‘Storytelling’

Photographer revisits Native people in exhibit at Natural History Museum

At left, “East Mesa Girls” was taken by Edward S. Curtis. At right, Edward S. Curtis took this photo
of a Paguate, N.M., house.

“Storytelling: Native People Through the Lens of Edward S. Curtis” is on view through April 30 at  the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

The exhibit situates the artist and the people he photographed in the context of American colonialism, inviting viewers to reconsider pervasive pop-culture beliefs about native life and history.

Influenced by the pictorialist movement of the early 20th century, Mr. Curtis set out to create a photo and ethnographic record of indigenous peoples living in Western regions from the Mexican border to Alaskan shores.

His motivation was a belief that U.S. government policy and the land grabs of American settlers might wipe away native lifeways forever. While Mr. Curtis’s intentions were well-meaning, his methods of staging photos bent reality into imagery that is often more art than fact.

One hundred years later, Indigenous people still contend with “Indian” stereotypes that are consequences of Mr. Curtis’s vision. Although many of the photographer’s images are iconic, “Storytelling: Native People Through

the Lens of Edward S. Curtis” aims to show what has not previously been seen or understood.

That was also the goal of the museum’s popular 2007 exhibition of Mr. Curtis’s photographs curated by museum librarian Terri Sheridan.

“This year, a strong infusion of lesser-seen imagery and new interpretation provide a broader exhibit for people in terms of what’s on the walls as well as what their takeaways might be,” said Ms. Sheridan.

The most important takeaway, according to Ms. Sheridan, is respect for unique indigenous cultures. She wants the selected images and their interpretation to counter the stereotypical presentation of popularized Curtis imagery, which depicts cultures as the same. In particular, she hopes to invite greater respect and understanding of the women who agreed to be photographed.

“Because of the patriarchal place Mr. Curtis was coming from,” Ms. Sheridan explained, “he would usually talk with the men, not realizing that often the women were people of power in particular cultures. He also very rarely named women, so their photographs often are just ‘wife of’ or ‘sister of.’ Although we rarely know their names, these women should be seen.”

Luke J. Swetland, president and CEO at the museum, provided an interesting backstory for the exhibit in a recent museum’s monthly newsletter: 

“The story of that gift starts in turn-of-the-century Santa Barbara. A woman named Charlotte Bowditch was living on upper Garden Street when she learned of Edward S. Curtis’s North American Indian project. She wrote a letter to him to learn more about it. The more she knew, the more interested she became.

“From about 1905 to 1915, Bowditch personally corresponded with Curtis. As a subscriber to his 20-volume epic ‘The North American Indian,’ she was one of a relatively small group of people receiving this lavishly-illustrated series of books about the Indigenous peoples of the Western United States.

“Bowditch shared these extraordinary books with her friends. One such friend was Sophie Baylor, who shared Bowditch’s interests in nature and culture. Unsurprisingly, Sophie Baylor was also a good friend of the museum. Beginning first as a member visiting the museum’s exhibits, she started volunteering here in the early 1930s. Recognizing what a special treasure the museum was for our community, she later joined the museum’s board of trustees.

“Unfortunately, Charlotte Bowditch died before Curtis completed his epic work, leaving the first 11 volumes of ‘The North American Indian’ to her friend, Sophie Baylor. She also left her collection of letters from Curtis and a few artifacts that she had purchased from Curtis over the years.

“Sophie Baylor recognized the cultural significance of The North American Indian volumes, folios, letters, and artifacts, and their value to our growing institution. She donated them to the museum on May 17, 1935.  

“To expand the museum’s collection to the full set, our librarians had to be patient. I hope you will have a chance to see the exhibition and agree that all three of these gifts were significant. The 70 photogravures on display are a carefully-chosen selection from about 700 large-format plates featuring dozens of cultural groups covered across 20 volumes by Curtis.

“Those dozens are a small sampling of many hundreds of Indigenous groups extant across the United States. They demonstrate the diversity of Indigenous culture and myriad ways of life that are deeply tied to nature.”

email: mmcmahon@newspress.com

FYI
“Storytelling: Native People Through the Lens of Edward S. Curtis” is  sponsored by Knight Real Estate Group of Village Properties, First Republic Bank, Kathleen Kalp and Jim Balsitis, Kelly and Tory Milazzo. The exhibit is on display through April 30 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. For more information, visit sbnature.org.