Born Whitewater, WI 1868; Died Los Angeles, CA 1952

Edward Sheriff Curtis became one of America's finest photographers and ethnologists. Beginning in 1896 and ending in 1930, Curtis photographed and documented every major Native American tribe west of the Mississippi, taking over 40,000 negatives of eighty tribes.  For thirty years, he devoted his life to an odyssey of photographing and documenting the lives and traditions of the Native people of North America.  His photographs had an immense impact on the national imagination and continue to shape the way we see Native life and culture. 

In 1895 Curtis began his Indian photography, and ‘Princess Angeline', daughter of Chief Seattle, was one of his first subjects.  The work won him a high award in a photographic contest.  His reputation as a photographer was growing.  He invented gold and silver processes, which later became known as ‘goldtones' and ‘silver tints'.

Having become well known for his work with the Indians, Curtis participated in the famous 1899 Harriman expedition to Alaska as one of two official photographers.  This was the last great 19^th century survey to ascertain the economic potential of America's frontier.  In 1898 while photographing on Mt. Rainier, Curtis encountered a group of prominent scientists who were lost, among them George Bird Grinnell, a noted Indian expert who became interested in Curtis' work and invited him to photograph the Blackfeet Indian people in Montana two years later.  It was there that Curtis practiced and developed his photographic skills and project methodology that would guide his lifetime of work among the other Indian Tribes.  Grinnell was instrumental in instructing Curtis on systematic methods required for gathering scientifically valid information.

1901 marked the formal beginning of Curtis' then self and family financed project to study all of the North American Indian tribes.  A project as massive as his is almost incomprehensible in this day and age.  In addition to the constant struggle for financing, Curtis required the cooperation of the weather, vehicles, mechanical equipment, skilled technicians, scholars and researchers and the Indian tribes as well.  He dispatched assistants, led by W. E. Myers, to make tribal visits months in advance.  With the proper arrangements Curtis would travel by horseback or horse drawn wagon over paths or primitive "roads" to visit the tribes in their home territory.  Once on site Curtis and his assistants would start work by interviewing the people and then photographing them outside, in a structure, or inside his studio tent with an adjustable skylight.

Edward S. Curtis devoted the next three decades to photographing and documenting over eighty tribes west of the Mississippi, from the Mexican border to northern Alaska.  The "Shadow Catcher", as he was later called by some of the tribes, took over 40,000 images and recorded rare ethnographic information from over eighty American Indian tribal groups, ranging from the Eskimo or Inuit people of the far north to the Hopi people of the Southwest.  He captured the likeness of many important and well-known Indian people of that time, including Geronimo, Chief Joseph, Red Cloud, Medicine Crow and others.  His project won support from such prominent and powerful figures as President Theodore Roosevelt and J. Pierpoint Morgan.

In 1906, at President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade, Curtis was asked by Roosevelt to photograph Geronimo and five other Native American chiefs on the lawn of the White House.  Roosevelt was to become one of Curtis' most ardent supporters, and the foreword to "The North American Indian" was written by Roosevelt.  Upon its completion in 1930, the work consisted of 20 volumes, each containing 75 hand-pressed photogravures and 300 pages of text.  A corresponding portfolio containing at least 36 photogravures accompanied each volume.

Curtis took over 40,000 images from over 80 tribes, recorded tribal mythologies and history, and described tribal population, traditional foods, dwellings, clothing, games, ceremonies, burial customs, biographical sketches and other primary source information: all from a living as well as past tradition - he presented his subjects in a traditional way whenever possible and even supplied a bit of the proper clothing when his subjects had none.  Reenactments of battles, moving camp, ceremonies and other past activities were also photographed.

Curtis' work is not without its critics, and some dismiss him as a romantic. He went to great lengths to reconstruct the past, with the intent of capturing the essence of Native Americans and their traditional culture, though not necessarily their circumstances in 1900.  Perhaps his most important legacy is his expression of an extraordinary sympathy with the personal and spiritual lives of the American Indian.  In this respect Edward S. Curtis stands alone among the photographers of Native Americans.

With the publication of volume twenty in 1930, the years of struggle finally took their toll with Curtis suffering a physical and nervous breakdown.  The declining interest in the American Indian, the Great Depression, and other negative forces slowed, then halted the successful financial completion of the project.  Less than 300 sets of "The Northern American Indian" were sold.  Curtis spent the remaining years of his life with his daughter Beth and her husband in Los Angeles.  On October 21, 1952 at the age of 84, E. S. Curtis, virtually unknown, died of a heart attack in Los Angeles.

Browse our collection of Edward S Curtis' photographs.