Edward Sheriff Curtis

American, 1868-1952

BiographyEdward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) became interested in photography at an early age and apprenticed at a studio in St. Paul, Minnesota at 17. Shortly after moving to the Washington Territory with his family in 1887, Curtis' father passed away, requiring him to take odd jobs to support his mother and younger siblings. He returned to photography in 1891 as a partner in the Seattle portrait studios of Rasmus Rothi and Thomas Guptill (both active 1890s) before embarking on his studio venture. His Seattle business was thriving when Curtis made his first portrait of a Duwamish woman, Princess Angeline, or Kikisoblu (c. 1828-1896), the eldest daughter of Chief Seattle, or Si'ahl (c. 1780-1866), in 1895. Three years later, he won the grand prize at the National Photographic Convention in Chautauqua, New York (1898) for his genre images of Native Americans in the Puget Sound region.

While photographing on Mt. Rainier that same year, his chance rescue of a group of scientists who had become lost, including George Bird Grinnell (1849-1938), a well-known naturalist, ultimately inspired Curtis to embark on his North American Indian series. After accompanying Grinnell on the E.H. Harriman Alaska Expedition (1899) and assisting in his documentation of the Blackfeet Nation's Sun Dance Ceremony in Montana (1899-1900), Curtis spent the next thirty years producing his monumental compendium The North American Indian.

Considered the most ambitious photographic project ever undertaken, from 1900–1927 Curtis produced over 40,000 photographic negatives, about 10,000 wax cylinder recordings of languages and music, and one film (In the Land of the Head Hunters, 1914) that included members of approximately 80 Native American peoples. Published from 1907-1930 in a deluxe limited edition of 500 (of which about 272 complete sets were printed), The North American Indian's twenty bound volumes were each accompanied by a portfolio of photogravures together containing 2,234 images and more than 5,000 pages of text.

His approach relied upon spending a few weeks with each Tribe, learning their traditions, and determining which would make the most appealing images before taking portraits and scenes of "daily life" for the series. Despite the initial support of President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), who wrote the introduction to the first volume, and financial backing of J.P. Morgan (1837-1913), the expense of producing this series- from extensive fieldwork to the fine materials used to publish each volume- left Curtis in constant financial hardship. Thus, he regularly paused production to raise funds by exhibiting and selling individual images of Native American life, lecturing, and taking on other jobs like commercial portrait work and as second-cameraman on Cecil B. DeMille's film Ten Commandments (1923). The publication of the final volume of The North American Indian in 1930 coincided with the onset of the Great Depression and Curtis, along with his elaborate and expensive work, quickly faded into obscurity. Once he recovered from his undertaking's physical and mental toll, Curtis turned his attention to other pursuits, including gold mining and farming. Later, he worked as a Hollywood cameraman in Los Angeles until he died in 1952.

Person TypeIndividual

Terms