The North American Indian

Originally used to illustrate a 20-volume encyclopedia of Native American history and culture, these photographs from the first decades of the 20th century are a valuable document of history. From a striking 1905 portrait of Geronimo to the seal-hunting Eskimos of Nunivak Island, Edward S. Curtis's pictures reflect the diversity of cultures that existed among the various Indian tribes. Their quality is superb--Curtis used the then-state-of-the-art photogravure process to reproduce his images--and the 1906 critique from Theodore Roosevelt remains valid: "In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer ... whose work has far more than mere accuracy, because it is truthful."