PROFILE OF EDWARD CURTIS PART 1

A PROFILE OF PHOTOGRAPHER EDWARD CURTIS - Famed photographer Edward S. Curtis was born in Whitewater, Wisconsin on February 16th, 1868. Curtis' father Johnson Curtis had served as an army chaplain during the Civil War. At about the age of six, Edward moved with his family to Minnesota, eventually settling in Cordova, Minnesota in 1880. Edward's father, who suffered from ill health resulting from his military service during the war, accepted a position as an evangelist minister. Edward built himself a camera at the age of twelve, and by the age of eighteen, he had become an accomplished photographer. In 1887, Edward and his father, and shortly thereafter, the rest of the family, relocated to the Portland, Oregon area. A short time later, Edward's father passed on. In 1891, Curtis and a partner opened a photography studio in Seattle. Curtis' first serious attempt at photographing native Americans involved portraits he made of Princess Angeline, the daughter of Chief Seattle. It was a chance encounter with two scientists, George B. Grinnell, founder of the Audobon Society, and Clinton Merriam, founder of the National Geographical Society, that set Curtis on the path that would become his career and life's passion. In 1900, Curtis joined Grinnell and Merriam on an expedition to Montana to study the Plains Indians. To be continued (PROFILE OF EDWARD CURTIS - PART 2). LARRY ELKINS - ELKINSPHOTOS