Edward Sheriff Curtis was born in the United States.           Simone in Blue Bonnet Mary Stevenson Cassatt Red Blossom Alexej von Jawlensky                     An Oasis in the Badlands, South Dakota Edward Sheriff Curtis	Printer-friendly PDF (1.2mb) Who is the artist? Edward Sheriff Curtis What is the name of the artwork? Vanishing Race - Navaho What materials were used? Orotone Where is the artist from? United States When was the artwork made? 1906 Edward Sheriff Curtis was born in Whitewater, Wisconsin in 1868. He is known for his photographs of Native Americans. He was interested in photography ever since he was a young boy and even built his own camera. By 1886, he was well known as a studio photographer and became the owner of a successful photography studio in Seattle, Washington. Because of his interest in Native Americans, he created North American Indian, a project of books explaining different cultures using his own photos. Curtis wanted the North American Indian project to show the spirit of the Native Americans. For thirty years, he visited more then eighty tribes all over the nation to record their customs and traditions by taking over 40,000 photographs and 10,000 recordings of Native American music and language. He believed that Native American culture should be kept safe and wanted to document it before the traditions disappeared. Why do you think this photograph was titled Vanishing Race? Does the photograph give you a positive or negative feeling? Why? Do you think it was important for Curtis to document Native American cultures and traditions? Why or why not? If you were going to document your own culture’s traditions and customs, what would you photograph? Orotone - Photographs with a golden tone. These types of photographs were created by making the image on glass and then adding a mixture of powdered gold pigment and banana oil.	Edward Sheriff Curtis United States, 1868-1952 Vanishing Race – Navaho Orotone, 1906 Collection Museum of Photographic Arts Gift of the Schutz Family 2001.022.006 © Museum of Photographic Arts   1861 American Civil War begins 1868 Curtis born in the United States 1879 Thomas Edison invents the electric light 1886 Curtis open his photography studio in Seattle, Washington 1902 First teddy bear 1906 Curtis photographs Vanishing Race - Navaho 1947 Edwin Land develops the first Polaroid camera 1952 Curtis dies
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