The North American Indian [Volume Ten]
![The North American Indian [Volume Ten] by Edward Sheriff Curtis](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/nga/thumb/the-north-american-indian-volume-ten-nga-131768.webp)
Medium
portfolio of 34 photogravures on cream wove paper
Dimensions
overall (closed): 57.79 × 48.9 × 2.54 cm (22 3/4 × 19 1/4 × 1 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mitchell and Nancy Steir
Accession Number
2004.163.5.1-34
Art Historical Context
Edward Sheriff Curtis's * North American Indian [Volume]*, published in 1914, forms part of his monumental 20-volume ethnographic project (1907–1930) to document the cultures, traditions, and daily lives of Native American tribes North America. This lavish portfolio contains 34 photogravuresrich, intaglio prints made from photographic negatives on cream wove paper—offering stunning reproductions of Curtis's fieldwork images. Measuring 22¾ × 19¼ × 1 inches when closed, it exemplifies early 20th-century fine art printing, where photogravure's velvety tones and subtle gradations captured the dram...
About the Artist
Edward Sheriff Curtis
Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868–1952) was born on February 19 near Whitewater, Wisconsin, into a struggling family led by his father, Reverend Asahel Curtis, a Civil War veteran and farmer, and mother Ellen Sheriff. Raised in poverty amid his father's postwar frailties, Curtis left school after sixth grade and apprenticed as a photographer in a St. Paul, Minnesota, studio at age seventeen in 1885. The...