Curtis, Edward S.
The North American Indian, Volume 13: The Hupa. The Yurok. The Karok. The Wiyot, Tolowa and Tututni. The Shasta. The Achomawi. The Klamath.
(N.-pl.): (the author), 1924. First edition.
Folio, bound in half morocco gilt with raised bands and heavy buckram cloth sides.
One of 500 numbered copies (although Curtis never completed the edition. He sold some 220 copies and gave about 50 copies to friends and supporters). The volume was printed by letterpress on Japan vellum paper. Illustrated with 75 sepia-tone photogravures (photo-engravings) from Curtis’s original photographs.
The Library of Congress describes The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis as “one of the most significant and controversial representations of traditional American Indian culture ever produced. Issued in a limited edition from 1907 to 1930, the publication continues to exert a major influence on the image of Indians in popular culture. Curtis said he wanted to document ‘the old time Indian, his dress, his ceremonies, his life and manners.’ In over 2000 photogravure plates and narrative, Curtis portrayed the traditional customs and lifeways of eighty Indian tribes.”
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Among those eighty tribes were the major tribes living on the Northwest Coast of California: the Hupa, Yurok, Karok, Wiyot, and Tolowa. While Curtis’s photographs are well known, he was much more than a photographer—he collected a vast amount of ethnographic information and described the traditional life and culture of the tribes he visited. Unlike many photographers, Curtis didn’t simply focus on male warriors, he photographed women and children, houses, baskets, and ceremonial regalia. He also includes 33 stories from North Coast Indian oral tradition.
The highlights, though, are the photogravures: 25 devoted to the Hupa, 13 Yurok, 5 Karok (or Karuk), 8 Tolowa, 6 Achomawi, and 18 Klamath, including a color image of a regal Klamath chief overlooking Crater Lake. Curtis is often criticized for posing his subjects in inauthentic ways. This was, of course, a typical practice of the time, but Curtis was first and foremost a photographer and a great one at that. His portraits were unsurpassed in his time and most of the changes he made to the way his subjects wore regalia were to improve composition.
For many decades, individual books of The North American Indian (which reached 40 volumes by its conclusion) were worth more cut up for the plates than as a whole volume. Most of the copies of this book that didn’t go to libraries have long since been cut up for the photogravures. It’s hard to imagine that more than 20 or 30 copies are in private hands today.
The last complete set of The North American Indian fetched $1.5 million at auction and a 36-volume run exceeded $1 million in 2007. Near fine, with some wear to the extremities. The front hinge is slightly sprung, which keeps the book from closing entirely flat. Small library bookplate on the front pastedown, but no other library markings.
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