1910s Photography

Beken Cowes print of the Norddeutscher Lloyd ocean liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Gross. The ship was in service from 1897 to 1914 when was scutted in battles by the British cruiser HMS H...

A veritable who's who of turn of the 20th Century embalmers. These fine career men depicted in black and white photography, circa 1910. The photograph is signed lower right, E(?) Whi...

Presented is a fine photogravure portrait of a Piegan man named New Chest by Edward Curtis. The image is Plate 200 from Supplementary Portfolio 6 of Edward Curtis' epic project The North American Indian. The sixth portfolio volume featured the Piegan, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. The photogravure was published in 1910 and was printed by John Andrew & Son, in Boston. Edward S. Curtis created one of the most enduring and iconic visual records in the history of the photographic medium. He was an award-winning artist, a consummate craftsman, a visionary, an intrepid entrepreneur, and was highly regarded as a respected ethnographer and publisher. Curtis began photographing Native Americans in the mid-1890s and selling these images in his successful downtown Seattle studio. One of his earliest models was Princess Angeline, the aged daughter of chief Sealth, the Suquamish Indian after whom Seattle is named. At the National Photographic Convention of 1899 Curtis was awarded the grand prize for three of his soft-focused, sepia-toned images of Puget Sound Native Americans: Evening on the Sound, The Clam Digger, and The Mussel Gatherer. Curtis spent the summer of 1900 with George Bird Grinnell observing the Sun Dance at an encampment of Blood, Blackfeet, and Algonquin in Montana. This was a pivotal experience for Curtis, confirming his desire to study and photograph the Native tribes of North America. A trip to visit the Hopi reservation in Arizona a few months later further fueled his enthusiasm. Curtis envisioned a plan to create a massive scholarly and artistic work that would document the tribes west of the Mississippi, their ceremonies, beliefs, daily life, and landscapes. 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. Morgan and Curtis decided that Curtis' masterwork, The North American Indian, 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. An ambitious and extensive project, Curtis spent much of his life documenting as many Native tribes as possible. The importance and the urgency of the task was clear to him, as he wrote in the introduction to his first volume of The North American Indians in 1907, "The information that is to be gathered ... respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost." In 1930, some 24 years after his initial request for funding, the last two volumes, Vol. 19 and Vol. 20, were published and The North American Indian project was finally completed. Curtis took over 40,000 photographs and made over 10,000 wax cylinder...

Presented is a fine photogravure portrait of a Cheyenne man with cottonwood leave headdress by Edward Curtis. The image is Plate 216 from Supplementary Portfolio 6 of Edward Curtis' epic project The North American Indian. The sixth portfolio volume featured the Piegan, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. The caption provided by Curtis for this image is “At the summer gatherings for such occasions as the Sun Dance, the men sometimes protect their heads from the merciless sun by a thatch of cottonwood leaves.” The photogravure was published in 1910 and was printed by John Andrew & Son, in Boston. Curtis began photographing Native Americans in the Mid-1890s and selling these images in his successful downtown Seattle studio. One of his earliest models was Princess Angeline, the aged daughter of chief Sealth, the Suquamish Indian after whom Seattle is named. At the National Photographic Convention of 1899 Curtis was awarded the grand prize for three of his soft-focused, sepia-toned images of Puget Sound Native Americans: Evening on the Sound, The Clam Digger, and The Mussel Gatherer. Curtis spent the summer of 1900 with George Bird Grinnell observing the Sun Dance at an encampment of Blood, Blackfeet, and Algonquin in Montana. This was a pivotal experience for Curtis, confirming his desire to study and photograph the Native tribes of North America. A trip to visit the Hopi reservation in Arizona a few months later further fueled his enthusiasm. Curtis envisioned a plan to create a massive scholarly and artistic work that would document the tribes west of the Mississippi, their ceremonies, beliefs, daily life, and landscapes. 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. Morgan and Curtis decided that Curtis' masterwork, The North American Indian, 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. An ambitious and extensive project, Curtis spent much of his life documenting as many Native tribes as possible. The importance and the urgency of the task was clear to him, as he wrote in the introduction to his first volume of The North American Indians in 1907, "The information that is to be gathered ... respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost." In 1930, some 24 years after his initial request for funding, the last two volumes, Vol. 19 and Vol. 20, were published and The North American Indian project was finally completed. Curtis took over 40,000 photographs and made over 10,000 wax...

An amazing sepia-toned silver gelatin group photo taken at The Metropolitan Roller Rink, NYC. Located at Broadway and 53rd Street and founded in 1905. These large group photos are relatively rare and are just taken for special occasions like this Masque and Carnival. This photo is inscribed on the reverse and signed in the negative with period captions to commemorate the event. It reads: Grand Roller Skating Masque & Carnival, 5th Anniversary of The Metropolitan Roller Rink, April 12th, 1910. The photographer has taken a very wide shot that captures the immense space of the balcony and the floor and a mass of people dressed in all types of costumes. Inscription on the reverse in ink reads: Mr. Frank S...

Over one hundred people, a trolley car and a couple of automobiles were photographed for this amazing circa 1914 panorama photograph in front of th...

A wonderful panoramic sepia photograph of the Indy 500 racing drivers, cars, & mechanics on the raceway of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with a caption below which reads “The Lineup of Drivers and Mechanicians, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 31, 15,” matted and framed under glass in an ebonized wooden frame. The race was originally advertised as the "International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race" from 1911 to 1916. However, from its inception, the race has been widely known as the Indianapolis 500...

Set of 10 maritime photos by Nathaniel Livermore Stebbins a noted American marine photographer. All blind stamped N. L. Stebbins Boston Mass lower right corner. Numbered lower left c...

An original and large photograph of R.M.S. Titanic by Beken of Cowes, printed in sepia, inscribed and signed in Indian ink TITANIC/Beken & Sons, Cowes. In the original oak frame and ...

A panoramic framed photograph of the arrival of the Australian fleet in Sydney, 4th October 1913. Footnote: Admiral Sir George Edwin Patey KCMG KCVO joined the Navy aged just 12. Seeing action ashore during the Anglo-Zulu War...

On Saturday, July 24, 1915, thousands gathered by the Chicago River for the annual Western Electric's 5th employee picnic. The S.S. Eastland ("Speed Quee...

On the morning of Saturday, July 24, 1915, while rain fell, thousands gathered by the Chicago River for Western Electric's 5th annual employee picnic. Th...