Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952)
Author of The North American Indian: The Complete Portfolios
About the Author
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) moved to Seattle in 1891. Convinced he was witnessing an irreversible loss of Native American culture, he began a series of journeys across the West to photograph members of various tribes. Between 1896 and 1930, Curtis visited and photographed every major Native show more American tribe -- 80 in all -- west of the Mississippi show less
Image credit: Museum of Natural History, New York, New York (Wikimedia Commons)
Series
Works by Edward S. Curtis
The North American Indian: The Complete Portfolios (1997) — Author; Photographer — 641 copies, 8 reviews
Prayer to the Great Mystery: The Uncollected Writings and Photography of Edward S. Curtis (1995) 40 copies
Edward S. Curtis Portraits: The Many Faces of the Native American (2009) — Photographer — 38 copies, 1 review
The Sioux and the Apsaroke: From volumes three and four of The North American Indian (Harper colophon books ; CN 380) (1975) 9 copies
Los Guerreros de la danza del sol : el indio norteamericano volumen IV / Edward S. Curtis ; traducción de Maru Villavicencio (1993) 8 copies
The North American Indian: Volume Seven: The Yakima, Klickitat, Salish Tribes, and Kutenai (2015) 7 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 6 (1998) 6 copies
The North American Indian: Volume Nine: The Coast Salish Tribes, Chimakum, Quilliute, and Willapa (2022) 6 copies
The North American Indian: Volume Thirteen: The Hupa, Yurok, Karok, Wiyot, Tolowa, Tutuni, Shasta, Acomawi, and Klamath (2022) 5 copies
The North American Indian: Volume Eight: The Nez Perces, Wallawalla, Umatilla, Cayuse, and Chinookan Tribes (2022) 5 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 17 (2022) 4 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 14 (1997) 4 copies, 1 review
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 20 (2015) 4 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 11 (2022) 4 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 3 (2022) 4 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 2 (2022) 4 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 19 (2022) 3 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 5 (2022) 3 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 16 (2022) 3 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 18 (2022) 3 copies
The North American Indian, being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, vol. 15 (2022) 3 copies
Buffalo Dance at Hano, Hopi, 1921 2 copies
Edward Sheriff Curtis : the North American Indian : exhibition in the Göttinger State and University Library (2004) 2 copies
Head Dress--Atsina 1 copy
Snake priest 1 copy
Edward Sheriff Curtis, der Schattenfänger : das Bild der Indianer Nordamerikas 1900 bis 1930 — Photographer — 1 copy
New Chest--Piegan 1 copy
Native Nations Volumes I-IV (Chiefs & Warriors, Native Family, Great Plains & Hidden Faces) (1996) 1 copy
Acoma Street Scene 1 copy
On the House Top, Hopi, 1906 1 copy
[Day dreams--Piegan] 1 copy
A Hopi Man, 1921 1 copy
Associated Works
Photographers of the frontier West; their lives and works, 1875 to 1915 (1965) — Photographer — 22 copies
American Masters: Coming to Light : Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians [2000 TV episode] (2000) — Self — 6 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Summer 2011 (2011) — Photographer "Soul of the Warrior" — 3 copies
Stemmen uit de eeuwige jachtvelden : zolang het gras groeit ... — Photographer — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Curtis, Edward S.
- Legal name
- Curtis, Edward Sheriff
- Birthdate
- 1868-02-16
- Date of death
- 1952-10-18
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- photographer
- Awards and honors
- International Photography Hall of Fame (2017)
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA
- Places of residence
- Whittier, California, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA
Le Sueur, Minnesota, USA
Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA - Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, USA
- Burial location
- Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
I picked this up in B&N bargain pile because it looked like an interesting photography book. While the photos were beautiful, Curtis's original explanations that accompany some of them are such a product of their time that I found many of them distasteful. The introduction helped frame the project and gave some clue as to its importance, but for a modern edition I don't think it went far enough to mitigate the exploitative nature of Curtis's work.
Controversial though it is -- because some of the photos are posed, because it's not "proper" ethnography, because of the author's attitudes -- this is still a unique document of a world that has disappeared. And a stunning collection of photographs. Beyond the "exoticism" and beyond the documentary value, this is a book of portraits of beautiful people.
Although we know that Edward S. Curtis had no qualms about staging scenes and manipulating his subjects in order to tell his special story (a noble race of people who were rapidly riding down the trail of oblivion), it is impossible to view these photos without becoming fascinated and, ultimately, taken in. In part, this is because of Curtis’ technical skill. A photographic devotee from his teenage years, Curtis was a master of the photogravure method, and his choice of sepia matched show more perfectly the elegiac nature of his project. The book itself is a handsome production, something of a composite of other publications in the “native nations” series. My favorite pictures are of the masks. These startling creations tend to resist the romanticizing element in much of Curtis’ work. They give the viewer a striking sense of the “otherness” of native culture. These images are more comprehensively collected in another volume of the series titled Hidden Faces. show less
A magnificent collection of Edward S. Curtis' photographs of American Indians from around the turn of the century (20th), chosen from over 2500 photographs. The pictures are stunning, evocative, and of amazing technical quality. There is a brief introduction explaining Curtis' mission and the production of the book, with a legend that annotates each of the photographs, in Edward Curtis' own words, many taken from his field records.
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 103
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 2,300
- Popularity
- #11,168
- Rating
- 4.3
- Reviews
- 22
- ISBNs
- 177
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 2
