File:Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952).jpg

Handwritten on verso of image: E.S. Curtis. Attributed date: 1899 PH Coll 484.C2

Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) grew up in Minnesota, and moved to the Puget Sound area with his family in 1887. In 1891 he established a photography business in Seattle. Within a few years, Curtis and his partner, Thomas Guptill, established themselves as the leading photographers on Puget Sound. In addition to photoengraving for other businesses and publications, Curtis's stock in trade consisted of fashionable wedding portraits, society portraits, dramatic prints of Northwest scenery, and a number of photographs of local Indians. In 1899 Curtis was chosen as the official photographer for the Harriman expedition, a scientific expedition to Alaska sponsored by railroad tycoon Edward Harriman. By 1903 or 1904 he began to form a plan for a photographic project that would be "a permanent record of all the important tribes of the U.S. that still retain to a considerable degree their primitive traditions and customs." Reflecting a general belief that Native Americans were a vanishing culture, Curtis embarked on a monumental project that was both artistic and ethnological. Curtis's Indian photographs emphasized traditional elements of dress and culture, deemphasizing acculturation.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Photographers--Washington (State)
• Subjects (LCSH): ., 1868-1952