Edward S. Curtis - Timeline

Timeline

• 1868 Curtis is born near Whitewater, Wisconsin and grows up near Cordova, Minnesota.
• 1880 1880 US Census with Curtis family living in Minnesota
• 1887 Curtis moves to Washington territory with his father Johnson.
• 1891 Curtis buys into a photo studio with Rothi, and later starts a new photographic studio in Seattle with Guptill.
• 1895 Curtis meets and photographs Princess Angeline (c1800-1896) aka Kickisomlo, the daughter of Chief Sealth of Seattle.
• 1896 Curtis and Guptill win the bronze medal at the National Photographers Convention in Chautauqua, New York. Argus magazine declares them the leading photographers in Puget Sound. Beth, the Curtis' 2nd child and 1st daughter is born. The Curtis family moves to a larger house where they are joined by Edward's mother Ellen, sister Eva, brother Asahel, Clara's sister Susie, her cousin Nellie Philips and Nellie's son William. The entire family works at one time or another in the Curtis studio.
• 1898 On Mount Rainier, Curtis meets a group of scientists, including anthropologist George Bird Grinnell and C. Hart Merriam.
• 1899 Curtis is appointed official photographer for E. H. Harriman's Alaska Expedition.
• 1900 Curtis accompanies George Bird Grinnell to the Piegan Reservation in northwest Montana to photograph the Sun Dance ceremony.
• 1903 Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé visits the Curtis studio and has his portrait taken. Curtis hires Adolph Muhr (?-1912) to run the studio while he is away working on photography and trying to get financing in New York and Washington, D.C..
• 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt invites Curtis to photograph his children after seeing Curtis' winning photograph in "The Prettiest Children in America" contest published in Ladies' Home Journal.
• 1904 Louisa Morgan Satterlee, daughter of financier J.P. Morgan, purchases Curtis photographs at an exhibit in New York City.
• 1906 Curtis secures funds from J.P. Morgan for the field work to produce a twenty volume illustrated text American Indians, to be completed in five years.
• 1907 Volume 1 of The North American Indian is published, with a foreword by Theodore Roosevelt.
• 1908 Volume 2 published
• 1911 Curtis launches The Indian Picture Opera a lecture and slide show, to publicize his work, and solicit subscriptions for The North American Indian. Original Music was composed by Henry Gilbert, and 22 piece orchestra accompanied the production. The Indian Picture Opera performed through the end of 1912.
• 1912 Volume 8 published
• 1913 J.P. Morgan dies, but his son decides to continue funding The North American Indian until finished.
• 1913 Volume 9 published.
• 1914 Curtis releases In the Land of the Head-Hunters, a motion picture depicting Native Americans of the Northwest Coast.
• 1915 Volume 10 and 11 published. No additional volumes published for the next six years.
• 1916 Clara Curtis files for divorce.
• 1916 Curtis works on the Orotone photographic process where glass plate positive images are made by printing a reversed image on glass and then backing it with a mixture of powdered gold pigment and banana oil.
• 1919 Divorce granted.
• 1920 Clara living in Charleston, Kitsap County, Washington with her married sister.
• 1920 Curtis and daughter Beth move from Seattle to Los Angeles. Curtis finances fieldwork by working in his new studio and in Hollywood as a still photographer and assistant movie camera operator for major studios.
• 1922 Volume 12 published.
• 1924 Curtis sells rights to his film to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
• 1926 Volume 16 published.
• 1927 Curtis' Alaska trip culminates three decades of fieldwork. Beth invites Curtis' youngest daughter Katherine to spend the Christmas holiday with the family at Florence's home in Medford, Oregon. This is the first time Curtis has ever been together with all of his children and the first time in thirteen years that Katherine has seen her father.
• 1930 Volume 20 published. Clara and Katherine are still living in Seattle and operating his old studio.
• 1932 Death of his ex-wife Clara, daughter Katherine moves to California.
• 1935 Materials remaining from The North American Indian project, including copper photogravure plates, are sold to the Charles E. Lauriat Company, a rare book dealer in Boston. Curtis tries to earn money by gold-mining and farming.
• 1947 Moves to Whittier, California into the home of his daughter, Beth and her husband Manford Magnuson.
• 1952 Curtis dies in Los Angeles in the home of his daughter Beth, his obituary appears in the New York Times and he is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.