“This gift to the Penn Libraries complements the Penn Museum’s existing Curtis collection. Curtis’s photographs raise complex issues of representation of Native American peoples in both the past and the present” said Christopher Woods, Williams Director of the Penn Museum. Curtis often posed the people he photographed for his “North American Indian” volumes dressed in traditional clothing. Scholars have noted that Curtis removed aspects of modernity, such as alarm clocks, from the final prints he made, and that many of his images are highly stylized. “The Penn Libraries, in conjunction with the Penn Museum, will allow this process and resulting masterworks to be exhibited and studied, allowing for both wide public exposure and study by experts, students and the interested public.” "The use of glass plates by the great 19th century photographers, including Edward Curtis, required a cumbersome and time-consuming process involving heavy equipment, delicate glass plates, volatile chemicals and great artistic ability to make each photograph successful,” said Loewentheil. Miller made the gift to the Penn Libraries based on guidance from Stephan Loewentheil, founder and president of the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop and a member of the Penn Libraries Board of Advisors. The collection of 151 plates received by the Penn Libraries is the largest group known to have survived and contains detail lost in the printing process. The vast majority of the interpositive glass plates Curtis produced were destroyed. Every 14 x 17 glass negative that Curtis prepared was printed again as a glass positive before the image was moved onto a copperplate for etching. Left: “Yákotlūs - Quatsino” (1914) right: “A Hesquiat Maiden” (1915) (Photos: Chris Lippa, Penn Libraries)Ĭurtis used a photogravure process in which interpositive glass plates represent a key moment between capture and a final printed image. Curtis Photography Collection, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania Libraries. “It is an honor to receive this gift, which significantly expands our collections in the history of photography.” Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of Libraries. “The Penn Libraries has made it a strategic priority to build, preserve, and steward collections with a focus on education, access, and resource-sharing,” said Constantia Constantinou, H. Selecting from among the 40,000 photographs he took, he produced a 20-volume work titled “The North American Indian,” published between 19. Appraised at $4.2 million, the gift to the Penn Libraries complements holdings across the University, making Penn a major center for research and work on Curtis, one of the most prolific American photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Ĭurtis photographed Native Americans from more than 80 tribes over three decades. Curtis (1868–1952) from collector William H. The University of Pennsylvania Libraries has received a rare collection of 151 interpositive glass plates by photographer Edward S.
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