Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

36 photogravure plates from portfolio XVI (each ca 21 7/8 x 17 3/4 in.; 557 x 452 mm), comprising plate numbers 544-579, PRINTED ON JAPAN VELLUM, with Curtis's credit, the printer's credit, the title, copyright date, and plate number printed on recto, deckle preserved on edges, on original overmats; list of plates laid in; archivally matted with tissue guards and preserved in a new folding case.

The Tiwa, Tano, and Keres cultures from Curtis's landmark work.

[With:] The North American Indian being a Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska. Edited by Frederick Webb Hodge. Foreword by Theodore Roosevelt. Field Research conducted under the patronage of J. Pierpont Morgan. Vol. IV and Vol. XVIII. Norwood, Massachusetts: The Plimpton Press, 1909, 1928. 2 text volumes, 4to (316 x 240 mm). 148 (74 and 74) photogravures PRINTED ON JAPAN VELLUM, several hand-colored in gouache (minor toning from tissue guards throughout). Original brown half morocco gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut, stamp-signed by H. Blackwell and Whitman Bennett. LIMITED EDITION, both numbered 239 of 500 proposed sets (but probably only 272 sets produced). ONLY 30 OF THESE SETS WERE PRINTED ON JAPAN VELLUM.

"Many Native Americans Curtis photographed called him Shadow Catcher. But the images he captured were far more powerful than mere shadows. The men, women, and children in The North American Indian seem as alive to us today as they did when Curtis took their pictures in the early part of the twentieth century. Curtis respected the Native Americans he encountered and was willing to learn about their culture, religion, and way of life. In return, the Native Americans respected and trusted him. When judged by the standards of his time, Curtis was far ahead of his contemporaries in sensitivity, tolerance, and openness to Native American cultures and ways of thinking" (Laurie Lawlor, Shadow Catcher: The Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis, p.6). His life-work, The Native American Indian, stands as a monument of American photography and illustrated-book production. Howes C-965; Truthful Lens 40.