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60-544: Edward Sheriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952, sometimes given as Edward Sherriff Curtis ) was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American people. Sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Catcher", Curtis traveled the United States to document and record the dwindling ways of life of various native tribes through photographs and audio recordings. Curtis

120-627: A feature film depicting Native American life, partly as a way of improving his financial situation and partly because film technology had improved to the point where it was conceivable to create and screen films more than a few minutes long. Curtis chose the Kwakiutl tribe, of the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia , Canada, for his subject. His film, In the Land of

180-462: A friend of the family. She made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the studio with Curtis's daughter Beth in 1916, the year of Curtis's divorce, and left to open her own studio. Around 1922, Curtis moved to Los Angeles with Beth and opened a new photo studio. To earn money he worked as an assistant cameraman for Cecil B. DeMille and was an uncredited assistant cameraman in the 1923 filming of The Ten Commandments . On October 16, 1924, Curtis sold

240-566: A limited view of history as constituted by accumulative growth. Lévi-Strauss often referred to Montaigne 's essay on cannibalism as an early example of ethnology. Lévi-Strauss aimed, through a structural method, at discovering universal invariants in human society, chief among which he believed to be the incest taboo. However, the claims of such cultural universalism have been criticized by various 19th- and 20th-century social thinkers, including Marx, Nietzsche , Foucault , Derrida , Althusser , and Deleuze . The French school of ethnology

300-710: A photographer. The entire 20 volumes of narrative text and photogravure images for each volume are online. Each volume is accompanied by a portfolio of large photogravure plates. The online publishing was supported largely by funds from the Institute for Museum and Library Services . The Prints and Photographs Division Curtis collection consists of more than 2,400 silver-gelatin , first-generation photographic prints – some of which are sepia-toned – made from Curtis's original glass negatives . Most are 5 by 7 inches (13 cm × 18 cm) although nearly 100 are 11 by 14 inches (28 cm × 36 cm) and larger; many include

360-517: A precursor in visual anthropology , Harald E.L. Prins reviewed his oeuvre in the journal American Anthropologist and noted: "Appealing to his society's infatuation with romantic primitivism, Curtis portrayed American Indians to conform to the cultural archetype of the " vanishing Indian ". Elaborated since the 1820s, this ideological construct effectively captured the ambivalent racism of Anglo-American society, which repressed Native spirituality and traditional customs while creating cultural space for

420-477: A small group of scientists who were lost and in need of direction. One of them was George Bird Grinnell , considered an "expert" on Native Americans by his peers. Curtis was appointed the official photographer of the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899, probably as a result of his friendship with Grinnell. Having very little formal education Curtis learned much during the lectures that were given aboard

480-515: Is sometimes conceived of as any comparative study of human groups. The 15th-century exploration of America by European explorers had an important role in formulating new notions of the Occident (the Western world ), such as the notion of the " Other ". This term was used in conjunction with "savages", which was either seen as a brutal barbarian, or alternatively, as the " noble savage ". Thus, civilization

540-494: Is truthful. ... because of his extraordinary success in making and using his opportunities, has been able to do what no other man ever has done; what, as far as we can see, no other man could do. Mr. Curtis in publishing this book is rendering a real and great service; a service not only to our own people, but to the world of scholarship everywhere. Curtis has been praised as a gifted photographer but also criticized by some contemporary ethnologists for manipulating his images. Although

600-835: The American Journal of Physical Anthropology . Hodge was chosen to be the director of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles . He also served as executive officer at the Smithsonian Institution . There he was chairman of the Committee of Editorial Management and the Committee dealing with the Linguistic Families North of Mexico. He was a member of the Committee on Archaeological Nomenclature,

660-840: The Heye Foundation to support archeological work. Heye founded the Museum of the American Indian in 1916 in New York, where Hodge later served as editor and assistant director. During his time at the Smithsonian, Hodge also conducted archeological expeditions and excavations at Nacoochee Mound in Georgia, and at Hawikuh , near Zuni Pueblo . Frederick Webb Hodge was born in 1864 in Plymouth , England to Edwin and Emily (née Webb) Hodge. His parents immigrated to Washington, D.C. , United States when Frederick

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720-484: The Museum of the American Indian , founded in 1916 by George Gustav Heye , and his Heye Foundation . In 1915, accompanied by Heye, the museum's director, and staff member George H. Pepper , Hodge undertook archeological excavations at the Nacoochee Mound near Helen, Georgia . These three men published a report on the mound excavations in 1918. It was the first scientific excavation in the state. The museum opened to

780-429: The Smithsonian Institution , was hired to edit the series, based on his experience researching and documenting Native American people and culture in the southwestern United States. Eventually, 222 complete sets of photographs were published. Curtis's goal was to document Native American life, pre-colonization. He wrote in the introduction to his first volume in 1907, "The information that is to be gathered ... respecting

840-594: The Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University. These include recordings of music of the following Native American groups: Clayoquot, Cowichan, Haida, Hesquiat, and Kwakiutl, in British Columbia; and Arapaho, Cheyenne, Cochiti, Crow, Klikitat, Kutenai, Nez Percé, Salish, Shoshoni, Snohomish, Wishram, Yakima, Acoma, Arikara, Hidatsa, Makah, Mandan, Paloos, Piegan, Tewa (San Ildefonso, San Juan, Tesuque, Nambé), and possibly Dakota, Clallam, Twana, Colville and Nespelim in

900-669: The Civil War, Johnson Curtis had difficulty in managing his farm, resulting in hardship and poverty for his family. Around 1874, the family moved from Wisconsin to Minnesota to join Johnson Curtis's father, Asahel Curtis, who ran a grocery store and was a postmaster in Le Sueur County . Curtis left school in the sixth grade and soon built his own camera. In 1885, at 17, Curtis became an apprentice photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota . In 1887

960-648: The Curtis file or negative number in the lower left-hand corner of the image. The Library of Congress acquired these images as copyright deposits from about 1900 through 1930. The dates on them are dates of registration, not the dates when the photographs were taken. About two-thirds (1,608) of these images were not published in The North American Indian and therefore offer a different glimpse into Curtis's work with indigenous cultures. The original glass plate negatives, which had been stored and nearly forgotten in

1020-693: The Head Hunters , was the first feature-length film whose cast was composed entirely of Native North Americans. In the Land of the Head-Hunters premiered simultaneously at the Casino Theatre in New York and the Moore Theatre in Seattle on December 7, 1914. The silent film was accompanied by a score composed by John J. Braham , a musical theater composer who had also worked with Gilbert and Sullivan . The film

1080-562: The Morgan estate sold the rights to The North American Indian and remaining unpublished material to the Charles E. Lauriat Company in Boston for $ 1,000 plus a percentage of any future royalties. This included 19 complete bound sets of The North American Indian , thousands of individual paper prints, the copper printing plates, the unbound printed pages, and the original glass-plate negatives. Lauriat bound

1140-517: The age of seven with his family to Washington, DC. He was educated at American schools, and graduated from Cambridge College (now George Washington University ). He became very interested in Native American history and cultures, and worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1905 to 1918. He collaborated with George Gustav Heye , who had been collecting Native American artifacts, and established

1200-478: The basement of the Morgan Library , in New York, were dispersed during World War II . Many others were destroyed and some were sold as junk. Around 1970, David Padwa, of Santa Fe, New Mexico , went to Boston to search for Curtis's original copper plates and photogravures at the Charles E. Lauriat rare bookstore. He discovered almost 285,000 original photogravures as well as all the copper plates and purchased

1260-551: The daughter of Chief Sealth of Seattle . This was his first portrait of a Native American. In 1898, three of Curtis's images were chosen for an exhibition sponsored by the National Photographic Society . Two were images of Princess Angeline, "The Mussel Gatherer" and "The Clam Digger". The other was of Puget Sound, entitled "Homeward", which was awarded the exhibition's grand prize and a gold medal. In that same year, while photographing Mount Rainier , Curtis came upon

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1320-779: The divorce, the two oldest daughters, Beth and Florence, remained in Seattle, living in a boarding house separate from their mother. The youngest daughter, Katherine, lived with Clara in Charleston, Kitsap County, Washington . On October 19, 1952, at the age of 84, Curtis died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, in the home of his daughter Beth. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California . A brief obituary appeared in The New York Times on October 20, 1952: Edward S. Curtis, internationally known authority on

1380-502: The early twentieth century was a difficult time for most Native communities in America, not all natives were doomed to becoming a "vanishing race." At a time when natives' rights were being denied and their treaties were unrecognized by the federal government, many natives were successfully adapting to Western society. By reinforcing the native identity as the noble savage and a tragic vanishing race, some believe Curtis deflected attention from

1440-448: The entire collection which he then shared with Jack Loeffler and Karl Kernberger. They jointly disposed of the surviving Curtis material that was owned by Charles Emelius Lauriat (1874–1937). The collection was later purchased by another group of investors led by Mark Zaplin, of Santa Fe. The Zaplin Group owned the plates until 1982, when they sold them to a California group led by Kenneth Zerbe,

1500-559: The entire family moved to a new house in Seattle . The household then included Curtis's mother, Ellen Sheriff; his sister, Eva Curtis; his brother, Asahel Curtis ; Clara's sisters, Susie and Nellie Phillips; and their cousin, William. During the years of work on The North American Indian , Curtis was often absent from home for most of the year, leaving Clara to manage the children and the studio by herself. After several years of estrangement, Clara filed for divorce on October 16, 1916. In 1919 she

1560-485: The family moved to Seattle , Washington, where he purchased a new camera and became a partner with Rasmus Rothi in an existing photographic studio. Curtis paid $ 150 for his 50% share in the studio. After about six months, he left Rothi and formed a new partnership with Thomas Guptill. They established a new studio, Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers. In 1895, Curtis met and photographed Princess Angeline ( c.  1820 –1896), also known as Kickisomlo,

1620-540: The full Curtis opus N. Scott Momaday wrote, "Taken as a whole, the work of Edward S. Curtis is a singular achievement. Never before have we seen the Indians of North America so close to the origins of their humanity ... Curtis' photographs comprehend indispensable images of every human being at every time in every place" In Shadow Catcher: The Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis , Laurie Lawlor commented that "many Native Americans Curtis photographed called him Shadow Catcher. But

1680-511: The gradual retreat of the Ottoman Empire in the more distant Balkans . Among the goals of ethnology have been the reconstruction of human history , and the formulation of cultural invariants , such as the incest taboo and culture change, and the formulation of generalizations about " human nature ", a concept which has been criticized since the 19th century by various philosophers ( Hegel , Marx , structuralism , etc.). In some parts of

1740-464: The history of the North American Indian, died today at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Beth Magnuson. His age was 84. Mr. Curtis devoted his life to compiling Indian history. His research was done under the patronage of the late financier, J. Pierpont Morgan . The foreward [sic] for the monumental set of Curtis books was written by President Theodore Roosevelt . Mr. Curtis was also widely known as

1800-495: The images he captured were far more powerful than mere shadows. The men, women, and children in The North American Indian seem as alive to us today as they did when Curtis took their pictures in the early part of the twentieth century. Curtis respected the Native Americans he encountered and was willing to learn about their culture, religion and way of life. In return the Native Americans respected and trusted him. When judged by

1860-560: The invented Indian of romantic imagination. [Since the 1960s,] Curtis's sepia-toned photographs (in which material evidence of Western civilization has often been erased) had special appeal for this 'Red Power' movement and even helped inspire it." Major exhibitions of his photographs were presented at the Morgan Library & Museum (1971), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1972), and the University of California, Irvine (1976). His work

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1920-461: The mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost." Curtis made over 10,000 wax cylinder recordings of Native American language and music. He took over 40,000 photographic images of members of over 80 tribes. He recorded tribal lore and history, described traditional foods, housing, garments, recreation, ceremonies, and funeral customs. He wrote biographical sketches of tribal leaders. His work

1980-425: The museum, describes them as: ... Curtis' most carefully selected prints of what was then his life's work ... certainly these are some of the most glorious prints ever made in the history of the photographic medium. The fact that we have this man's entire show of 1906 is one of the minor miracles of photography and museology. Two hundred seventy-six of the wax cylinders made by Curtis between 1907 and 1913 are held by

2040-433: The origins, languages, customs, and institutions of various nations, and finally into the fatherland and ancient seats, in order to be able better to judge the nations and peoples in their own times." Kollár's interest in linguistic and cultural diversity was aroused by the situation in his native multi-ethnic and multilingual Kingdom of Hungary and his roots among its Slovaks , and by the shifts that began to emerge after

2100-662: The owner of the plates as of 2005. Other glass and nitrate negatives from this set are at the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives in Santa Fe, New Mexico). Charles Goddard Weld purchased 110 prints that Curtis had made for his 1905–06 exhibit and donated them to the Peabody Essex Museum , where they remain. The 14" by 17" prints are each unique and remain in pristine condition. Clark Worswick, curator of photography for

2160-451: The project, he hired several employees to help him. For writing and for recording Native American languages, he hired a former journalist, William E. Myers. For general assistance with logistics and fieldwork, he hired Bill Phillips, a graduate of the University of Washington and Alexander B. Upshaw a member of the Absaroke tribe (‘Crow’). Frederick Webb Hodge , an anthropologist employed by

2220-511: The public in 1922. Hodge directed excavations of the ruins of Hawikuh , near Zuni Pueblo , during the period 1917–23, with what was known as the Hendricks -Hodge Expedition. He researched and reported on the interactions of these aborigines with the Spanish conquerors, travelers and priests since 1539, when Estevanico and Spanish Franciscan friars had intended to set up a mission here. He founded

2280-747: The remaining loose printed pages and sold them with the completed sets. The remaining material remained untouched in the Lauriat basement in Boston until they were rediscovered in 1972. In 1892, Curtis married Clara J. Phillips (1874–1932), who was born in Pennsylvania . Her parents were from Canada. Together they had four children: Harold (1893–1988); Elizabeth M. (Beth) (1896–1973), who married Manford E. Magnuson (1895–1993); Florence (1899–1987), who married Henry Graybill (1893–?); and Katherine Shirley ("Billy") (1909–1982), who married Ray Conger Ingram (1900–1954). In 1896,

2340-465: The rights to his ethnographic motion picture In the Land of the Head-Hunters to the American Museum of Natural History . He was paid $ 1,500 for the master print and the original camera negative. It had cost him over $ 20,000 to create the film. In 1927, after returning from Alaska to Seattle with Beth, Curtis was arrested for failure to pay alimony over the preceding seven years. The total owed

2400-544: The ship each evening of the voyage. Grinnell became interested in Curtis's photography and invited him to join an expedition to photograph people of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Montana in 1900. In 1906, after seeking an introduction through Belle de Costa Greene , and with her approval, J. P. Morgan provided Curtis with $ 75,000 (equivalent to over $ 2.5 million in 2024) to produce a series on Native Americans. This work

2460-456: The standards of his time, Curtis was far ahead of his contemporaries in sensitivity, tolerance, and openness to Native American cultures and ways of thinking." Theodore Roosevelt, a contemporary of Curtis's and one of his most fervent supporters, wrote the following comments in the foreword to Volume 1 of The North American Indian : In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer, whose work has far more than mere accuracy, because it

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2520-531: The study of single groups through direct contact with the culture, ethnology takes the research that ethnographers have compiled and then compares and contrasts different cultures. The term ethnologia ( ethnology ) is credited to Adam Franz Kollár (1718–1783) who used and defined it in his Historiae ivrisqve pvblici Regni Vngariae amoenitates published in Vienna in 1783. as: "the science of nations and peoples, or, that study of learned men in which they inquire into

2580-476: The text's conclusions, have begun to appreciate the value of the project's achievement: exhibitions have been mounted, anthologies of pictures have been published, and The North American Indian has increasingly been cited in the researches of others ... The North American Indian is not monolithic or merely a monument. It is alive, it speaks, if with several voices, and among those perhaps mingled voices are those of otherwise silent or muted Indian individuals." Of

2640-402: The true plight of American natives. At the time when he was witnessing their squalid conditions on reservations first-hand, some were attempting to find their place in and adapt to mainstream U.S. culture and its economy, while others were actively resisting it. In his photogravure In a Piegan Lodge , published in The North American Indian , Curtis retouched the image to remove a clock between

2700-629: The two men seated on the ground. He is also known to have paid natives to pose in staged scenes or dance and partake in simulated ceremonies. His models were paid in silver dollars, beef and autographed photos. For instance, one of his first subjects, Princess Angeline , was paid a dollar a photo. Curtis paid natives to pose at a time when they lived with little dignity and enjoyed few rights and freedoms. It has been suggested that he altered and manipulated his pictures to create an ethnographic, romanticized simulation of native tribes untouched by Western society. Ethnology Compared to ethnography ,

2760-538: The western United States. Toppan Rare Books Library at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, holds the entire 20 volume set of narrative texts and photogravure images that make up The North American Indian . Each volume of text is accompanied by a portfolio of large photogravure plates. Though Curtis was largely forgotten at the time of his death, interest in his work revived and continues to this day. Casting him as

2820-561: The world, ethnology has developed along independent paths of investigation and pedagogical doctrine, with cultural anthropology becoming dominant especially in the United States , and social anthropology in Great Britain . The distinction between the three terms is increasingly blurry. Ethnology has been considered an academic field since the late 18th century, especially in Europe and

2880-494: Was $ 4,500, but the charges were dropped. For Christmas of 1927, the family was reunited at the home of his daughter Florence in Medford, Oregon . This was the first time since the divorce that Curtis was with all of his children at the same time, and it had been 13 years since he had seen Katherine. In 1928, desperate for cash, Curtis sold the rights to his project to J. P. Morgan Jr . The concluding volume of The North American Indian

2940-440: Was also featured in several anthologies on Native American photography published in the early 1970s. Original printings of The North American Indian began to fetch high prices at auction. In 1972, a complete set sold for $ 20,000. Five years later, another set was auctioned for $ 60,500. The revival of interest in Curtis's work can be seen as part of the increased attention to Native American issues during this period. In 2017 Curtis

3000-558: Was born on February 19, 1868, on a farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin . His father, the Reverend Asahel "Johnson" Curtis (1840–1887), was a minister , farmer, and American Civil War veteran born in Ohio . His mother, Ellen Sheriff (1844–1912), was born in Pennsylvania . Curtis's siblings were Raphael (1862 – c.  1885 ), also called Ray; Edward, called Eddy; Eva (1870–?); and Asahel Curtis (1874–1941). Weakened by his experiences in

3060-562: Was exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles festival in France in 1973. Curtis had been using motion picture cameras in fieldwork for The North American Indian since 1906. He worked extensively with the ethnographer and British Columbia native George Hunt in 1910, which inspired his work with the Kwakiutl , but much of their collaboration remains unpublished. At the end of 1912, Curtis decided to create

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3120-473: Was granted the divorce and received Curtis's photographic studio and all of his original camera negatives as her part of the settlement. Curtis and his daughter Beth went to the studio and destroyed all of his original glass negatives , rather than have them become the property of his ex-wife. Clara went on to manage the Curtis studio with her sister Nellie (1880–?), who was married to Martin Lucus (1880–?). Following

3180-703: Was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum . A representative evaluation of The North American Indian is that of Mick Gidley, Emeritus Professor of American Literature , at Leeds University , in England, who has written a number of works related to the life of Curtis: " The North American Indian —extensively produced and issued in a severely limited edition—could not prove popular. But in recent years anthropologists and others, even when they have censured what they have assumed were Curtis' methodological assumptions or quarrelled with

3240-546: Was married to expedition leader Frank Hamilton Cushing . By 1901 Hodge worked as executive assistant in charge of International Exchanges at the Smithsonian Institution . In 1905 he transferred to the Bureau of American Ethnology , now part of the Smithsonian, where he worked on topics in anthropology and Native American culture until February 28, 1918. Hodge was the editor for Edward S. Curtis 's monumental photography series, The North American Indian . Hodge moved to New York City to serve as editor and assistant director at

3300-403: Was opposed in a dualist manner to barbary , a classic opposition constitutive of the even more commonly shared ethnocentrism . The progress of ethnology, for example with Claude Lévi-Strauss 's structural anthropology , led to the criticism of conceptions of a linear progress , or the pseudo-opposition between "societies with histories" and "societies without histories", judged too dependent on

3360-475: Was particularly significant for the development of the discipline, since the early 1950s. Important figures in this movement have included Lévi-Strauss, Paul Rivet , Marcel Griaule , Germaine Dieterlen , and Jean Rouch . See: List of scholars of ethnology Frederick Webb Hodge Frederick Webb Hodge (October 28, 1864 – September 28, 1956) was an American editor, anthropologist , archaeologist , and historian . Born in England, he immigrated at

3420-420: Was praised by critics but made only $ 3,269.18 (around $ 99 thousand in 2024) in its initial run. It was however criticized by ethnographic community due to its lack of authenticity. The Indians were not only dressed up by the movie director himself but the plot was enriched with exaggerated elements falsifying the reality. The photographer Ella E. McBride assisted Curtis in his studio beginning in 1907 and became

3480-504: Was published in 1930. In total, about 280 sets were sold of his now completed magnum opus . In 1930, his ex-wife, Clara, was still living in Seattle operating the photo studio with their daughter Katherine. His other daughter, Florence Curtis, was still living in Medford, Oregon, with her husband, Henry Graybill. After Clara died of heart failure in 1932, his daughter Katherine moved to California to be closer to her father and Beth. In 1935,

3540-567: Was seven years old. He attended local schools and then studied at Cambridge College (now George Washington University ). He was associated with Columbia University and the U.S. Geological Survey . Hodge began working in archeology early in his career. He participated in part of the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition (1886–1894). There he met Margaret Magill, and they later married. She had accompanied her sister, Emily Tennison Magill Cushing, who

3600-438: Was to be in 20 volumes with 1,500 photographs. Morgan's funds were to be disbursed over five years and were earmarked to support only fieldwork for the books, not for writing, editing, or production of the volumes. Curtis received no salary for the project, which was to last more than 20 years. Under the terms of the arrangement, Morgan was to receive 25 sets and 500 original prints as repayment. Once Curtis had secured funding for

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