Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher

by Timothy Egan

  Curtis’s work habits, from his letters to Leitch, SPL.

  Mathew Brady and his life quest, from Mathew Brady and the Image of History, by Mary Panzer, Smithsonian Books, 2004.

  Acoma description, from two visits by the author. Spanish battle detail at Acoma from The Last Conquistador: Juan de Oñate and the Settling of the Far Southwest, by Marc Simmons, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

  Acoma, quote on two religions, “Indians of the Stone House,” by E. S. Curtis, Scribner’s, February 1909.

  Hopi Snake Dance and camera, from Seattle Times, May 22, 1904.

  Curtis spirituality, from letter to Hodge, October 28, 1904, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Curtis on the Navajo, from NAI, Vol. I.

  Canyon de Chelly description, from the author’s visit.

  Canyon de Chelly history, from National Park Service, www.nps.gov.

  Curtis letter to Meany, October 13, 1904, from Meany papers.

  Curtis letter to Hodge, October 28, 1904, from Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Curtis and incident with expert at the Cosmos Club, as told by Curtis in Seattle Mail and Herald, May 13, 1905.

  Geronimo biography, from Geronimo: His Own Story, by Stephen Melvil Barrett and Frederick W. Turner III, originally published in 1906, reprint, Penguin, 1996.

  Bird Grinnell on Curtis, from Grinnell, “Portraits of Indian Types,” Scribner’s, March 1905.

  Grosvener letter, February 18, 1905, quoted in Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated.

  Curtis letter to Roosevelt, December 15, 1905, and reply, December 16, 1905, from Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Library of Congress.

  6. IN THE DEN OF THE TITAN

  Morgan letters, contracts, from Edward S. Curtis papers, Morgan Library archives.

  Morgan Library, plan and details, from Morgan Library, www.themorgan.org., and from “Let There Be Light and Elegance,” New York Times, October 29, 2010.

  The Curtis plan, outline, from Curtis papers, Morgan Library archives.

  Morgan background, from Morgan: American Financier, by Jean Strouse, Harper Perennial, 2000.

  Railroads, and how they changed the lives of Indians, from They Built the West: An Epic of Rails and Cities, by Glenn Chesney Quiett, Appleton-Century, 1934.

  Belle da Costa Greene, from An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege, by Heidi Ardizzone, Norton, 2007, and from Strouse, Morgan: American Financier.

  Rave at Waldorf-Astoria, from Craftsman, March 1906.

  Curtis-Morgan encounter, from Curtis-Leitch correspondence, SPL. Additional details from UW archives, and notes of Florence Curtis Graybill in the Curtis family files.

  Headline, Morgan money, from New York Press, March 26, 1906.

  Roosevelt letter to Curtis, February 6, 1906, from Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Harvard University Press, 1952. Curtis letter to Roosevelt asking him to write introduction, August 17, 1906. Roosevelt’s reply, August 28, 1906.

  7. ANGLOS IN INDIAN COUNTRY

  Curtis desire to get Apache secrets, from his unpublished memoir, “As It Was.”

  Curtis description of Myers, from Curtis-Leitch correspondence, SPL.

  How Curtis gets to Apache country, from his “Vanishing Indian Types,” Scribner’s, May 1906.

  Harold Curtis quotes, on being in the field with his father for the first time, from Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field.

  Description of White Mountain Apache reservation and surrounding area, from the author’s visit.

  Curtis letter to Hodge, June 9, 1906, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Curtis on being rejected, from “As It Was.”

  Descriptions of Goshonné in Apache country, from Curtis’s account in “As It Was” and from another personal account on file at UW, undated, apparently written much later. Also from Phillips account in Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field.

  Curtis’s domestic strife, details from divorce papers, Curtis v. Curtis, on file at King County courthouse, Seattle.

  Traveling party load, and how he works, “conditions cannot be changed,” from Curtis undated typescript in Meany papers.

  Children’s point of view in Canyon de Chelly, from Boesen and Graybill, Edward S. Curtis: Photographer of the North American Indian, and recollections in UW Library, Special Collections.

  More descriptions of Canyon de Chelly, from the author’s visit, and author’s visits to Chinle and nearby Old Oraibi.

  Curtis quotes, “on the move,” from UW lecture recollections.

  Storms, weather, from untitled and undated Curtis speech on how he works, in Meany papers.

  Snake Dance, from Meany papers, undated. Snake around his neck, from Curtis’s written program for the picture opera.

  Snake Dance, additional information, from NAI, Vol. XII.

  Snake Dance, letter from Curtis to Hodge, September 27, 1906, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  8. THE ARTIST AND HIS AUDIENCE

  How to write, from Curtis class lecture at UW.

  Curtis letter to Morgan, August 17, 1906, from Morgan Library.

  Curtis on writing Vol. I of NAI, from letter to Morgan, November 17, 1906.

  Morgan and early panic, from Strouse, Morgan: American Financier.

  Curtis introduction, from NAI, Vol. I.

  Curtis to Meany, November 5, 1907, Meany papers.

  Curtis to Meany, November 11, 1907, Meany papers.

  Vanishing race, Curtis description, from Curtis letter to Burke, January 26, 1906, UW Library, Special Collections, various letters in Curtis file.

  Phillips quote, “insanely optimistic,” as told by Curtis in a letter to Meany, September 4, 1907.

  Smithsonian rejection, from Charles Walcott letter to Curtis, April 16, 1907, Smithsonian archives.

  Brown University rejection, from Curtis letter to Hodge on “so much to say,” December 1, 1907, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  T.R. introduction, from NAI, Vol. I.

  Curtis on Navajo, “American Bedouins,” from NAI, Vol. I.

  Losing track of chemicals, framing a picture a certain way, from class lecture at UW.

  Imogen Cunningham, from article on Seattle Art Museum show of Cunningham’s work, Seattle Times, August 30, 2009.

  Working till last cable car, from Phillips’s unpublished notes on Curtis in Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field.

  Review of Waldorf-Astoria show, from Craftsman, March 1906.

  Apache and Navajo details, from NAI, Vol. I.

  The Upshaw conversation from Curtis, “Vanishing Indian Types,” Scribner’s, June 1906.

  Curtis on nature of “savages,” from field notes, 1906, Morgan Library archives.

  Curtis on wanting to keep nudes in NAI, from his letter to Hodge, June 26, 1907.

  Greene on “most interesting person in New York,” from Strouse, Morgan: American Financier.

  Morgan quote on Wall Street, from The American Past, by Roger Butterfield, Simon & Schuster, 1966.

  Curtis letter to Meany, August 20, 1907, on Seattle gang not appreciating him, from Meany papers.

  Meany letter to Curtis, August 25, 1907, on “greatest literary achievement,” from Meany papers.

  Ayers comments, fifty men, from Curtis letter to Hodge, December 17, 1907, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Morgan saves capitalism, from Strouse, Morgan: American Financier, and from The Panic of 1907, by Robert F. Bruner and Sean D. Carr, John Wiley and Sons, 2007.

  Morgan letter, November 7, 1907, Morgan Library archives.

  Review of first two volumes of NAI, from New York Times, June 6, 1908.

  Comparison of Curtis’s work to King James Bible, New York Herald, June 16, 1907.

  Curtis compared to Audubon, Independent, August 20, 1908.

  Curtis hailed further, from Chicago Unity, July 30, 1908.

 
9. THE CUSTER CONUNDRUM

  Curtis on Little Bighorn battlefield, from his own notes, on file at UW Library, Special Collections, where he discusses retracing battlefield with Sioux, with Two Moons of the Cheyenne, with Crow and with General Charles A. Woodruff.

  Physical descriptions of the battlefield, from the author’s two trips to the site.

  Alexander Upshaw, from Between Indian and White Worlds: The Cultural Broker, by Margaret Connell Szasz, University of Oklahoma Press, 2001, and from “Native Agency and the Making of the North American Indian: Alexander Upshaw and Edward S. Curtis,” by Shamoon Zamir, American Indian Quarterly, Fall 2007.

  Custer account, from The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, by Nathaniel Philbrick, Viking, 2010.

  Crazy Horse, from NAI, Vol. III, and from The Killing of Crazy Horse, by Thomas Powers, Knopf, 2010.

  Cheyenne, and Sand Creek massacre description, from NAI, Vol. VI.

  Later Curtis account, all his findings on the battle that were not included in NAI, from The Papers of Edward S. Curtis Relating to Custer’s Last Battle, edited by James S. Hutchins, Upton and Sons, 2000, on file at the Library of Congress.

  Other Custer and Curtis comments, from NAI, Vol. III.

  Upshaw’s temptations, from the Carlisle School’s website: www.home.epix.net/~landis/history.html.

  Upshaw on his white wife and his work with Curtis, from Hearings Before the Committee on Indian Affairs in the Senate, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1908.

  Upshaw and Carlisle School philosophy, from Carlisle School’s website.

  Patronizing letter from Indian agent Z. Lewis Dalby to Upshaw, July 13, 1907, from records at Hearings Before the Committee on Indian Affairs in the Senate, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1908.

  Dalby’s view of Crow, from Senate hearings transcript, ibid., 1908.

  Curtis predicting Upshaw would go to the “god of his fathers,” from class lecture at UW.

  Hal’s typhoid fever, from his sister’s account in Boesen and Graybill, Edward S. Curtis: Photographer of the North American Indian, and from Curtis’s letters of that summer.

  The starving Sioux, from Meany, Seattle Times, August 11, 1907.

  Curtis’s work schedule, summary of the work to date, from letter to Belle da Costa Greene, 1913, Morgan Library archives.

  Curtis letter to Meany, “anything published” on Custer, October 22, 1907, and all subsequent letters of that fall and winter, from UW Library, Special Collections. Letters from Curtis to Meany, from Meany papers.

  Interview of Custer, New York Herald, November 10, 1907.

  Curtis and Pinchot’s back and forth on Custer, quoted in Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated.

  Roosevelt letter, April 8, 1908, from Letters of Theodore Roosevelt.

  Curtis letter to army colonel re “facts,” from Curtis’s Library of Congress file.

  Curtis letter to Meany, “very guarded,” August 28, 1908, Meany papers.

  Custer, final words and final form of the chapter on the battle, from NAI, Vol III.

  10. THE MOST REMARKABLE MAN

  “Great and loyal friend,” from NAI, Vol. IV.

  Letters, and “fine man,” from Dalby letter, September 15, 1907, in government transcript of Senate hearings in 1908.

  Meany and Upshaw on a train, Meany letter to Curtis, August 11, 1907, Meany papers.

  Upshaw’s value, letter from Curtis to Hodge, December 26, 1907, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Scholarly value of the Crow volume, from Zamir, “Native Agency and the Making of the North American Indian: Alexander Upshaw and Edward S. Curtis.”

  Descriptions of Crow, from NAI, Vol. IV.

  Description of Crow reservation, from the author’s visit to Crow Agency, Montana.

  Description of Mandan land, from the author’s visit to Fort Berthold Indian reservation and New Town, North Dakota.

  Description of bear ceremony and its meaning, from NAI, Vol. V.

  Quote by Curtis on Upshaw “educated,” from newspaper clipping of 1905, in Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field.

  Descriptions of getting the turtles, from Curtis’s field notes in “As It Was,” on file at UW Library, Special Collections.

  Further descriptions of turtles, from NAI, Vol. V.

  Curtis letter to Meany from North Dakota on turtles, July 31, 1908, Meany papers.

  Slight from Cullen, Curtis letter to Hodge, January 14, 1908, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Rave from Peabody, Professor Putnam letter to Curtis, January 22, 1908, from Morgan Library archives.

  Review of Reviews, February 1909.

  Dr. ten Kate letter, undated, from Curtis files at Southwest Museum.

  Washington Post headline and rave, February 25, 1909.

  Upshaw conversation with Curtis on nobody left, from Curtis, “Vanishing Indian Types,” Scribner’s, June 1906.

  Upshaw letter to Dalby on “justice,” March 29, 1908, from Senate hearings, 1908.

  Washington Post, on Curtis’s background, February 23, 1909, and on diplomats and the actual visit, February 26, 1909.

  Death of Upshaw, from NAI, Vol. VIII.

  Details of death of Upshaw in jail, from Billings Gazette, October 20, 1909, and from Yellowstone County death certificate, both courtesy of the Yellowstone Genealogy Forum.

  11. ON THE RIVER OF THE WEST

  Descriptions of the Columbia River, from Curtis’s unpublished memoir, “As It Was.”

  Further descriptions of the Columbia, from the author’s visit along the length of the river and the path that Curtis took (though a number of dams have changed the river).

  Columbia River’s power, from A River Lost, by Blaine Harden, Norton, 1996, and River of the West, by Robert Clark, HarperCollinsWest, 1995.

  Curtis on Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition, from letter to Meany, June 1, 1909, Meany papers.

  Hal Curtis’s “I never came home” reminiscence, for his sister Florence’s manuscript, found in random files in Curtis collection at UW Library, Special Collections.

  Rainier Club information and history, from The Rainier Club, by Walt Crowley, 1988, published for club members, and from the author’s interview with club officials, in particular Russell Johanson, historian and archivist at the club. The author is an honorary member of the club.

  Curtis’s writing about the Cheyenne, and picture selection, from NAI, Vol. VI.

  Retouching the alarm clock: the caption is from NAI, Vol. VI. Photo showing the clock is in Library and Congress collection of Curtis photos; photo without the clock is a finished plate as it appeared in NAI, Vol. VI.

  Writings on the Nez Perce, from NAI, Vol. VIII.

  The rapids of the Columbia, Noggie crying, and other incidents, from Curtis writings on file at UW Library, Special Collections.

  Descriptions of the Wishham, from NAI, Vol. VIII, and from Curtis’s field notes.

  Graveyard of the Pacific, description of the mouth of the Columbia, from the author’s trip and boat ride over the Columbia River Bar.

  12. NEW ART FORMS

  Andrew Carnegie, from Curtis letter to Meany, November 19, 1911, Meany papers.

  Belle Greene letter to Curtis, November 15, 1911, from Morgan Library archives.

  Belle Greene’s affair, from Strouse, Morgan: American Financier.

  Morgan schedule, from Strouse, Morgan: American Financier.

  Quotes about Greene, and by her, from Ardizzone, An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege.

  Osborn’s background, his writings cited in “Rocky Road: Henry Fairfield Osborn,” www.strangesience.net/osborn.htm.

  Exchange of letters between Osborn and Roosevelt, December 21, 1908, from Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Vol. VI.

  Curtis praised in long profile in New York Times, April 16, 1911.

  Curtis reading script for his show, from a typescript of the musi
cal in Gidley, in Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field.

  New York Evening World, November 16, 1911.

  Roosevelt praise on musicale, letters, T.R. to Curtis, November 21, 1911, Roosevelt letters at Library of Congress.

  Curtis letter to Meany, November 19, 1911, Meany papers.

  Curtis, “broke,” letter to Hodge, November 19, 1911, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Curtis letter to Hodge, “address me at Rainier Club,” August 15, 1910, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Curtis letter to Hodge, “Cheer up,” January 11, 1912, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Possible bankruptcy, letter to Dr. Kelsey (no first name given), January 11, 1912, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Experts question “vanishing,” and Curtis response, in Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated.

  Curtis’s “gush” explanation to Morgan board, from a long summary of work to date at end of 1912, Morgan library archives.

  Curtis on treatment of Indians in profile, from Hampton Magazine, May 1912, reprinted in Gidley, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field.

  “no earthly thing” without mortgage, Curtis letter to Hodge, September 18, 1908, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

  Film history, from Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, edited by Ian Aitken, Routledge, 2005.

  Description of Kwakiutl, from NAI, Vol. X.

  Film company prospectus, and Curtis on documentary, in Edward S. Curtis in the Land of the War Canoes, by Bill Holm and George Irving Quimby, University of Washington Press, 1980.

  Hunt background, from Curtis recollections in “As It Was,” and his description of Hunt in NAI, Vol. X.

  Details of Morgan’s death and funeral, from Strouse, Morgan: American Financier.

  Curtis’s future, and apprehension, from various Curtis letters to Leitch, SPL.

  Curtis letter to Greene, April 6, 1913, Morgan Library archives.