Lot Essay
T. C. McLuhan describes Curtis' early explorations, "...on one of his many ascents along the glaciers of Mount Rainier, complete with his 14 x 17 camera and glass negatives, he rescued a near-frozen party of climbers who had lost their way. It was a fortuitous event for Curtis. Three of the men in the group were to influence his life considerably - Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the U.S. Biological Survey; Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the U.S. Forestry Department; and George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream magazine.
At the invitation of Merriam and Grinnell, Curtis joined his first major expedition. On May 30th, 1899, with a crew of 126, the steamship Geo. W. Elder sailed from Seattle for a two-month trek that would ultimately reach the Bering Sea. Some of the world's leading scientists were on board, including the naturalist John Muir and the ornithologist John Burroughs. There were two official photographers; Edward S. Curtis was one of them. The entire floating symposium was organized by E.H. Harriman, the wealthy railroad magnate. The main objective of the voyage was to explore the Alaskan waters of a route that had been mapped out beforehand. After a trip of nine thousand miles the party returned with five thousand pictures and over six hundred animal and plant species new to science. New glaciers were mapped and photographed and a new fjord 15 miles long was discovered. Curtis photographed many of the glaciers, but it was his Indian pictures on this trip which established his artistic genius.
It was an impressive experience for Curtis, which he later described as his 'first contact with men of letters and millionaires.' It was also the beginning of a thirty-year spiritual liaison between the photographer and the mysteries of Indian life." (McLuhan, Portraits from North American Indian Life, IX.)
At the invitation of Merriam and Grinnell, Curtis joined his first major expedition. On May 30th, 1899, with a crew of 126, the steamship Geo. W. Elder sailed from Seattle for a two-month trek that would ultimately reach the Bering Sea. Some of the world's leading scientists were on board, including the naturalist John Muir and the ornithologist John Burroughs. There were two official photographers; Edward S. Curtis was one of them. The entire floating symposium was organized by E.H. Harriman, the wealthy railroad magnate. The main objective of the voyage was to explore the Alaskan waters of a route that had been mapped out beforehand. After a trip of nine thousand miles the party returned with five thousand pictures and over six hundred animal and plant species new to science. New glaciers were mapped and photographed and a new fjord 15 miles long was discovered. Curtis photographed many of the glaciers, but it was his Indian pictures on this trip which established his artistic genius.
It was an impressive experience for Curtis, which he later described as his 'first contact with men of letters and millionaires.' It was also the beginning of a thirty-year spiritual liaison between the photographer and the mysteries of Indian life." (McLuhan, Portraits from North American Indian Life, IX.)