100 Rarely Seen Edward S. Curtis Images!
Occasionally, unpublished Curtis photographs surface, but never in history has 100 emerged at once! What few unpublished pictures have surfaced are generally in private collections, and no one ever gets to see them. 
 
When Edward Curtis’ only grandchild, Jim Graybill, at 92 years old, could no longer care for the Curtis family collection, it was placed in the trusted hands of the Curtis Legacy Foundation. The foundation was founded by all three of Curtis’ great-grandchildren in 2019 in an effort to continue Edward Curtis' legacy and amplify the voices of today's Native American communities. During an inventory of this family collection, they discovered over 200 unpublished images, made by Curtis in Alaska in 1927, among the assortment of stored photographs. These pictures were not included in Volume 20 of Curtis’ famed grand opus The North American Indian.
 
One hundred images of Alaska Natives were selected to grace the pages of this book. Thirteen additional photographs of Edward, his daughter, Beth, and his assistant Stewart Eastwood were chosen, most of which are unpublished as well. The Curtis Legacy Foundation feels the importance of sharing these pictures with Edward Curtis fans, museums, galleries, researchers, genealogy enthusiasts, and especially the Alaska Native communities. 
 
This book also includes Edward's and Beth's personal journals of the Alaska field season, never published in its entirety. 
 
"11:00 P.M. Well, we have had a hell of a time. As we ran back for anchorage, we ran into a thick fog and hit a sand shoal. As we hit the shoal, the engine went dead. The sea was breaking over the bar, and the instant we hit bottom, the sea broke over us until it was all one could do to keep from being washed overboard. Each swell carried us a little further onto the sand flat. I quickly got the tender and an emergency chest of supplies in shape to abandon the boat. I called Beth to get warm clothes and be ready to take to the tender. With an encouraging smile, she said, “I have already done that, and I am ready to start.” ~ Edward Curtis
 
This book takes you on a whirlwind journey on the Bering Sea in the summer of 1927. Read Edward Curtis' and his daughter, Beth’s, own words taken from the handwritten journals they kept on Curtis' last field trip, completing his 20-volume encyclopedia, The North American Indian. The reader will experience first-hand the toils of the high seas and the beauty of the Alaskan midnight sun. Of the 30-plus years of traveling to photograph Native Americans, Curtis' last field trip to Alaska was the only time Edward Curtis documented his personal journey.
 
Combining the unpublished images with the unpublished journals makes up a book of firsts for Curtis’ last field season. This trip is truly an example of the grit it took for Curtis to complete his grand opus. The man is nothing short of a legend, and between the towering gale-driven seas breaking over the deck, the blizzard snow conditions, the crisscrossing through the ice pack, the falling barometers, and the hole in the boat, it is a miracle they lived to tell this historical story.
 
The book is a 9"x12" matte hard-cover coffee table book with approximately 290 pages. The book will be produced with offset printing on an 8-color Heidelberg press and printed on 100# coated, matte interior pages. This book will certainly be one you will want to show off! 
 
Each purchase made through our website helps to put these books into tribal libraries and museums at no charge for the region the book represents.