Inscription
signed by artist, lower right in gold ink: Curtis; on verso of frame, upper left printed in brown ink on applied paper: The Vanishing Race / A PICTURE / by / EDWARD S. CURTIS / Into the shadows, whose illuminated crest / Speaks of the world behind them where the sun / Still shines for us whose day is not yet done / Those last dark ones go drifting. East or West, / Or North or South -- it matters not; their quest / Is towards the shadows whence it was begun: / Hope in it, Ah, my brothers, there is none: / And yet -- they only seek a place to rest. / So mutely, uncomplainingly they go. / How shall it be with us when they are gone, / When they are but a memory and a name? / May not those mournful eyes to phantoms grow -- / When wronged and lonely, they have drifted on / Into the voiceless shadows whence they came? / --ELLA HIGGINSON.; center printed in black ink on applied paper: The Vanishing Race / This is perhaps the most popular and best / known of all the Curtis Indian pictures, / being internationally famous. It is a pic- / ture which the artist carried in his mind for / several years and in which he endeavored / to express the thought that the day of the / Indian is drawing to a close and that they / are literally riding toward the shadows of / the last setting sun. This unusual beauty / and quiet tragedy form the combination / which has caused critics to pronounce this / the most remarkable photograph ever taken. / Mr. Curtis in making his monumental collec- / tion of Indian pictures has attempted to visit / and picture all important tribes of the United / States, British Columbia and Alaska. The basic / purpose of this collection of pictures is their / use as illustrations for "The North American / Indian," a work of twenty volumes and twenty / supplementary portfolios of pictures. The task / of making these pictures has been under way / for more than twenty years. / This subject is selected from this great col- / lection made as a permanent record of the / North American Indian. / EDWARD S. CURTIS / The Curtis Studio, / Seattle, Wash.; by unknown hand, lower center in black ink on applied label: 13. SS #57 / Curtis - Vanishing Race; bottom right printed in gold ink on applied label: Curtis / HOME OF THE CURTIS INDIANS / At Home and Studio Portraiture / The Curtis Studio / 4TH AT UNIVERSITY / Seattle Wash., U. S. A.
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