The North American Indian
Subtitle: being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States, and Alaska
By: written, illustrated, and published by Edward S. Curtis; edited by Frederick Webb Hodge, foreword by Theodore Roosevelt; field research conducted under the patronage of J. Pierpont Morgan.
Contributors: Hodge, Frederick Webb, 1864-1956.; Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919.; Morgan, J. Pierpont 1837-1913.; Curtis, Edward S., 1868-1952.
Publisher: E. S. Curtis; The University press]
Published: 1907
Place of publication: [Seattle, Wash.]; [Cambridge, U.S.A
Language: eng
Number of pages: 20
Subjects: Indians of North America.; Indians of North America -- Languages.
Other titles: Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian.
Description: In 1906 Curtis approached railroad tycoon J.P. Morgan to request financial assistance for his project. Morgan agreed to pay him a total of $75,000, or $15,000 a year for five years. Curtis' masterwork, The North American Indian, he and Morgan decided, would be a set of 20 volumes of ethnographic text illustrated with high quality photoengravings taken from his glass plate negatives. Each of these volumes would be accompanied by a portfolio of large size images, all sumptuously bound in Moroccan leather. The papers used for printing would also be of the best quality: a Dutch etching stock by Van Gelder, a Japanese vellum, and for the most discerning subscribers, a translucent Japanese tissue paper. To fund publication, Curtis would sell subscriptions at approximately $3,000 per set, with a total of 500 sets to be published. President Roosevelt agreed to write the forward for the project. In return for his investment, Morgan would receive 25 sets of The North American Indian and 500 original photographs. (http://www.fluryco.com/curtis/bio4.htm).

"Curtis spent the best part of his life-nearly thirty years-documenting what he considered to be the traditional way of life for Indians living in the trans-Mississippi West. He took more than 40,000 photographs, collected more than 350 traditional Indian tales, and made more than 10,000 sound recordings of Indian speeches and music His magnum opus was The North American Indian." (Pritzker, Edward S. Curtis, 6).
Notes: Photographs from the basic text and portfolios are also available through the Library of Congress Web site under title: Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian : photographic images.
Text and photographs also available in digital form from the Northwestern University Digital Library Collections.
Vols. 9-20 have title: The North American Indian; being a series of volumes picturing and describing the Indians of the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and Alaska ...
Vols. 6-20 printed at the Plimpton press, Norwood, Mass.
Original photogravures produced in Norwood, Mass. by Plimpton Press and in Cambridge, Mass. by Suffolk Engraving from 1903-1925.
"This edition is limited to five hundred sets."
Vols. 3-20 contain vocabularies.
Supplemented by: "The North American Indian, list of large plates supplementing v. 1-20." (20 portfolios of numbered plates 60 x 50 cm.). Number 150 inccorectly numbered 159. Two different plates are numbered 400. Contents: v. 1. no. 1-39.--v. 2. no. 40-75.--v. 3. no. 76-110, 119.--v. 4. no. 111-118, 120-147.--v. 5. no. 148-183.--v. 6. no. 184-219.--v. 7. no. 220-255.--v. 8. no. 256-292.--v. 9. no. 293-328.--v. 10. no. 329-364.--v. 11. no. 365-400.--v. 12. no. 400[a]-435.--v. 13. no. 436-471.--v. 14. no. 472-507.--v. 15. no. 508-543.--v. 16. no. 544-579.--v. 17. no. 580-615.--v. 18. no. 616-651.--v. 19. no. 652-687.--v. 20. no. 688-722. CALL NUMBER: E77.C97a.
Table of contents: title: I. The Apache. The Jicarillas. The Navaho.; title: II. The Pima. The Papago. The Qahatika. The Mohave. The Yuma. The Maricopa. The Walapai. The Havasupai. The Apache-Mohave, or Yavapai.; title: III. The Teton Sious. The Yanktonai. The Assiniboin.; title: IV. The apsaroke, or Crows. The Hidatsa.; title: V. The Mandan. The Arikara. The Atsina.; title: VI. The Piegan. The Cheyenne. The Arapaho.; title: VII. The Yakima. The Klickitat. Salishan tribes of the interior. The Kutenai.; title: VIII. The Nez Percʹes. Wallawalla. Umatilla. Cayuse. The Chinookan tribes.; title: IX. Salishan tribes of the coast. The Chimakum and the Quilliute. The Willapa.; title: X. The Kwakiutl.; title: XI. The Nootka. The Haida.; title: XII. The Hopi.; title: XIII. The Hupa. The Yurok. The Karok. The Wiyot. Tolowa and Tututni. The Shasta. The Achomawi. The Klamath.; title: XIV. The Kato. The Wailaki. The Yuki. The Pomo. The Wintun. The Maidu. The Miwok. The Yokuts.; title: XV. Southern California Shoshoneans. The Diegueños. Plateau Shoshoneans. The Washo. XVI. The Tiwa. The Keres.; title: XVII. The Tewa. The Zuñi.; title: XVIII. The Chipewyan. The Western woods Cree. The Sarsi. XIX. The Indians of Oklahoma. The Wichita. The southern Cheyenne. The Oto. The Comanche. The Peyote cult.; title: XX. The Alaskan Eskimo. The Nunivak Eskimo of Hooper bay. Eskimo of King island. Eskimo of Little Diomede island. Eskimo of Cape Prince of Wales. The Kotzebue Eskimo. The Noatak. The Kobuk. The Selawik.