Sale 2489 - Artists & Amateurs: Photographs & Photobooks, October 18, 2018

Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) was born in Wisconsin and moved west in his late teens with his family. A natural outdoorsman, he took an interest in photography in his youth. In 1887 he became a partner in a Seattle photography studio, and quickly became a local favorite for portraits. His professional horizons suddenly expanded after he rescued the anthropologist George Bird Grinnell, who was lost while hiking Mt. Rainier. The following year, in 1899, Curtis joined the Harriman expedition to Alaska, where Grinnell introduced him to the science of ethnography. After returning to the states Curtis accompanied Grinnell on an expedition to Montana. There he witnessed a Piegan “Sun Dance” performance that transformed his life. Curtis committed himself to creating an artistic photographic record of more than 80 different Native American tribes, whose culture was being decimated. His vision was to merge documentary and aesthetic practices in a monumental project he called The North American Indian , which would contain 20 volumes of text, copiously illustrated with small-format photogravures. Subsequently he developed a supplementary set of 20 portfolios containing hundreds of large-format photogravure plates. Curtis traveled extensively throughout the continental U.S. and Alaska and lived among Native peoples, which allowed him special access to document rituals and objects that inhabited this expansive region. His challenge was to secure the funds to produce The North American Indian . He gained national exposure through exhibitions in Seattle and eventually toured the country, delivering lectures. Theodore Roosevelt was an early supporter and admirer of his photographs, but it was J.P. Morgan who promised the financial support for Curtis’s fieldwork. Despite suffering numerous personal hardships, Curtis completed the publication, which spanned 1907-30. With immense cost and effort, he maintained a high standard of production value. Each volume is luxuriously bound in morocco, with photogravures. His ambitious project is an unprecedented visual record of thousands of beautiful images depicting the majesty of Native American culture. EDWARD S. CURTIS