Edward Sheriff Curtis: One man's obsessive pursuit of the lost tribes of America

They cost him his marriage and his health, but Edward Sheriff Curtis's photographs are still powerful today. By Benjamin Secher

In 1896, Edward Sheriff Curtis took his first formal portrait of an American Indian. His subject was the elderly Princess Angeline. Only 40 years earlier, her father, chief of the Duwamish-Suquamish tribe, had presided over the land on which the city of Seattle now stands, but by the time Curtis shot her, the princess cut a poignant figure, agreeing to sit for the 28-year-old photographer for a dollar a shot. Continued

Photos: Library of Congress