Curtis, Asahel^{[1, 2]}

1874 - 1941  (66 years)

• Name	Curtis, Asahel
  Birth	5 Nov 1874	Le Sueur County, MN   [3]
  Gender	Male
  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
  Death	7 Mar 1941	Seattle, WA   [4]
  Association	Curtis, Edward Sheriff (Relationship: Brother )
  Association	Croft, Lawrence Floyd (Relationship: Photographer)
  Person ID	I513	Camera Workers | C, vol. 1, 1858-1900
  Last Modified	15 Feb 2017

  
  

• 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.

  
  

• Sources

  [S169] COLLECTION: UWL. Prints [S172] COLLECTION: WSHS. Glass negatives and prints [S667] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, FamilySearch.org (Web site). "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918"; URL (accessed 14 Feb 2017): https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJDG-4JY2 [S667] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, FamilySearch.org (Web site). "Washington Death Certificates, 1907-1960"; URL (accessed 14 Feb 2017): https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N3RN-KZ6