Alexander Upshaw was a survivor in every sense of the word. He grew up on the Crow Reservation in Montana, left his home as a teenager to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, returned home and became a spokesperson for his people, worked in the field with Edward Curtis for three years, and ultimately shook hands with President Roosevelt. His story is full of contrasts and conflicts, and while he had many successes, his life was tragically short. Upshaw was born in 1874 to Crazy Pend D’Oreille and his wife, Good Hair. Contrary to what non-Natives might think, his fathe ..read more

This is the first in a series of posts about people who were directly or indirectly a part of The North American Indian project. During the three decades that Curtis strived to complete the work, he relied on, received funding from, or was influenced by dozens of people from all walks of life. You’ll find their stories here in the coming months with the tagline of “Curtis Colleagues.” Please sign up for our mailing list to be notified as new stories are posted. L to R, back: guide Alexander Upshaw; William E. Myers; Edmond Meany; Jack Red Cloud (son of Red Cloud). Front: ,Red Cloud (1822-1909 ..read more

When John Graybill called and invited me to join the Curtis Legacy Foundation board and become the writer for the Descendant’s Project, truthfully, my heart skipped a beat. The timing was good as I had just retired from my nursing professor role, and I had the skills to interpret interviews and write stories as a result of my doctoral education. During my training, I developed qualitative research expertise, which means I learned how to study people in ways that captured the rich context of their lives. For my dissertation, I studied fathers of critically ill premature infants—a topic I became ..read more

Note: The Curtis Legacy Foundation does not benefit in any way from the sales of Edward Curtis prints, books, or other works owned by private collectors. All his published works are out of copyright, and we do not receive royalties or other payments for the use of his images. We are reporting on these auctions as part of our educational and research programs. In late June, two massive collections of Edward Curtis prints, books, documents, and ephemera were offered at separate auctions. Together, they represented the most extraordinary grouping of Curtis works that has ever been offered for sal ..read more

Some thirty years after the final volume of Edward Curtis's The North American Indian appeared, knowledge of and interest in Edward Curtis’s monumental opus began to blossom. In 1962 Ralph W. Andrews's book Curtis' Western Indians, with reproductions of Curtis photographs, was published in Seattle (1). Then in 1970 Publisher's Weekly announced a major publishing event, the first full reprint edition of The North American Indian. Soon thereafter the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibited a selection of Curtis's photographs (2), an exhibition that might just possibly have been the first time the p ..read more

This is the second in a two-part series about the Curtis orotones. For part 1, click here. The orotones of Edward S. Curtis are eye-catching from every angle. In addition to the images' lustrous gold tones, these prints stand out in part because of their beautiful frames. Because of the coated glass plate's fragile surface, every orotone was sold in a handmade frame that was "exclusively designed and toned to harmonize" with Curtis's warm pictorialist photographic style (the quote is from a Curtis studio brochure). It appears that the earliest frames were created by the Schneider Art Gallerie ..read more

“We all know how beautiful the stones and pebbles in the limpid brook of the forest where the water absorbs the blue of the sky and the green of the foliage. Yet when we take the same iridescent pebbles from the water and dry them they are dull and lifeless. So it is with the orthodox photographic print, but in the orotones all that translucency is retained, and they are as full of life and sparkle as an opal.” Edward Curtis, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, February 2, 1919 Of all of Edward Curtis’s prints, his orotones or, as he marketed them, "Curt-Tones," are among the most prized. Also k ..read more

This is the second in a three-part story about the Curtis studios over the years. Find part 1 here. After Thomas Guptill’s surprise departure from Seattle in 1897, Edward Curtis decided he was ready to go it alone. His previous business partnerships had been less than satisfactory, and he was starting to make a name for himself in Seattle. Fortunately, within a year, another and much larger studio space became available. In late 1898, Curtis moved into the former studio rooms of another popular Seattle photographer, Frank La Roche. The new space, at 709 Second Avenue, was perfect for Curtis’s ..read more

By Daniela Kronemeyer November marks the beginning of Native American Heritage Month - a time to recognize the many contributions and achievements of Indigenous people in our country, as well as to celebrate their diverse and vibrant traditions. At the same time, we find ourselves mere days away from perhaps the most important election of our lifetimes. For this reason, we humbly ask you to vote with your heart. Do so for the struggles of the Native men and women who came before us, for the health of our communities and families, and out of respect for our m ..read more

Through the years I wondered how Edward Curtis came to hire John Andrew & Son to produce these incredible pieces of photo/art. There had to be a link somewhere... After considerable research, here is my theory. When I was growing up, there was always this stack of pictures of Native Americans piled high on a side table in the corner of our sun porch in my Massachusetts home. As an 8-year-old boy, those old photographs meant little to me. It was not until many years later that I came to understand their significance. You see, my great grandfather was George T. Andrew, the man who printed p ..read more