Video: One and a half thousand photographs of Indian tribes taken at the beginning of the 20th century
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-10 02:10
Edward Sheriff Curtis - an American photographer who at the beginning of the 20th century studied with enthusiasm the life of North American Indians. In total, he took several thousand photographs, which captured the life of the indigenous population of the American continent, in addition, he created a detailed description of food, housing, clothing, rituals and customs of the Indians, wrote many biographical sketches about the traditions and history of Indian tribes.
In 1906, a prominent American financier and philanthropist J. P. Morgan promised Edward Curtis a reward of $ 75,000 if he did not refuse to make a scientific expedition and document the life of the native Indians. It was estimated that 1,500 photographs by Edward Curtis would be featured in the 20-volume edition of The North American Indian. Realizing that Indian traditions are gradually being forgotten, the researcher wanted to preserve as much written information as possible, it is noteworthy that at the beginning of the last century, Curtis's records were almost the only source of information about the Indians, not counting folklore.
The photographer has been working on the project for about thirty years. Over the years, he made expeditions to different parts of the continent, he visited the Great Plains, was in the mountains in the West, near the Mexican border and even on the coast of the Arctic Ocean in Alaska and Canada.
His photographs are as detailed as possible, thanks to them we can learn a lot about how the Indians lived when they were forced to leave their iconic lands and move to new territories. In total, Edward Curtis described about 80 tribes. Contrary to the popular belief at that time that the Indians live like savages, the photographer tried to create, albeit somewhat idealized, images, but ones that would reveal the unique traditions of tribes and a way of life that is practically unchanged from generation to generation. Often Edward Curtis photographed his characters in the bosom of nature to emphasize the inextricable connection that is the lifeblood of the Indians.
Most of Edward Curtis's photographs are now in the public domain at the US Library of Congress, some have become the property of private collectors. By looking at multiple images, you can take a breathtaking journey through time and space.
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