Scottsdale’s Western history brought to life through museum event

History repeated itself on Feb. 1, as the story of artist Edward S. Curtis’ past was shared at Scottsdale’s Museum of the West.

Wade Weber, the museum’s director of education since 2014, said “We want our guests to find themselves in the West. We’re not just a museum of objects, but of ideas.”

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is now home to an exhibit featuring Curtis’ work on a seemingly impossible project.

In a 45-minute scripted bio drama, which is a presentation about the life of an actual person, the story of Curtis emerged. Through sound, photographs and laughter, Wyatt Earp, an actor who brings life to history, portrayed Curtis’ trials and tribulations.

“I get to tell the stories that Hollywood doesn’t tell,” Earp said, noting that’s the reason he enjoys what he does so much.

Curtis decided he would be the person who would achieve the impossible. He started a project in 1900 and 30 years later finished The North American Indian, a portfolio consisting of numerous texts, photos and wax cylinder recordings.

“The big idea? Well, to preserve the culture and the beauty of all the North American Indian tribes in perpetuity through my photography,” Earp said while he portrayed Curtis.

Curtis utilized his love for photography to complete this project. He took numerous portraits of the native peoples, landscape photographs of the lands they lived on and of the art they created.

“Photography and art can be one in the same. A photograph can truly move and inspire us to appreciate other people and cultures,” museum curator Tim Peterson said.

Curtis covered tribes across the country, from Alaska all the way down to the Arizona border. He photographed over 100 tribes and created 20 volumes worth of work. These volumes encapsulated the stories and cultures of the Native American people.

This long-term challenge Curtis completed resulted in exactly 5,000 pages of text and over 2,200 photos. This was an expensive project that eventually called upon the financial help of J.P. Morgan, the successful investment banker of the 1800s.

Though he was mostly known for his skilled photography, Curtis was also talented as a craftsman, a printmaker and technical innovator.

He used copper plates to create his “photogravures,” a process for printing photos. Curtis used three different types of paper to create his prints with the copper plates: Japanese vellum, fine Japanese tissue paper and Holland Van Gelder, a Dutch etching stock.

Each material created a different “look” for the final photograph, each version as beautiful as the next.

The museum exhibited various original pieces from Curtis’s portfolios. In a walk-through exhibit with plaques filled with information, guests were able to see for themselves the work Curtis accomplished.

The gallery included countless photographs, copper plates and even a sample of music from one of the wax cylinder recordings.

When Curtis first brought up the idea of this project, many thought it would be unfeasible yet he achieved it despite what others said.

Guests can appreciate Curtis’ art at the Scottsdale Museum of the West through April 2023.

Editor’s Note: M J X Powell is a student reporter at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University.