In the early 1900s, photographer Edward S. Curtis embarked on an ambitious project to document the lives of Native Americans outside of Western society. His tour of the United States culminated in a 20-volume North American Indians series of nearly 2,000 photographs.
Recently, over a hundred years later, Volume 1 was published, and we have the opportunity to look at portraits of Native Americans from the early 1900s.
The Hopi are an Indian people living on an area of 12,635 sq. Km. on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. According to the 2000 All-American Census, the population of the Hopi reservation was 6,946. Photo of 1905. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Left - a representative of the Mojave tribe, currently living on two reservations on the Colorado River. Dressed in rabbit skin clothes, 1907. On the right is a representative of the Yakima tribe, 1910. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Navajo Indians, 1904. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
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Apache is a collective name for several culturally related tribes of North American Indians. The Apaches were like ninjas in America. Photo of 1906. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
An Indian from a tribe in northwest Alaska, 1929. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Men of the Navajo tribe. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Many people like Native American names. I like them for their imagery, beauty and meaning. Left - Black Hair, right - Red Cloud, 1905. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Right - Sitting Owl, left - a girl from an ancient Indian settlement located near the city of Taos in the US state of New Mexico, 1905. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Indians are the common name for the native population of America. According to data at the beginning of the XXI century, their total number exceeds 60 million people. Photo of 1908. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
According to genetic studies at the University of Michigan, the ancestors of modern Indians and Eskimos moved to America from northeast Asia through the so-called "Beringian Bridge" - an ancient wide isthmus between America and Asia on the site of the current Bering Strait, which disappeared more than 12 thousand years ago.
Indians in extravagant ritual fur garments, 1914. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
An international group of researchers, which included employees of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the SB RAS, came to the conclusion that Altai should be considered the genetic homeland of the first Americans. Approximately 20-25 thousand years ago from there, apparently, the ancestors of the Indians came out, settled in Siberia and eventually reached America. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
About 400 Indian tribes lived in North America. They all spoke different languages and did not have a written language. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
The economy of the Indians was dictated by the conditions of the climate and the area where they lived, as well as the level of their development. The Indians were engaged in hunting, gathering, and the sedentary tribes, moreover, were engaged in agriculture. In the northern regions, the Indians hunted sea animals. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
With the advent of Europeans on the continent, the Indians had horses and firearms, which made hunting for bison easier and faster. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Guests travel to an Indian wedding, California, 1914. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Among the Indians of Central America, myths about the origin of fire and the origin of people and animals occupied the main place in mythology. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Left - Long-Eared Ben (1905), right - a medic from their Navajo tribe (1904). (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
North American Indians, as a source of images, strongly influenced the romantic direction in literature and cinema. Thanks to fiction books and films about them, the average European knows much more about Indians than about similar tribes in Africa, Asia, Oceania. (Photo by Library of Congress | Edward S. Curtis):
Edward Sheriff Curtis (born February 16, 1868, near Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA - October 19, 1952) is an American photographer. The unique collection of photographs of the Wild West and Indians created by Curtis includes several thousand images. Most of the images were purchased by the Library of Congress, some are in private collections.
Curtis's father was a priest and veteran of the American Civil War, and his mother's parents were from England.
Around 1874, the family moved from Wisconsin to Minnesota, where Curtis made his own camera. In 1880 the family moved again, this time to Cordoba, Minnesota, where my father worked as a greengrocer.
In 1885, at the age of 17, Curtis became an apprentice photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1887, the family moved to Seattle, where Edward bought a new camera and partnered with Rasmus Rothi's existing photography studio, paying $ 150 for a 50% stake in the venture. After about six months, Curtis parted ways with Rowty and formed a partnership with Thomas Guptill.
In 1892, Edward married Clara J. Phillips (1874-1932), a native of Pennsylvania. Her parents were from Canada. Four children were born in the marriage: Harold (1893-?), Elizabeth (1896-1973), Florence (1899-1987) and Catherine (1909-?).
In 1895, Curtis photographed Kikisomlo (circa 1800-1896), daughter of the Chief of Seattle, better known to the townspeople of Seattle by the nickname Princess Angelina. This was the first of his photographs of an Indian theme. In 1898, while photographing Mount Rainier, Curtis met a group of researchers, one of whom was the famous naturalist and Indianist George Bird Grinnell. Grinnell became interested in Curtis photography and invited him to join an expedition to photograph the Picani tribe in Montana in 1900.
In 1906, John Pierpont Morgan offered Curtis $ 75,000 to create a series of portraits of North American Indians. It was planned to prepare a 20-volume edition containing about 1,500 photographs. Morgan was to receive 25 sets and 500 original photographs in return for his expenses. A total of 222 sets were published. Curtis's goal, as he wrote in the introduction to Volume 1, was not only to take photographs, but to document as fully as possible the daily life of the American Indian before it disappeared.
Curtis has taken over 40,000 photographs in over 80 tribes. In addition to photographs, Curtis recorded samples of Indian speech and music on more than 10,000 wax cylinders, collected local legends and traditions, described in his notes the traditional Indian food, their homes, clothing, leisure and funeral rites. He also compiled biographical sketches of tribal leaders, and his material is in many cases the only written source on the history of the respective tribe before the beginning of the 20th century.
On October 16, 1916, Curtis' wife, Clara, filed for divorce, which was granted in 1919. According to the court's decision, Clara received Curtis's photo studio and all the originals of his negatives as partial reimbursement for her claim. Then Edward Curtis, along with his daughter Beth, went to the studio and destroyed all the glass negatives, not wanting them to go to his ex-wife. Clara later ran Curtis' studio with her sister Mellie Phillips (1880-?).
Around 1922, Curtis moved to Los Angeles with his daughter Beth, where he founded a new photography studio. To earn money, he worked as an assistant cameraman Cecil de Mille, participated in the filming of 1923 "The Ten Commandments." On October 16, 1924, Curtis sold the rights to his ethnographic film In the Country of Bounty Hunters to the American Museum of Natural History for $ 1,500, although the film cost him $ 20,000.
In 1927, after returning to Seattle from a trip to Alaska with his daughter Beth, Curtis was arrested for not paying child support over the past 7 years. The total amount owed was $ 4,500, but over time the amount of claims was reduced. Christmas 1927, for the first time since the divorce, the whole family - Curtis, ex-wife and all children - spent together at the home of her daughter Florence in Medford, Oregon.
In 1928, in need of money, Curtis sold all the rights to his project to Morgan Jr. In 1930, he published the closing volume of the North American Indian album series. A total of 280 complete album sets have been sold.
In 1932, his ex-wife Clara, who continued to run a photo studio until the end of her days, drowned while sailing on a boat in Puget Sound, and his daughter Catherine moved to California to live closer to her father and sister Beth.
In 1935, the rights to the album and the remaining unpublished material were sold by the Morgan home to the Charles E. Lauriat Company in Boston for $ 1,000 plus interest on future sales. The sale included 19 bound sets of The North American Indian album, thousands of photo prints, unbound printed pages, and original glass negatives. In turn, Loriath bound the remaining unpublished pages and sold them along with sets of albums. Other materials remained intact in Loriath's house, where they were accidentally discovered in 1972.
On October 19, 1952, at the age of 84, Curtis died of a heart attack at the home of his daughter Beth and was buried in the Hollywood Hills Memorial Cemetery.