ppenheimer Editions, llc

Edward Curtis

IMAGE GALLERY        

   Curtis' Fifty Best

           COMPLETE PRICE LIST

Strictly Limited to 500 complete sets

Edward S. Curtis was born in 1868 in Wisconsin, the son of a retired Civil War chaplain. Curtis' father moved the family to Minnesota where Edward built his first camera, using a manual and a stereopticon lens that his father brought back from the war. The family relocated to Puget Sound, in Washington in 1887 where his father died. Now responsible for his familyıs financial well-being, Curtis earned their income. His work yielded enough money to support them, to buy a view camera and to purchase a part interest in a Seattle photography studio. There, he also met and married Clara Phillips.

In 1892, Curtis won first prize in portraiture at the National Photographers Convention. Around the same time, Curtis began taking photos of Native Americans. In 1898, while photographing on Mt. Rainier, Curtis happened upon a group of lost climbers, including George Bird Grinnell, editor of Field and Stream Magazine and the founder of the Audubon Society. Grinnell explored with Curtis their mutual interest in Native Americans and shared his knowledge about Native American ethnography.

In 1900, Curtis was commissioned to complete an extensive survey of Native Americans in five years. Five years turned into a thirty-year massive project during which he recorded Indian traditions and culture, taking over 40,000 images from more than eighty tribes, documenting living as well as past tradition. This remarkable effort resulted in a twenty volume magnum opus entitled The North American Indian.

Price range: Individual prints: $600-$800

Complete sets of Curtis' Fifty Best: $10,000