The North American Indians: The Complete Portfolios

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Originally used to illustrate a 20-volume encyclopedia of Native American history and culture, these photographs from the first decades of the 20th century are a valuable document of history. From a striking 1905 portrait of Geronimo to the seal-hunting Eskimos of Nunivak Island, Edward S. Curtis's pictures reflect the diversity of cultures that existed among the various Indian tribes. Their quality is superb--Curtis used the then-state-of-the-art photogravure process to reproduce his images--and the 1906 critique from Theodore Roosevelt remains valid: "In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer ... whose work has far more than mere accuracy, because it is truthful."

Customer Reviews:

Indispensable Visual Reference.......2005-09-09

This book is an indispensable reference for any artist who aspires to paint or draw Native Americans as part of their Western art if they want an authentic representation of those forgotten times.

[As an aside, I managed to find a hardback copy of this book, so they are out there if one looks hard enough for one.]

An Extraordinary Photographic Legacy .......2005-03-15

Edward Sheriff Curtis dedicated his life's work to documenting the customs and lifeways of the Native American peoples of North America. This extraordinary book includes some of the best photographic examples from Curtis' twenty volume masterpiece, "The North American Indian," one of the most significant representations of traditional indigenous culture ever produced.

Curtis was one of two official photographers for the 1899 Harriman expedition to Alaska.
On his return, he stopped in northern Montana, accompanied by George Bird Grinell, editor of Forest and Stream. There he witnesses the deeply sacred Sundance of the Piegan and Blackfoot tribes, a sight which transformed his life. Grinell said to him at that time, "Take a good look. We're not going to see this kind of thing much longer. It already belongs to the past". It became clear to him then, that he was to record, with pen and camera, the life of the North American Indian.

Beginning in 1900 and continuing over the next thirty years, Edward S. Curtis, sometimes called the "Shadow Catcher" by tribes' people, took over 40,000 photographs and recorded ethnographic information from over eighty American Indian tribal groups, ranging from the Eskimo or Inuit people in the North to the Hopi people of the Southwest. In the end, the work comprised twenty textual volumes and twenty portfolios with over 2,000 illustrations
They are organized by tribes and culture areas, encompassing the Great Plains, Great Basin, Plateau Region, Southwest, California, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. Featured here are some of the photographer's most impressive pictures, including: seal-hunting Eskimos of Nunivak Island, portraits of three Piegan chiefs on horseback, portraits of Chief Red Cloud, Ogalala Sioux, Geronimo, Chief Joseph, Nez Perce, the magnificent Canon de Chelly, (Navaho), and one of my favorites, Kotsuis and Hohhuq - Nakoaktok - 2 masked performers in a winter dance.

These reproductions are a precious American legacy and an artistic masterpiece worthy of any collection.
JANA

Best Image from 30-Years of Documentary on Native Indian.......2003-03-09

This book contains the best black/white images from the original complete collection. The portraits of Indian and the past moment of their daily life were captured with their character and dignity.

It is a marvelous image collection (Edward spent 30 years to make this 20-volume encyclopedia) of history. It represents the love of the dying population, and records the broken dream of native Indian.

Great Collection.......2002-04-13

This is an incredible collection of pictures. Piles on piles of pictures. But... The pictures are small. I was hoping for a collection of large pictures(i.e. 8x10) but the majority of them are approximately 4x5. It's a wonderful book, but don't expect full sized images. Irregardless it's a great buy for the price. You'll have a hard time finding a collection of pictures as big as this(even if the pictures are small) :)

the complete best.......2000-01-26

absolutely stunning recollection of his complete photos. the reproductions are somewhat small, but easily viewable. such a complete set is so awe inspiring, anyone who has an interest or a love for native ameircan history/american history must have this book. absolute beauty.

Art of the American Indian Frontier: A Portfolio

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Art of the American Indian Frontier: A Portfolio
David W. Penney
Manufacturer: New Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Decorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Folk Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The art contained in this portfolio--all from the renowned Chandler-Pohrt Collection--includes colorful men's and women's clothing, buckskin and porcupine quill bags, woven sashes, jewelry, smoking pipes, and other decorative and ceremonial objects, all made between 1800 and 1920. The design and craftsmanship are witness to the creative spirit that endured even in the face of continual governmental attempts at forced assimilation. Replete with twenty-four beautifully printed, unbound, full-color plates, Art of the American Indian Frontier opens the door to the rich world of North American Woodlands and Plains Indian art.

North American Indian Portfolio: Hunting Scenes and Amusements of the Rocky Mountains and Prairies of America 1844

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North American Indian Portfolio: Hunting Scenes and Amusements of the Rocky Mountains and Prairies of America 1844
George Catlin
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1419177311

Seth Eastman: A Portfolio of North American Indians

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A superb addition to any Native American collection
The Coffee Table and Beyond

Seth Eastman: A Portfolio of North American Indians
Sarah E. Boehme , Christian F. Feest , Patricia Condon Johnston , Seth Eastman , and Minn.) Afton Historical Society Press (Afton
Manufacturer: Afton Historical Society Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0963933841

Book Description

A LANDMARK PUBLICATION that showcases the foremost collection of watercolors by the premier pictorial historian of the American Indian in the nineteenth century. A career U.S. Army officer assigned to frontier duty, including a seven-year stint at Fort Snelling in the 1840s, Eastman preserved a visual record of Native American life, which was then undergoing rapid change.

Customer Reviews:

A superb addition to any Native American collection.......2001-07-06

Seth Eastman: A Portfolio Of North American Indians showcases fifty-six watercolor paintings by a career army officer who was assigned to frontier duty (including a seven-year stint at Fort Snelling in the 1840s). The artist was also a gifted pictorial historian of the Native Americans who was scrupulous in his accuracy of portraying the whole complex fabric of Native American dress, culture, and daily life. This outstanding compendium of his work ranges from temporary summer encampments to winter villages; courting and marriage customs; the making of maple sugar, protecting cornfields from birds, spearing fish, gathering wild rice; the menstrual lodge, how Dakota women sat, the medicine man; as well as breaking camp and traveling. Enhanced with informative, insightful, descriptive commentaries by Sara E. Boehme, Christian E. Feest, and Patricia Condon Johnston, Seth Eastman: A Portfolio Of North American Indians is a superb addition to any Native American collection and will prove to be of immense interest to students of the 19th Century American art history as well.

The Coffee Table and Beyond.......2001-05-01

Perhaps more than any other individual, the paintings of Seth Eastman have become associated with the pictorial history of early Minnesota. Extremely detailed and devoid of the romanticism which often clouds later and, too frequently, lesser works, Eastman's paintings and sketches beautifully and accurately capture the landscapes and lifestyles of the Minnesota Frontier.

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating look, though tiny........2007-09-14

I found the introduction informative, and helpful. This book is a good beginning for further study. Be forewarned, the pictures are tiny.

The North American Indian: The Complete Portfolios

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Excellent quality--a bargain!

The North American Indian: The Complete Portfolios
Edward Sheriff Curtis
Manufacturer: Taschen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 382282335X

Book Description

A unique pictorial record of more than 80 American Indian tribes At the turn of the century, the American photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) started on his thirty-year project to produce a monumental study of North American Indians. Using an approach that was both artistically and scientifically ambitious he recorded, in words and pictures, the traces of the traditional Indian way of life that was already beginning to die out.

With tireless personal commitment Curtis visited American Indian tribes from the Mexican border to the Bering Straits, gaining their confidence by his patience and sensitivity. This, his photographic life's work, was printed in 20 volumes between 1907 and 1930 as The North American Indian. There were only 272 copies in total, so original copies are now extremely rare. This book gives lasting life to Curtis's great achievements by making the photographs available again.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent quality--a bargain!.......1998-08-21

6 frameable posters each about 18" x 12" (with no folds!)--a bargain! One might quibble with the choice of images, but it would be hard to choose 6 images from Curtis' vast catalog that everyone would agree on.

Catlin's North America Indian Portfolio: A Reproduciton

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Catlin's North America Indian Portfolio: A Reproduciton
G. Catlin
Manufacturer: Ohio Univ Pr (Trd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio: A Library of Congress/Abbeville Press Facsimile

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Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio: A Library of Congress/Abbeville Press Facsimile
George Catlin
Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Printmaking | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0896597628

The aboriginal portfolio: A collection of portraits of the most celebrated chiefs of the North American Indians

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The aboriginal portfolio: A collection of portraits of the most celebrated chiefs of the North American Indians
James Otto Lewis
Manufacturer: Lohman & Duval lithrs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Catlin's new work: North American Indian portfolio

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Catlin's new work: North American Indian portfolio
George Catlin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Customer Reviews:

The Whole Story -Katie S........2006-12-13

On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. At that moment, the terrible suffering and war that seemed so far away from America reached its shores. America was no longer safe. People panicked, and anyone of Japanese decent became the enemy, even if they were loyal U.S. citizens. Not so much unlike the Jews of Europe, the Japanese of America were sent to detention camps out of fear that they might still be loyal to Japan and betray the U.S. Among the many Japanese prisoners was Mine Okubo, who wrote and illustrated her biography, Citizen 13660, about what it was really like to live in Japanese internment camps during World War Two. Okubo's account is full of detail and elaborate drawings on every page, giving the reader an inside scoop into what internment camp life was really like.

Citizen 13660 is a complete account of Okubo's life from the start of WW2 in 1939 to when she was released from the internment camp after living in several other camps over a couple of years. She was a Bay Area resident living in Oakland when she and her brother were forced from their homes along with 110,000 other Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. They had to put most all their belongings into storage and leave for Tanforan Relocation Center, which was located in what is now South San Francisco. The living conditions were poor, and the camp was a mess. It was not the ideal place for any human beings to live. She goes into great detail about every aspect of camp life, and it was startling to realize just how bad the Japanese Americans had it. For example, "the flush toilets were always out of commission," (pg. 72) "the sewage system was poor," (pg 78) and their living quarters was a "20 by 9 ft. horse stall." (pg 35)

If you are looking for a book that is well written and a great piece of literature, I would recommend reading some other book. Citizen 13660 is mostly just simple sentences describing the detailed illustrations on every page. Rather than describing her life through words, she tells her story through beautiful pictures. Yet even with minimal words, she still manages to get her message across. I recommend this book to people who are looking for an easy yet interesting read, and to people who would like to know the real story behind the Japanese internment camps.

What Really Happened.......2006-12-13

The novel Citizen 13660 is an exceptional graphic novel that describes the events of the Japanese internment camps. I truly enjoyed the novel by Mine Okubo because it used both illustrations and text to describe the events of the internment camps. Another reason that I really enjoyed the novel was because Okubo describes the camps the way that she experienced them. She doesn't add detail to make the events more or less atrocious. In other words, it wasn't a personal attack on the American people, which is what I expected before opening the novel. Furthermore, Okubo provides a basic understanding of what Japanese internment camps, which is something that I feel that people need to learn about. I think that it would be an exceptional novel for junior high and high school students to read since many American history books don't discuss the Japanese internment camps. Also, since cameras, video recorders, etc. were banned from internment camps and since most of the camps have since been destroyed, Okubo's illustrations illuminate what it was like to live in the internment camps. The images of the hard straw coming out of a thin covering that was supposed to be their bed and the restrooms that provided no privacy and unhealthy conditions are stuck in my head. For those that truly believe these camps were created for the protection of Japanese people, I would like you to look at Okubo's illustrations and explain to me your definition of the word protection.
As previously stated, there are limited pictures and videos from the Japanese internment camps. However, if you are interested in viewing footage of the internment camps, the film "Something Strong Within" provides footage from ten different internment camps. Through this film, you can see the horrid conditions that the Japanese people had to live in. It also shows images of teenagers graduating high school in an internment camp. I found these images to be extremely effective because there are so many things that we take for granted that the Japanese and Japanese Americans didn't have the opportunity to experience. Through this film and Mine Okubo's graphic novel, people can learn about the struggles that the Japanese experienced during World War II.

Visuals and Text.......2006-12-11

I don't know how anyone could read this novel and not appreciate the text and visuals simultaneously. It would be easy to just read the text, but the visual representations created by Mine Okubo are profound and provide the viewer with a greater understanding of the events that Mine Okubo and other Japanese Americans underwent while in the camps. Unlike other graphic novels, the text and image are separate and not integrated. Some may find this difficult to read the text and than view the picture or vice versa, but the sketches were created while Mine Okubo was in the camp and than the descriptive text was added later to correspond with the visuals. These sketches were a descriptive journal for Mine Okubo, who like so many others wasn't allowed to bring in cameras or video recording devices to capture what she underwent and saw while in the camps. Personally, I found the text and visual continually playing of one another and neither one would have been nearly as successful without the other.

Many of the internment camps no longer exist and what remains, "are pieces of concrete, pipes, and wire," they are but a cemetery to the past. Mine Okubo has created a piece of living history and has produced a personal memoir for herself and the United States. This even should never be forgotten and should be a key portion of history that is taught within our private and public schools. Art is an expressive outlet that provides a means of releasing tension, anger, sadness, and anxiety. During the internment other artists and writers were creating profound works of art to communicate and further understand their own circumstances. For anyone that questions the relevance of this text a film that is worth watching is called, "9066 to 9/11." This film takes a look at the secretive footage taken by Japanese American Internees in the camps and corresponds their hardships and mistreatment with our current predicaments based on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A Reply to the story of the whole, not the individual.......2005-12-12

I, personally, have never been into comic books, but since reading Maus I and Citizen 13660 I have found a new appreciation for art mixed with text. This graphic novel is excellent. I disagree with the idea that we need to know the "deep insight into the feelings of the author"; that is what makes this novel so powerful. She intentionally leaves the emotions up to her audience. This is not necessarily a story about woe is me. It is a story about survival, when life hands you lemons you make lemonade and you share it.
I do agree with the dark sense of humor within this novel. And I must say I like it. Life was hard for the Japanese. These camps were not easy and sometimes rather inhumane. The weather was extreme, the food was scarce, and there was absolutely no privacy. But Mine Okubo is able to take some terrible scenarios and laugh at her characters, which enables her audience to laugh. It also made me think about what it means to have freedom and privacy. Today, people rarely even talk to their parents and siblings, let alone, their neighbors. As depicted in this novel people were practically living on top of one another. And to be to find a sense of humor through it all shows an amazing sense of character.
Overall, I think this novel is a thoughtful, selfless, piece of art. It shouldn't lose credit for being a graphic novel, or lacking drama. It should be applauded for the value of the factual, overall picture painted within it. It should be applauded for allowing its readers to be affected in anyway that it may, the book world is full of tear jerkers, we don't need anymore soap opera text filling our minds with junk.

Publishing CITIZEN 13660 Okubo's Lifelong Dream.......2005-01-18

This powerful graphic novel was drawn and written by Artist Mine Okubo when she was a teenager at a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Okubo's elegant black and white drawings and wry text make CITIZEN 13660 on a par with Art Speigelman's MAUS as a war time testimony.
It was Mine Okubo's lifelong dream to have the art and writing from her internment experience published in a proper book.
I first saw these powerful stark drawings when Author Artist Betty LaDuke told me about her favorite teacher and showed me a worn copy of the original 1946 printing of CITIZEN 13660. LaDuke was nominating her mentor for the National Women's Caucus for Art Awards, and went to Okubo's New York City apartment to photograph the hundreds of art works that filed the small space. Okubo would be the first Asian American woman honored by the WCA, which began its Honor Awards in 1979 with a ceremony at the White House recognizing Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Nevelson, Selma Burke, Isabel Bishop and Alice Neel. Betty and I sat on the Honor Awards Committee and co-edited the catalog when Mine was honored with an exhibition at The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC in 1991. One of my favorite memories is meeting Mine and introducing her to my baby daughter. She was a dignified classically beautiful woman with clear luminous skin and eyes, and a rapier wit. There is a great picture of Mine with me and Betty in the great hall of The National Museum of Women in the Arts standing with the other Honorees Otellie Loloma in her traditional Hopi dress, Mildred Constantine, Delilah Pierce and Theresa Bernstein who couldn't remember if she was 102 or 105. The Honor Ceremony was a highlight in women's art history. It was the first time the WCA Honorees included women from all four directions. Mine Okubo and the other Honorees stood there because of decades of their own hard work and determination and the love, devotion and support of many others like Betty LaDuke, the women of WCA and The National Museum of Women in the Arts.
It was Mine's lifelong wish to see CITIZEN 13660 published properly. It finally was in 1983, two years after WCA honored her and decades after she first created it in 1946. It is a beautiful book with a bold important cover, both text and art is stark and truthful, but not without humor. Okubo's seminal memoir could finally take its rightful place among other war testimonials.
Okubo and others of her generation blazed a path as a woman artist when it took great determination and grit to prevail. Artists today have an easier go of it because of the courage of pioneers like Okubo.

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Citizen 13660
Mine Okubo
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press: New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LDY8CW

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Citizen 13660
Mine Okubo
Manufacturer: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O7526Q

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CITIZEN 13660
Mine Okubo
Manufacturer: University of Washington Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORSXCG

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Citizen 13660
Mine Okubo
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OB2U4O

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