The Photo Historian
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Edward Sheriff Curtis
Photographer, Ethnographer, Artist

Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) was born on a poor farm in Whitewater, Wisconsin, but left an artistic masterpiece – The North American Indian – his 20-volume life’s work documenting the Native life a century ago.

Curtis began his photographic career at age 12, when he built his own camera by fitting one wooden box inside another and attaching a lens that his father had brought back from the civil war. By studying the steps outlined in Wilson’s Photographics, Curtis taught himself to take photographs and make simple prints. His interest in photography never wavered. At 17 he took a job in a photography studio. It was there that he learned to develop and print professional-quality photographs. In 1887, 19-year-old Curtis moved with his father to the Washington Territory. Although his father was in failing health, the two of them built a log cabin together.

The following year his mother and two younger siblings joined them on the Puget Sound homestead. Just three days later his father died of pneumonia and the young Curtis was left as the sole provider for his family. He tended the family farm and worked odd jobs in the lumber industry to earn cash. A back injury led him back to pursuing his first passion—photography. In 1891 Curtis invested in his first photographic studio. A falling-out with his partner soon led him to open his own studio in Seattle, where he built his reputation for portraits and landscapes.

In 1900, Curtis became inspired to create The North American Indian after he witnessed the Sun Dance ceremony on the Piegan Reservation in Montana, and heard George Bird Grinell, editor of Forest and Stream, predict that the Indian way of life would soon disappear forever. Curtis then committed to record with pen and camera, the lives of the North American Indians living west of the Mississippi.