Edward Sheriff Curtis

EDWARD SHERIFF CURTIS (1868-1952)

His photographic portrayals of Indians and Indianism are fine art classic masterpieces.

Edward Sheriff Curtis was a genius in his field. The exquisite quality of his photographs is evident in the reproductions from photogravures selected for this special edition.

Curtis' major life accomplishment was the series, THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN, which consisted of twenty portfolios, each containing thirty six 1112 x 15 in. sepia photogravure impressions and twenty accompanying volumes of text, each containing seventy five 5½ x 7½ impressions. The text, produced under the editorship of Frederick Webb Hodge of the Smithsonian Institution, was a storehouse of anthropological description, covering games, origin myths, sacred rites, musical forms, glossaries, architecture, etc.

Born in 1868, Curtis began photographing the North American Indian in 1897 and continued doing so for the next 30 years. Of the 40,000 photographs of Indians Curtis made, 2,220 prints were finally selected to be part of his monumental work, THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN considered by many to be the finest work of visual anthropology ever to be accomplished. President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the importance and quality of Curtis' work and introduced him to financier J. P. Morgan who subsidized the Curtis project of producing THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN over thirty years at a cost of nearly 2 million dollars.

After Morgan's sponsorship was assured, Curtis resumed his travels through the mythic heartbeat of over one hundred Indian nations, working under the most primitive conditions of transport packing his cumbersome reflex camera with its large glass negative plates. On occasion, months of intense work were destroyed when a mule slipped down the side of a canyon or when a small river raft capsized. His final work achieved acclaim as being one of the most thorough, extensive and profound photographic works of all time.

Edward S. Curtis gives us an eloquent insight into his personal inspiration for completing the task of photographing every aspect of the life of the North American Indian in the following statement: "The great changes in practically every phase of the Indian's life that have taken place, especially in recent years, have been such that had the time for collecting much of the material, both descriptive and illustrative, herein recorded, been delayed, it would have been lost forever. The passing of every old man or woman means the passing of some tradition, some knowledge of sacred rites possessed by no other; consequently, the information that is to be gathered, for the benefit of future generations, respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost for all time. It is this need that has inspired the present task."

The Edward S. Curtis photogravures in this issue were by The Gallery Wall, 7122 North 7th Street, Phoenix, where a comprehensive and exceptionally rare collection of hand pressed photogravures are currently on display. The pieces on view represent the greatest part of the remaining unbound group of photogravures from the Edward Curtis series, THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN.