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published. Volume XIII and XIV were issued in 1924.
Volumes XV, XVI, and XVII were published in 1926.
In 1927, accompanied by daughter Beth, Curtis made
a perilous trip to Northern Alaska to obtain material for
volume XX. Upon his return, he was arrested for failure
to pay alimony for over seven years. In 1928 volume
XVIII was published, and in 1930, volumes IXX and
XX were issued. Curtis returned to work for Cecil B.
de Mille on The Plainsman in 1936 and died of heart
failure at the home of his daughter Beth in Los Angeles
on 21 October 1952.
See Also: Ethnography; Photogravure; and Itinerant
Photographers.
Further Reading
Adam, Hans Christian, ed., The North American Indian: the
Complete Portfolios, Köln and New York, 1997.
Bush, Alfred L. and Lee Clark Mitchell, The Photograph and the
American Indian Princeton, 1994.
Cardozo, Christopher and Joseph D., Horse Capture. Sacred
Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian.
New York, 2000.
Davis, Barbara A., Edward S. Curtis: The Life and Times of a
Shadow Catcher San Francisco, 1985.
Day, Sara, ed., Heart of the Circle: Photographs by Edward S.
Curtis of Native American Women. San Francisco, 1997.
Gidley, Mick, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian,
Incorporated Cambridge, England, 1998.
Graybill, Florence Curtis, Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions of a
Vanishing Race. Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1986.
Hausman, Gerald, and Bob Kapoun, eds., Prayer to the Great
Mystery, the Uncollected Writings and Photography of Ed-
ward S. Curtis New York, 1995.
Lawlor, Laurie, Shadow Catcher: The Life and Work of Edward
S. Curtis New York, 1994.
Lyman, Christopher M., The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions:
Photographs of Indians by Edward S. Curtis, Washington,
DC, 1982.
Pritzer, Barry, Edward S. Curtis. New York, 1993.CUTTING, JAMES AMBROSE
(1814–1867)
American inventor
The history behind the legend ‘Cutting’s Patent,’ found
embossed into the matte of several American ambrotype
portraits, reveals a fascinating story of mid nineteenth
century photography.
Cutting, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, was
a self-styled inventor, originally best known for his
patent beehive which attracted a lot of publicity, and
some considerable wealth. However, by the 1850s, the
beehive business having failed, he had turned his atten-
tion to photography, originally taking daguerreotype
portraits, but then, in 1854, opportunistically, took out
American patents for collodion positive images. Tradi-
tion has it that the term ‘ambrotype’—used in America
as an alternative to Archer’s ‘collodion positive’ derives
from Cutting’s middle name. ‘Ambrotype’ is now the
universally recognised term.
The process was actually invented in England by
Archer and Fry but not patented. Their decision allowed
Cutting to submit three loosely worded patent applica-
tions (US Patent Numbers 11,213, 11,266 and 11,267)
which offered only slight modifi cations of the original
process. He quickly disposed of his patent rights, but
his name remained associated with them.
One of his ‘improvements’ to the collodion positive
involved sealing the image and its cover glass using
Canada balsam as a means of eliminating oxidation.
Ironically, the tendency of the balsam to attract moisture
caused many of the images sealed in this way to develop
fungal growths.
Cutting later opened a famous aquarium in Boston,
and died in poverty in Worcester Massachusetts in
1867.
John HannavyCUTTING, JAMES AMBROSE
Curtis, Edward Sheriff. Susie Little-Hoopa Medicine Woman.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty
Museum.