Edward S. Curtis Digital Collection
Preview up to 100 items from this collection below. Photographer Edward S. Curtis devoted two decades to making “The North American Indian,” an early 20th century photography and text project studying Western tribes.
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Letter from Edward S. Curtis to Harriet Leitch, November 17, 1950
Letter from Edward Curtis to Harriet Leitch, discussing his journey with Ella McBride and the Mazamas to the summit of Mount Rainier. He shares that it was on a similar guided tour of Rainier that he met the men who would later invite him to join the Harriman Expedition to Alaska as the photographer. Curtis encourages Leitch to review the volumes describing the Expedition so that she may see the photographs he took of the journey. He adds that his daughter Billy has been forced to return from Australia prematurely due to the sudden ill health of her husband.
Identifier: spl_esc_018
Date: 1950-11-17
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Letter from Edward S. Curtis to Harriet Leitch, December 17, 1950
Letter from Edward Curtis to Harriet Leitch explaining that his poor health and ever present arthritis has forced him to stop work on "The Lure of Gold." He shares that his friends expressed concern over the time he spend hunched over his desk writing the material and that shelving the manuscript "was a serious blow and hard to take."
Identifier: spl_esc_019
Date: 1950-12-17
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Letter from Edward S. Curtis to Harriet Leitch, September 22, 1950
Letter from Edward Curtis to Harriet Leitch in which he briefly touches on discussing "The Lure of Gold" before moving on to talk about the financial difficulties he experienced while producing "The North American Indian." He writes "[...] once upon a time I was confronted with the North American Indian quota which was 1,800,000 plus. I have always thought that ignorance alone allowed me to tackle that task?" Curtis also touches on his continued struggles with arthritis and shares that his youngest daughter, Billy, has recently moved to Australia with her husband. He says he has encouraged Billy to keep notes on the journey in hopes that she can one day use her talents as a writer to compile a book on the subject. Curtis ends with the story of when he helped to bury Chief Joseph, writing "In order to bury him the second time we had to dig him up: I did most of the digging. It was a very hot day and the Noble Red Men said "let the white men do the digging they know how.""
Identifier: spl_esc_017
Date: 1950-09-22
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