THE VANISHING RACE SIGNED Gelatin Silver Print

EDWARD S. CURTIS. The Vanishing Race - Navaho, 1904. 5.8x7.8" gelatin silver print with a 1" double border on 10.4x11.9" paper. Printed c. 1908. Signed in border below image, signature has faded and is visible in raking light.

Published as a large photogravure as Plate 1 in Portfolio 1, Apache & Navaho, of The North American Indian. Signed in brown pencil on print recto in bottom right below image: Curtis. Embossed on left below image: Copyright E.S. Curtis Seattle; embossed in bottom left margin print recto: The Curtis Studio Seattle.

Curtis wrote about this: "The thought which this picture is meant to convey is that the Indians as a race, already shorn in their tribal strength and stripped of their primitive dress, are passing into the darkness of an unknown future. Feeling that the picture expresses so much of the thought that inspired the entire work, the author has chosen it as the first of the series."

This image was the theme image of Curtis' North American Indian project in his vision of preserving Indian culture before the people and customs vanished. In the 1820s the Interior Department under Thomas McKinney commissioned Charles Bird King and other painters to make portraits and scenes of the Indians before they vanished. This collection migrated to the Smithsonian and was destroyed in the Smithsonian Castle fire in 1865. At that time, through the patronage of British entrepreneur William Henry Blackmore and in cooperation with Ferdinand V. Hayden, the government and Hayden Survey systematically commissioned photographers to make photographs of the various tribes. See lots 5027-5037 for examples and further explanation.

Curtis adopted this as his theme for his project and sold various versions of the photograph The Vanishing Race for 25 years; it was his most popular print.
Condition Report: Very Good. Minor wear to print surface, minor scuffs/abrasions, foxing in margins. Yellowing near edges, especially top. Foxing/yellowing on print verso.