Other Events and Attributes:

• Business Address/Year: 1895-1898, Seattle, WA
• Where Active (Non-Specific Address): 1898, Dawson, YT
• Business Address/Year: 1898-1900, Alaska
• Where Active (Non-Specific Address): 1897-1931, BC; Visits to various locations
• Business Address/Year: 1900-1941, Seattle, WA

Notes:

STATUS: Commercial.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Asahel received his initial training from his older, more famous brother E.S. Curtis and was first employed by him beginning about 1895. Edward assigned him to cover developments in the Yukon in 1897. Asahel left Seattle on the Rosalie just before the new year began and carried a year's worth of supplies along with 3,000 glass negatives. An article in Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (Mar 1898) by E.S. Curtis is illustrated with his younger brother's photographs, but credited to the elder Curtis. This caused a permanent rift between the brothers and Asahel had a difficult time recovering the negatives.

The Klondike Nugget reported his arrival in Dawson in late Jun 1897, noting that "Mr. Curtis is a photographer, taking views and writing sketches for the Alaska News Syndicate of Seattle." Asahel stationed himself in Alaska until 1900 when he returned to Seattle. His photographs, though not as well known as E.A. Hegg's, capture equally well the grim determination of the goldseekers.

Like his more famous older brother Edward, he attempted to document the lives of the Indians in the Washington, but in a more realistic fashion than that practiced by Edward. Asahel visited BC on several occasions. Among the sights he photographed in BC were bays, bridges, canyons, cities, lakes, mountains, Princess Louisa Inlet, rivers, valleys, waterfalls and waterways (according to a list of subject headings in Frederick and Engerman).

Asahel Curtis' later work as an industrial and publicity photographer based in Seattle until his death serves as one of the most important visual records of the Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia.

IDENTIFYING MARKS: print surface usually numbered, captioned, dated and marked "Curtis" or "Asahel Curtis".

REFERENCES: Klondike Nugget, 1898 06 28/4 ("Personal"); Bronson and Reinhardt (1977 port. with camera p.79); Cohen (1977); Goetzmann and Sloan (1982); Frederick (1983); Frederick and Engerman (1983); Davis (1985); Mattison (1997a); Washington State Historical Society, Golden Dreams; Washington State Historical Society, Northwest Imagery; University of Washington Libraries, Asahel Curtis Photo Company Collection; University of Washington Libraries, Guide to the Asahel Curtis Papers, 1898, 1908-1941.