Plate 37 OUT OF THE DARKNESS Unique Copper Plate

EDWARD S. CURTIS. Plate 37 Out of the Darkness - Navaho, 1904. 11.8x15.8" image on 14x17.4" copper plate. Plate date 1907. From Portfolio 1, Apache & Navaho, of The North American Indian. Engraved on plate recto: Plate 37 / Out of the Darkness / From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis / Photogravure John Andrew & Son.

Curtis wrote about this: "In Tesakod canyon, a small branch of Canyon de Chelly. At the point where this picture was made the gorge is very narrow."

Thematically this image represents the opposite of the Vanishing Race as here the Indians emerge from the dark past to a brighter future.

This is the first of the 100 copper plates that are being offered in this auction, this being a large portfolio plate.

To make the photogravure prints from the negative, Curtis created a positive that he would edit on, and then working with the great photogravure printing companies in Boston, John Andrew & Son that became Suffolk Engraving Company they made over 2200 copper plates from which the photogravures were to be printed. Each plate was stored in an envelope that had a Holland Van Gelder Photogravure attached to it of the copper plate it housed as well as written title information that was to be engraved into the plates and printed on the prints. There are 29 Envelope plate photogravures offered in various lots in this auction. Each plate was attached to the envelope. The envelopes themselves only partially survived, tattered and torn.
Condition Report: Very Good. Minor scratches, tarnish, dents, abrasions, small dark spots, and ink residue throughout plate surface.