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Rare printed “Foreword” page removed from a volume of "The North American Indian, Being a Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and Alaska," 9.5 x 12, dated October 1, 1906, signed neatly at the bottom in fountain pen as president, “Theodore Roosevelt.” In fine condition, with some light edge creasing. An exceedingly rare example, as only 272 copies of this signed book were published.
The text reads, in part: “In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer, whose pictures are pictures, not merely photographs; whose work has far more than mere accuracy, because it is truthful. All serious students are to be congratulated because he is putting his work in permanent form; for our generation offers the last chance for doing what Mr. Curtis has done. The Indian as he has hitherto been is on the point of passing away…He is an artist who works out of doors and not in the closet. He is a close observer, whose qualities of mind and body fit him to make his observations out in the field, surrounded by the wild life he commemorates. He has lived on intimate terms with many different tribes of the mountains and the plains. He knows them as they hunt, as they travel, as they go about their various avocations on the march and in the camp. He knows their medicine men and sorcerers, their chiefs and warriors, their young men and maidens. He has not only seen their vigorous outward existence, but has caught glimpses, such as few white men ever catch, into that strange spiritual and mental life of theirs; from whose innermost recesses all white men are forever barred. Mr. Curtis in publishing this book is rendering a real and great service; a service not only to our people, but to the world of scholarship everywhere.”
In 1904, after winning a national portrait contest, photographer Edward S. Curtis was invited by President Theodore Roosevelt to photograph his family at Sagamore Hill. The two quickly bonded over shared interests, including the American West and concern for Native American communities. Roosevelt became a strong supporter of Curtis’s work, writing a recommendation that helped secure funding from J. P. Morgan and later contributing the foreword to The North American Indian, which he praised as a significant scholarly achievement.
The North American Indian is a monumental 20-volume series created by Curtis between 1907 and 1930, documenting the lives, cultures, and traditions of Indigenous peoples across the United States, Canada, and Alaska. Combining extensive text with thousands of photogravure images, the project aimed to record languages, ceremonies, and daily life among more than 80 tribes. Curtis spent over two decades traveling and working with Native communities, producing one of the most ambitious ethnographic and photographic undertakings of its time.
The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
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