An historic photogravure print of a Native American woman carrying a basket on her back and looking out over a choppy river., Born in 1868 in rural Wisconsin, Edward Sherrif Curtis moved with his family to Southern Minnesota before he reached the age of five. Photography was then a very new technology and an even more nascent art form, and Curtis was fascinated by it from a very early age. By the time he reached his teens he had built his own camera. By his mid-teens, Curtis had spent a great deal of time reading about and experimenting with photographic techniques and ideas. At the age of seventeen, he moved to Saint Paul, where he spent more than a year as an apprentice photographer. In 1887, his father's failing health caused the family to move to the Northwest. This move would later turn out to be a major factor in Curtis' subsequent interest in the American Indian. Thus, although he was large self-taught, Curtis was not only well-versed in the fundamentals of photography, but also was a serious and dedicated practitioner by the time he was twenty years old. During his lifetime, Curtis was widely acknowledged as a skilled portrait photographer, master printmaker, film-maker, lecturer, adventurer and mountaineer. Today, however, Curtis is primarily known as a master photographer and ethnographer of the North American Indian. This is undoubtedly as it should be, for he left us a photographic and ethnographic record unparalleled in the history of publishing. This massively ambitious undertaking entitled "The North American Indian" was the principal vehicle Curtis used to communicate his passionate obsession with recording the image, history, culture and spiritual life of the American Indian. This photo-ethnographic study compresses over two thousand original photographic prints (photogravures) as well as approximately six thousand pages of text. The project ultimately cost Curtis his family, his financial security, and his health. Nevertheless, he single-mindedly pursued his intense and powerful vision with an extraordinary sense of mission and thereby left us with an irreplaceable record which, after decades of obscurity, is once again appreciated as an extraordinary artistic and historical achievement. The fact that Curtis was able to make such an intimate record during the very period when the American Indian's way of life was being destroyed by the White man, makes his accomplishment all the more remarkable. (1987, Christopher Cardozo, Guest Curator for a Curtis exhibition as the Minnesota Museum of Art), http://www.edwardscurtis.com/curtisbio.html, The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Mid-Valley Arts. You may view their website at: http://www.oregonlink.com/arts/index.html
Black and white image of four men, one of whom is shoveling smelt from the bottom of a boat into wooden boxes. The boxes have the words "From the Columbia River Smelt Co. Kelso, Wash." stamped on them. The man doing the shoveling is an older man with his back to the camera. He is wearing a hat with a brim, a long-sleeved shirt, a vest with a large hole in the back, workpants and shoes. To his left, a younger man kneels, holding on to one of th boxes with his right hand. He is wearing a brimmed hat, long-sleeved shirt, and pants. In another boat facing the camera is an elderly man dressed in a suit, with jacket, white shirt and bowtie, and a brimmed hat. Next to him in the boat is a younger man, without a hat, wearing work pants, and a long-sleeved shirt with the collar pulled up around his neck. Behind them is the river and the opposite shore can be seen in the distance.
A black and white view of the toll bridge built across the Columbia River to link Hood River, Oregon, with the vicinity of Bingen, Washington. Built in the 1920s. This view is looking south towards Hood River and shows Mt. Hood, Hood River, and the Hood River Valley in the distance. Deciduous trees line both shores, and the hills in the background are fairly well forested, with conifers primarily in evidence. Buildings are visible in the middle ground on the low hills, especially to the right. A slight haze hangs over the valley in the distance but in the foreground the shadows of a sunny day are strong.
A black-and-white stereoscopic photograph with the caption "View on the Columbia River, Middle Block House, Cascades". Printing on the cardboard mounting indicates it is number 1264 in the set of "Watkins' Pacific Coast" views of the western states. The view is along the Columbia River. Evergreens and tree-covered mountains line the shores above low rocky beaches or cliffs. Tree-covered islands are in the distance. In the lower right foreground of the picture is a line of railroad tracks, with some sort of wooden frame structures running alongside. Middle Block House was a wooden fort.
A hand-colored photograph of a boat landing, used as a postcard with the heading "Boat Landing on Columbia River, Hood River, Oregon" in red at the top. In the background of the photograph on the far side of the river are low hills and trees.On the near side, a stern wheeler dominates the scene. To either side of it are a barge and another smaller steamboat; behind the barge is the tip of a sail. The landing is across from a small island.The sternwheeler appears to have just arrived; a small crowd is on the upper deck and a larger crowd on the lower. A man or boy sits on the edge of the lower deck with his legs hanging over the water. On the bank a crowd of about two dozen men and women and a couple of horses is gathered. The women wear long dresses. Some of the men are in suits and others in work clothes. To the left of the landing is a white wooden gate and a barbed-wire fence.
71 p. A report submitted to the National Resources Committee and the state planning boards of Washington and Oregon by the Pacific Northwest Regional Planning Commission, Columbia Gorge Committee, detailing the findings of their study of ways to conserve the scenic beauty of the Columbia River Gorge.
A black and white image identified as a view of Maryhill, Washington, from Samuel Hill's property, showing two steamboats moored at the town. In the foreground are rock outcrops; the hill down which we gaze is covered with grasses and other plants. The meadow extends down the hill; on the flatter areas of the riverbank near the town is cropland to the right and an area forested with conifers to the left. A road winds its way through the picture, and some town buildings are visible. Beyond flows the Columbia River, and behind it the bluffs that rise up to the Columbia Plateau on the Oregon side of the river.
Black and white image of cascades of the Columbia River. A man is standing on one of two large rocks in the foreground on the right hand side. Trees and mountains are visible in the background. A large rock in the middle of the river is prominent in the forground of the image.