| Northwestern University Digital Library Collections |
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Biographical Timeline for Edward S. Curtis |
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| 1868 | Curtis is born in Whitewater, Wisconsin. | ||
| 1887 | Curtis moves with his father from Minnesota to Washington territory, joined by other family in 1888. | ||
| 1891 | Curtis buys into, and later owns a photographic and engraving studio in Seattle, Washington. He develops a reputation for portraits and landscapes. | ||
| 1890s | Curtis photographs various Coastal Salish Indians of Puget Sound area. | ||
| 1899 | Curtis is appointed official photographer for the influential Harriman Alaska Expedition by its chief scientist, C. Hart Merriam. | ||
| 1900 | Curtis expresses interest in a large publishing endeavor after accompanying anthropologist George Bird Grinnell to the Piegan Reservation in Montana to photograph the Sun Dance ceremony. | ||
| 1903 | Chief Joseph visits the Curtis studio and has his portrait taken. | ||
| 1906 | Curtis secures funding from financier J. P. Morgan for fieldwork needed to produce a twenty-volume illustrated text on American Indians west of the Plains, to be sold by subscription and completed in five years. William E. Myers is hired as researcher and writer for the project, among other staff. |
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| 1907 | Volume 1 of The North American Indian is published, with a foreword by Theodore Roosevelt. Curtis seeks additional funding sources. |
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| 1912 | After five years, only eight of the projected twenty volumes have been completed. |
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| 1913 | J.P. Morgan dies, but his son agrees to continue support for The North American Indian. | ||
| 1914 | Curtis releases In the Land of the Head-Hunters, the first narrative documentary film of its kind, depicting the "primal life" of Northwest Coast Indians. It fails to raise more funds for his publishing efforts. | ||
| 1915 | With ten volumes of The North American Indian published, U.S. enters World War I. Curtis’s fieldwork and publishing activities decline, with only one additional volume appearing before 1922. | ||
| 1920 | Curtis moves his photography studio to Los Angeles. He attempts to finance fieldwork by working as a still photographer and movie camera operator in Hollywood. | ||
| 1926 | Myers resigns as chief writer and ethnologist. He is replaced by Stewart C. Eastwood. |
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| 1927 | Curtis's Alaska trip culminates three decades of fieldwork. | ||
| 1930 | Last volume of The North American Indian is published. | ||
| 1935 | Materials remaining from The North American Indian project, including photogravure plates, are sold to the Charles Lauriat Company, a rare book dealer in Boston. | ||
| 1952 | Curtis dies in Los Angeles. |
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Sources: Davis, Barbara A. Edward S. Curtis: The Life and Times of a Shadow Catcher. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1985. Gidley, Mick. Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Gidley, Mick, ed. Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Lawlor, Laurie. Shadow Catcher: the Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis. New York: Walker, 1994.
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