Edward Curtis – Resources

Press Release

The 150th Anniversary of Edward Curtis: 150 Masterpieces from The North American Indian [PDF]

Curtis Census

The purpose of this census is to determine an accurate number of bound sets and volumes of the original edition of The North American Indian. ​Published by Edward Curtis from 1907 to 1930, The North American Indian was planned to be a limited edition of 500 sets. Due to the extremely high cost of the publication and the prolonged publication cycle, it’s thought that no more than 300 complete or partial sets were finally printed. This census will determine, as accurately as possible, the actual number of complete or partial sets that were printed and their present locations. The website also includes research resources. Curtis Census: A Census of the Edward Curtis Masterpiece, The North American Indian

Northwestern University Digital Library Collections

Northwestern University digitized the complete contents of all 20 volumes of The North American Indian, including all 723 portfolio photogravures. View all the photographic plates from Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian online.

Library of Congress Curtis Collection

The Library of Congress Curtis Collection is also a valuable resource.

Press Release

The 150th Anniversary of Edward Curtis: 150 Masterpieces from The North American Indian

Bibliography

Hans Christian Adam, The North American Indian: The Complete Portfolios, Taschen, 2015

Joseph Epes Brown, The North American Indians: A Selection of Photographs by Edward. S. Curtis, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1972

Alfred L. Bush and Lee Clark Mitchell, The Photograph and the American Indian, Princeton University Press, 1994

Christopher Cardozo, Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and The North American Indian, Verve Editions, 2000

—— . Edward S. Curtis: The Women, Bullfinch Press, 2005

—— .  Edward S. Curtis: One Hundred Masterworks, Delmonico Books, 2015

A.D. Coleman and T.C. McLuhan, Edward S. Curtis: Portraits from North American Indian Life, Outerbridge and Lazard, 1972

Edward S. Curtis, Indian Life and Indian Lore: Indian Days of Long Ago, Leopold Classic Library, 2016

Barbara A. Davis, Edward S. Curtis: The Life and Times of a Shadow Catcher, Chronicle Books, 1985

Sara Day, Heart of the Circle: Photographs by Edward S. Curtis of Native American Women, Pomegranate Artbooks, 1997

Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis, 2012

Mick Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated, Cambridge University Press, 1998

——. The Plains Indian Photographs of Edward S. Curtis, University of Nebraska Press, 2001

——. Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field, University of Oklahoma Press, 2003

Florence Curtis Graybill and Victor Boesen, Edward Sheriff: Visions of a Vanishing Race, Promontory Press, 1976

George Bird Grinnell, The Harriman Expedition: Encountering the Tlingit and Eskimo in 1899, University of Alaska Press, 2007

Don Gulbrandsen, Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions of the First Americans, Chartwell Book, 2006

Bill Holm and George Irving Quimgy, Edward S. Curtis in the Land of the War Canoes: A Pioneer Cinematographer in the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington Press, 1980

Christopher M. Lyman, The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions: Photographs of Indians by Edward S. Curtis, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982

Anne Makepeace, Edward S. Curtis: Coming to Light, National Geographic, 2001

Johanna Cohan Scherer, Edward S. Curtis, Phaidon Press, 2008

Dan and Mary Soloman, Sites and Structures: The Architectural Photographs of Edward S. Curtis, Chronicle Books, 2000

Steadman Upham and Nat Zappia, The Many Faces of Edward Sheriff Curtis: Portraits and Stories from Native North America, University of Washington Press, 2006

Marianne Wiggins, The Shadow Catcher, Simon and Schuster, 2007

Carl Worswick, Edward Curtis: The Master Prints, Arena Editions, 2001

Wayne L. Youngblood, Edward S. Curtis Portraits: The Many Faces of the Native American, Fall River Press, 2009

Shamoon Zamir, The Gift of the Face: Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian, University of North Carolina Press, 2014

 

Suggested Further Reading

Jane Alison (editor), Native Nations: Journeys in American Photography, Barbican Art Gallery, 1998

Will Baker, Backward: On Indians, Time, And Photography, North Atlantic Books, 1983

Chris Bruce, Myth of the West, Rizzoli International, 1990

Joanna Cohen, The Great Photographs that Reveal North American Indian Life, 1847-1929: From the Smithsonian Institution, Crown Publishers, 1973

Paula Richardson Fleming and Judith Lusky, The North American Indians in Early Photographs, Barnes and Noble Books, 1986

William H. and William N. Goetzmann, The West of the Imagination, W. W. Norton, 1986

Peter B. Hales, William Henry Jackson and the Transformation of the American Landscape, Temple University Press, 1988

Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West, W. W. Norton, 1987

Lucy R. Lippard (editor), Partial Recall: Photographs of Native North Americans, The New Press, 1992

Beaumont Newhall, The History of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, 1982

Douglas R. Nickel, Carlton Watkins: The Art of Perception, Harry N. Abrams, 1999

Sally Price, Primitive Art in Civilized Places, University of Chicago Press, 1989

Martha A. Sandweiss, Print the Legend: Photography and the American West, Yale University Press, 2002