogravure print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LineGift of Frederick P. and Amy McCombs Currier

Object number

1990.127

Not on View

Label TextCurtis made his first photograph of an American Indian in 1896. From then on his photographic mission was to document the vanishing Indian way of life by systematically photographing Native Americans from more than 80 western cultures. Besides portraying individuals, he made images that documented regalia, crafts, ceremonies, traditions, and aspects of daily life. Curtis published the first two volumes of The North American Indian in December 1907; the 20th and final volume appeared in 1930. This series consisted of 20 small-format volumes, plus 20 portfolios of large photogravures. Plenty Coups (Alaxchília Ahú) was chief of the Crow tribe, a warrior, and a visionary: on a vision quest as a young boy, he saw the destruction of the buffalo and their replacement by herds of cattle. In 1928 he willed part of his land as a park and “museum” for the display of his possessions, a gesture he intended “as a reminder to Indians and white people alike that the two races should live and work together harmoniously.”Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The American West: Photographs of a New Frontier, January 15-May 15, 2016.

Toledo Museum of Art, Framing Fame: 19th- & 20th-century Celebrity Photography, March 4–June 4, 2017.