Edward Sheriff Curtis

born Whitewater, Wisconsin, 1868; died Los Angeles, California, 1952

BiographyEdward Curtis became interested in photography as a child, constructing his own camera and learning how to make prints. He is believed to have apprenticed to a photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota as a teenager. His family relocated to Seattle in 1887 and he opening his own studio there in 1891. In 1898 while photographing on Mt. Rainier, Curtis met George Bird Grinnell, editor of Field and Stream who supported his selection as photographer for the Harriman Expedition to Alaska in 1899 and later invited him to observe and photograph the Sun Dance at an encampment of Blood, Blackfeet and Algonquin peoples in Montana.

Curtis’ Montana visit was the catalyst that sparkedThe North American Indian, a massive project to document every government-recognized Native American group in the United States which became his obsession for much of the rest of his life. He took over 40,000 images of members of over 80 tribes and made wax cylinder recordings of Native languages and music. He created a 20-volume publication of these images and related ethnographic information but struggled throughout the process and afterward to finance the project and sell the books. Late in life, while living in Los Angeles, he took some stills for Hollywood studios

Person TypeIndividual

Terms