Diomede Mother and Child, from “Edward Curtis: Unpublished Alaska”, on display at Muskegon Museum of Art starting Sept. 16. (Supplied) 
Edward Curtis and daugher Beth in a kaiak, from “Edward Curtis: Unpublished Alaska”, on display at Muskegon Museum of Art starting Sept. 16. (Supplied) 
Nunivak Man on sled rails, from “Edward Curtis: Unpublished Alaska”, on display at Muskegon Museum of Art starting Sept. 16. (Supplied) 
Cliff houses on King Island, viewed from Jewel Guard, from “Edward Curtis: Unpublished Alaska”, on display at Muskegon Museum of Art starting Sept. 16. (Supplied) 
Ju-kuls Nunivak, from “Edward Curtis: Unpublished Alaska”, on display at Muskegon Museum of Art starting Sept. 16. (Supplied)
By K.D. Norris
On June 8, 1927, Edward Sherriff Curtis, one of America’s premier photographers and ethnologists, set sail on the steamer ship Victoria towards Nome, Alaska, accompanied by daughter Beth Curtis Magnuson and newly employed assistant Stewart C. Eastwood.
Curtis took hundreds of images on his journey, only part of which were ultimately published. The rest sat, unseen, passed down through the family until the recent publication of a book and the curation of an exhibit detailing this “lost photographs.”
On Sept. 16, the Muskegon Museum of Art (MMA) will open the exhibit “Edward S. Curtis: Unpublished Alaska, the Lost Photographs”, with the exhibit running through Jan. 9, 2022.
This exhibition accompanies the 2021 publication of the complete journals by Curtis’ descendants, John and Coleen Graybill, in the book “Edward Curtis: Unpublished Alaska.”
The exhibition’s opening event — on Sept. 16, with a reception at 5 p.m., a book signing 6 p.m., and a lecture at 7 p.m. — will feature Graybills in attendance. The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required.
“Edward Curtis: Unpublished Alaska, The Lost Photographs” presents, for the first time to the public, images made from the unused original negatives. Over 100 images will be included in the exhibition, along with excerpts from the personal journals of Curtis and his daughter Beth that describe their often harrowing adventures in the Bering Sea.
Curtis, his history, and ‘The North American Indian’
Born in 1868 near Whitewater, Wisc., Edward Sheriff Curtis was to become one of America’s premier photographers and ethnologists, according to the Edward S. Curtis Gallery website.
When the Curtis family moved to Port Orchard, Wash., in 1887, Edward’s gift for photography led him to an investigation of the Indians (now more properly called Native Americans) living on the Seattle waterfront. His photograph “Homeward” won Curtis the highest award in a photographic exhibition contest.
Having become well-known for his work with Native Americans, Curtis participated in the 1899 Harriman expedition to Alaska as the lead photographer. He then accompanied George Bird Grinell, editor of Forest and Stream, on a trip to northern Montana. There they witnessed the deeply sacred Sundance of the Piegan and Blackfoot tribes. Traveling on horseback, with their pack horses trailing behind, they stopped at the precipice. Below them, the view of the valley floor stretched with over a thousand teepees — an awesome sight to Curtis.
This event would transform his life and inspire him to create “The North American Indian”. Consisting of over 700 large portfolio images, over 1,500 volume size images, and over 7,000 pages of text, “The North American Indian” is a part of American history in both its imagery and its creation.
Begun in 1906, “The North American Indian” was the defining passion of Curtis’s life, an attempt to record, in writing and photography, the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Southwestern, Western, and Northwestern United States. This trip, planned for a single season, would be the final voyage to complete his epic quest.
The MMA is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., daily; 11 a.m. to 8 a.m., on Thursdays, and closed Mondays. Visit muskegonartmuseum.org for more information.
