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📜 An original 1927 photogravure by Edward Sheriff Curtis. This work, titled The Old Cheyenne, comes from Curtis’s monumental publication The North American Indian, one of the most ambitious documentary projects ever undertaken in American history.

Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868–1952) devoted more than three decades to photographing and recording the lives, customs, and leaders of Native American tribes across North America. His project resulted in twenty volumes of text and twenty portfolios of photogravures, documenting over eighty tribes at a moment of profound cultural upheaval. Curtis viewed his work not as illustration, but as preservation — a visual record created before traditional lifeways were irrevocably altered by westward expansion and federal assimilation policies.

🛠️ This piece is an original large‑format photogravure, printed in 1927 by the Suffolk Engraving Company of Boston, the firm responsible for producing Curtis’s later portfolio plates. Photogravure is a labor‑intensive intaglio printing process that transfers a photographic image onto a copper plate, allowing for exceptional tonal depth, fine detail, and permanence. Unlike later reproductions or book illustrations, portfolio photogravures were produced in limited numbers and intended as standalone works of art.

🪵 The print is executed on Van Gelder rag paper, a premium European paper favored for fine‑art printing in the early twentieth century. Made from high‑quality cotton fibers and originally formed with natural deckled edges, Van Gelder paper was selected for its durability, ink absorption, and archival stability. Its use was reserved for Curtis’s highest‑grade editions.

🪶 The Old Cheyenne depicts a Cheyenne elder wearing traditional regalia, including a feathered headdress and ceremonial garments that signify experience, status, and cultural authority. Among the Cheyenne people, elders held vital roles as keepers of history, spiritual knowledge, and tribal continuity. Curtis’s portraits of elders were central to his mission, emphasizing dignity, individuality, and cultural presence rather than anonymity.

The Cheyenne Nation, historically centered in the Great Plains, maintained complex social, spiritual, and political systems long before sustained contact with European settlers. By the early twentieth century, Cheyenne communities had endured forced relocation, treaty violations, and cultural suppression. Curtis’s work captures individuals from this era with a seriousness and respect that continues to resonate today.

🖼️ Today, this photogravure stands as both an artistic achievement and a historical document — a tangible connection to Native American history, early twentieth‑century photographic craftsmanship, and one of the most significant documentary efforts ever produced in the United States.

This is not a reproduction or book illustration. It is an original Curtis portfolio photogravure, created as part of a limited, museum‑recognized body of work.