Spidis - Wisham (from the series The North American Indian)
Artist
Edward S. Curtis
(American, 1868 - 1952)
Date1910 (printed later)
Mediumphotogravure on tissue
DimensionsImage: 7 1/8 × 5 1/16 in. (18.1 × 12.9 cm)
Support: 10 3/8 × 6 1/2 in. (26.4 × 16.5 cm)
Mat: 17 × 14 in. (43.2 × 35.6 cm)
Support: 10 3/8 × 6 1/2 in. (26.4 × 16.5 cm)
Mat: 17 × 14 in. (43.2 × 35.6 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Joyce Niemanas, 2011
Object number2011.22.6
DescriptionFrontal head and shoulders portrait of a man with wrinkled skin, a horizontal nose ornament worn through the septum. His hair is in two braids which are wrapped partway down. Around his shoulders is a loose garment with a woven medallion.eMuseum Notes
Curtis was passionate about recording the lives of Native Americans, whom he saw as a “vanishing race.” His intentions now seem misguided and his methods clumsy, but his portraits of indigenous North Americans provide an important record. The subject of this picture, Spidis, was probably of the Wisham people who lived along the Columbia River in Oregon. Known as extraordinary fishermen, by the time of Curtis’s visit the tribe’s population had been decimated by diseases introduced by Europeans and their culture compromised by treaties that cut them off from their traditional lands and fishing.
On View
Not on view
Edward S. Curtis
1910 (printed later)
