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Frontier Photographer: Edward S. Curtis
A Smithsonian Institution Libraries Exhibition

"Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) left an indelible mark on the history of photography in his 20-volume life's work, The North American Indian.

Part photographic essay, part ethnographic survey, and part work of art, Curtis' North American Indian Project represented an attempt to capture images of American Indians as they lived before contact with Anglo cultures. The photogravure prints in The North American Indian reveal peoples whose traditional ways of life were coming to an end as the U.S. frontier began to fade.

Thirty years of grueling work on the North American Indian Project cost the artist his marriage and his health. It also yielded an American legacy that is an artistic masterpiece."

On the printing process:
"A platemaker first etches the photographic image from a glass positive onto a copper plate for printing. After the etching, artisans face the plate with steel. Then they treat it with sepia-toned ink. Finally, the workers place the plate in a high-pressure printing press and print the image onto paper that has been specially prepared to receive the ink."