CurtisCamp

Edward S. Curtis’s landmark ethnographical survey, The North American Indian (1907–1930), remains one of the most ambitious undertakings in publishing and photographic history. The absolute core of this project was bounded by a strict historical production limit: approximately 272 complete sets were officially published and distributed to subscribers. A complete subscriber set contains 40 volumes total — 20 narrative text volumes and 20 supplemental folio portfolios — documenting 2,234 unique photogravure images across more than 80 Indigenous tribes.

Beyond the publication itself, the Curtis Studio selected a highly exclusive range of individual negatives to execute across premium fine-art darkroom mediums, glass applications, and industrial printing plate matrices. Each medium carries its own production history, rarity, and market range.

Full Sets & Bound Volumes

Entire 40-Volume Master Set

The complete subscriber’s publication comprising 20 text volumes and 20 supplemental folio portfolios.

Single Portfolio (Loose Supplemental Folio)

An intact standalone supplemental folding case containing its original loose large-format photogravures. Portfolios containing highly coveted images pull the upper range; incomplete sets bring considerably less.

Public Auction Range: $12,700 – $40,000+

Single Bound Text Volume

A standalone individual text book containing narrative history alongside bound small-format photogravures. Standard middle-sequence volumes bring $7,000–$15,000; the upper range reflects premium provenance and condition.

Public Auction Range: $7,000 – $32,500

Loose Single Prints

Single Portfolio Gravure (Large Folio, approx. 18″ × 22″)

Single, unbound large-format photogravures pulled from the 20 supplemental portfolios. Distributed across approximately 272 official subscriber sets. Common landscapes or minor subjects form the floor; premier images of iconic subjects in excellent condition define the upper range. Curtis’s photogravures were printed on Japanese Vellum, Dutch Van Gelder, and Japanese Tissue.

Public Auction Range: $400 – $40,000+

Single Volume Gravure (Small Format, approx. 9″ × 12″)

Small-format photogravures originally bound inside the text volumes. Minor tools and utensil illustrations sit at the lower floor; exceptionally crisp portrait plates of prominent chiefs command the upper range.

Public Auction Range: $100 – $9,000

Orotones (Goldtones / “Curtones”)

Positive images printed directly onto a glass plate, backed with a mixture of gold-colored pigment and banana oil, typically housed in gesso-and-wood Curtis Studio frames. Curtis produced hundreds of distinct orotone images across his career.

Platinum Prints

Exhibition-grade darkroom prints made on paper sensitized with platinum, favored by Curtis for their rich texture and long-term stability. Produced as fine art objects for sale or exhibition, distinct from the photogravures published in the NAI. Rare — comprising approximately one-quarter to one-half of one percent of Curtis’s extant work. The Geronimo platinum is believed to exist in only 6–10 examples worldwide.

Gelatin Silver Prints

High-contrast, light-sensitive silver chemical photographs mounted on heavy cardstock, often hand-signed by the artist. Large-format exhibition silver prints are particularly scarce. Institutional reference prints (untoned copyright deposits at the Library of Congress) are not considered in this commercial market context.

What Drives Price Differences

Prices across all Curtis mediums are determined by three primary factors working in combination:

• Popularity of the image — Market demand concentrates heavily on a small number of iconic subjects: The Vanishing Race, Geronimo, The Scout Apache, Chief Joseph, and a handful of others consistently command premiums across every medium and format. Subject matter is the single most powerful price determinant across the entire Curtis market.
• Number produced in that medium — NAI portfolio photogravures exist in approximately 272 impressions each. Platinum prints, orotones, and signed gelatin silver prints were produced in far smaller numbers — often single digits for any given subject. Scarcity within a medium directly affects price.
• Condition — These are objects between 95 and 120 years old. Paper integrity, print surface, glass condition (for orotones), mount and presentation, and provenance of care are all decisive factors — particularly at the highest price points.

The Curtis Copper Photogravure Plates

Copper photogravure plates occupy a unique place within the Edward S. Curtis market. Unlike books, gravures, or other photographic formats produced in multiple copies, each copper photogravure plate is the original engraved matrix from which the large portfolio photogravures were produced. Curtis edited them constantly, refining each image on the copper surface to realize his final vision. The plate is not a reproduction or an impression — it is the source.

Because copper plates rarely appear at public auction and have historically traded primarily through private sales, there is no comprehensive public market comparable to that for Curtis prints. Even so, these one-of-a-kind artifacts are widely regarded as the pinnacle of the photogravure printing process and represent the surviving physical source from which The North American Indian portfolio images were created.

It is estimated, based on decades of private plate sales recorded by the current owners and comparisons with published auction results, that — with a limited number of exceptions, perhaps as many as 50 of the 722 portfolio images — the market value of an original copper photogravure plate has exceeded the highest known sale of any other North American Indian format of the same image.

Currently Offered

CurtisCamp currently offers two plates from this collection:

• Acoma Belfry (Plate 564, Volume 16, 1904) — $15,000
• Double Runner — Piegan (Plate 191, Portfolio 6) — $17,500

10% of all proceeds support Native American causes — the buyer chooses the organization.

The Camp Keeper’s plate ownership exceeds what is currently being offered. Ask the Camp Keeper about availability.

Market data current as of June 2026. Updated periodically.

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