Curtis Pl. 88, The Prairie Chief

Curtis Pl. 88, The Prairie Chief documents the Indigenous Americans during the early decades of the 1900s.

Printed with archival pigments on rag watercolor paper, this beautiful sepia facsimile print captures the soft tones and striking definition of Curtis’ original photogravure. Own a piece of history with this museum-sanctioned, limited-edition fine art print!

About the Field Museum Oppenheimer Editions of The North American Indian

Edward Sheriff Curtis’ monumental The North American Indian consisted of a series of 20 volumes that included photographs, ethnographic studies, and personal narratives of Native Americans. Gathered over three decades in the early 20th century, Curtis’ project resulted in over 40,000 images of Native Americans from more than eighty tribes. The sepia-toned photogravures were printed on three kinds of paper; Holland van Gelder, Japon vellum, and Japon tissue. Curtis’ photographs remain an important visual record of Native American cultures at the turn of the 20th century.

The Oppenheimer Editions publication of Curtis’ 50 Best of The North American Indian is uniquely produced from the original photogravures in The Field Museum’s Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room collection. Measuring 22.25” × 18.25”, the prints are proofed to ensure complete fidelity to the original photogravures and issued in a limited edition of 750.

About Edward Sheriff Curtis

Born in Wisconsin in 1868, Edward Sheriff Curtis was a photographer and ethnologist known for his extensive documentation of Native American cultures and tribes. In the early 1900s, Curtis embarked on a monumental project titled The North American Indian, which aimed to document and preserve Native American culture. Curtis traveled extensively across the United States for several decades, visiting various tribes and capturing their way of life through photographs and recordings. The result was a historic compendium containing over 40,000 images from more than eighty tribes, serving as an important visual record of Native American cultures at the turn of the 20th century.

About Oppenheimer Editions

Established in 1999, our publishing company Oppenheimer Editions was developed in order to produce modern facsimiles of historic works of art. Marrying cutting-edge digital printing technologies with canonical works of art, Oppenheimer Editions has partnered with prestigious museums to make their holdings accessible to the public as fine art prints. Works from the New-York Historical Society’s unrivaled collections of John James Audubon’s watercolors and the Hudson River School paintings are examples of art that otherwise would be unobtainable.

Among the institutional collections we have partnered with are the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Our Oppenheimer Editions prints are not mere reproductions. Rather, they are limited-edition fine art prints made with the finest quality archival pigments on rag watercolor paper and executed to exacting standards.

For more information about Curtis Pl. 88, The Prairie Chief, email us at j[email protected] or check out our article McKenney and Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America.