On the Road with the Histocrats: "Edward S. Curtis: Photographer of his Time"

The James Museum, our favorite museum in Florida, has mounted another great exhibition this winter, through March 29, 2026, that is a must-see for anyone interested in American art, history, and photography. ( Exhibit Website ) Its subject is the work of Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), a photographer and ethnologist who made it his life work to document what he, and the rest of the world, believed were the last days of Native Americans. By the end of the 19th century, Native Americans had been totally broken. Survivors of disease, starvation and decades of warfare had been forced onto bleak reservations, their cultures and spirits shattered. It seemed that the entire race was entering its last days; the "end of the trail" became a common and symbolic motif among writers and artists. Curtis began traveling throughout the American West in the 1890s, photographing Native Americans as they lived their daily lives. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, he had the idea to publish a thorough and complete set of books permanently recording for posterity as many of the surviving tribes and their cultures as he could before they disappeared forever. The books would be of the highest quality and include the best reproductions of his photos, and its price would be high. Finally, twenty volumes were published over decades, and the work consumed Curtis' life.

One of the volumes on display

Curtis' photos, and his ethnologies, became an invaluable resource, a cultural treasure, even though his ethnologies contain some errors and misinterpretations. His photos have been reproduced repeatedly in books and as art. Here, the James Museum curator Caitlin Pendola and co-curator Ernest Gendron have assembled an exhibition that not only documents Curtis' career, but it also illustrates how his work changed and evolved over time, reflecting new art movements and attitudes. The exhibition also brilliantly pairs some of his photos with works by some of his contemporaries like Dorothea Lange, Thomas Hart Benton, and Matisse. Viewers can see the similarities, and it's like the works are engaged in conversation with each other.

Students of history will recognize many of the photos in the exhibit as prints often used in books and documentaries.

The exhibition also includes a special gallery of portraits taken by Curtis. One portrait is chosen to represent each of the 84 tribes or communities that Curtis documented in his 20 volumes. They are remarkable portraits. Displayed on four walls in one small space, the photos dispel the monolithic view of "Native Americans" as a homogenous culture. The viewer sees the many differences in physical appearance and in culture that actually existed among the hundreds of tribes that were present in North America in the past. Beyond that, the viewer sees individual human beings, each with his or her won story.