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Asahel Curtis Papers, 1895-1972

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Curtis, Asahel, 1874-1941
Title
Asahel Curtis Papers
Dates
1895-1972 (inclusive)
1895-1941 (bulk)
Quantity
8.65 cubic ft. (21 boxes)
4 microfilm reels ; 35 mm.
Collection Number
4058
Summary
Early 20th-century Seattle photographer and promoter of Seattle, Mt. Rainier, and other areas in Washington State
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all users.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Asahel Curtis was the best-known Seattle photographer in the early twentieth century, as well as a noted outdoorsman and regional booster. Born in Minnesota in 1874, he moved to the Puget Sound area in 1888. Asahel's brother, Edward, supported the family by opening a photo studio in Seattle, and Asahel went to work for him in 1894. In 1897 the brothers agreed that Asahel should go to the Yukon and photograph the gold rush. Asahel stayed there for two years, alternately taking pictures and working a small claim that never produced much gold. When Asahel returned in 1899, he learned that Edward had published several Yukon photos without giving acknowledgment that they had been taken by Asahel. The brothers had a massive fight and rarely spoke to each other for the rest of their lives. Edward later became nationally famous for his twenty-volume series of photos of Native Americans. Asahel never achieved this measure of success, but had a notable career nonetheless. He married Florence Carney in 1902 and opened his own studio in 1911. He was hired by a number of companies, organizations, and wealthy individuals to take portraits and promotional photos. But Asahel was probably better known for his high-quality photos of the Washington landscape published in national magazines.

Asahel Curtis loved Mount Rainier; some people thought that he almost worshipped it. He photographed it thousands of times and climbed it dozens of times. Curtis was a founding member of the Mountaineers, a mountain-climbing group which also promoted the preservation of wilderness areas. Curtis was active in the affairs of the club for the first several years after its founding in 1906, but his activities as chair of the Mount Rainier National Park advisory committee from 1911 to 1936 strained his relations with the group. Curtis sought to promote accessibility to the park and to boost tourism by building roads. He also ran afoul of the Mountaineers when he vigorously opposed the expansion of Olympic National Park in the late 1930s.

Indeed, Curtis was almost as much of a regional booster as he was a photographer. For example, Curtis not only worked as the official photographer of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, he also chaired its Development Committee and its Highway Committee for many years. Curtis did not confine his work as a booster to Seattle. He owned a small orchard near Ellensburg, and always thought that the interesting landscape of Central Washington could be improved by building irrigation projects to turn the semi-desert into cropland. The Washington Irrigation Association thus chose Curtis to be its president in the 1920s. He also participated in the affairs of the Washington State Good Roads Association, serving as its president in 1932 and 1933. Asahel Curtis died in 1941.

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Content Description

The Asahel Curtis Papers are comprised of three accessions. Accession no. 4058-003, a single box that dates from approximately 1909 to 1932, includes speeches, writings, letters, clippings, and a stock certificate. The speeches and writings promote highway building and access to scenic attractions in Washington, especially Mt. Rainier National Park. Many of the writings were published.

The bulk of the Asahel Curtis Papers are in Accession no. 4058-004. The accession is comprised primarily of Curtis's correspondence from 1908 to 1941. The correspondence documents Curtis's work as a civic leader and businessman. Most letters concern his activities as a regional booster in the various groups in which he served. Many others are simply correspondence with patrons who ordered photos. Curtis almost never discussed his photographic philosophy or techniques in his letters. Many letters regarding the administration of Mt. Rainier National Park were pasted into the seven Mt. Rainier scrapbooks also included in the accession. The inventory of this accession is accompanied by an extensive name index of the individuals and organizations represented in the general correspondence, but the letters in the Mt. Rainier scrapbooks are not indexed. The scrapbook letters, which range from 1911 to 1921, are largely, but not entirely, in chronological order. While the years 1910-1911 and 1913-1920 are sparsely represented in the general correspondence, the years 1913-1915 and 1918-1920 are extensively documented by the scrapbooks. The scrapbooks also contain a few scattered newspaper clippings about the park. Three other scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings but no correspondence. The subject of one is Mt. Rainier (1924), another covers the Olympic Peninsula (1924), and the third scrapbook documents Frederick Cook's expedition to the North Pole (1908-1910). This accession also contains a diary of Curtis's trip to the Yukon in 1898 and financial records from 1932-1940.

Major correspondents of accession 4058-004 include Homer T. Bone, Clarence Cleveland Dill, Lindley Hoag Hadley, Knute Hill, Samuel B. Hill, Wesley Livsey Jones, Clarence Daniel Martin, Edmond Stephen Meany, Lewis Baxter Schwellenbach, Monrad C. Wallgren, Marion Anthony Zioncheck, the Rainier National Park Advisory Board, the Rainier National Park Company, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, the Yakima Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. National Park Service.

Accession 4058-002 is comprised of microfilm copies of the seven volumes of Mt. Rainier scrapbooks in Accession 4058-004.

Accession 4058-005 includes manuscripts by Asahel Curtis, records regarding his death, biography, and placement of his works, and ephemera surrounding Mt. Rainier National Park which often features Curtis' photographs. Also includes newspaper and magazine clippings, one portrait of Asahel Curtis, and several pamphlets and map pamphlets.

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

The microfilm copy (Accession 4058-2) of the Mt. Rainier scrapbooks, vol. 1-7, may be obtained through interlibrary loan.

Restrictions on Use

Asahel Curtis's literary rights were not transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Photocopies of Curtis's Mt. Rainier scrapbooks, vol. 1-7, in Accession 4058-4 must be made from the microfilm copy in Accession 4058-2.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Organized into 4 accessions.

  • Accession No. 4058-002, Asahel Curtis papers, 1911-1921
  • Accession No. 4058-003, Asahel Curtis papers, 1909-1932
  • Accession No. 4058-004, Asahel Curtis papers, 1898, 1908-1941
  • Accession No. 4058-005, Asahel Curtis Papers, 1895-1972

Acquisition Information

Curtis's papers and scrapbooks were acquired by the University of Washington Libraries from the Asahel Curtis Studio in 1942.

Select items are photocopied letters donated by David Shneidman -- photocopies are stamped as such, and interfiled chronologically.

Processing Note

Accessions. 4058 and 4058-2 were merged in May 1998 to form Accession 4058-4, but the microfilm copy of the Mt. Rainier scrapbooks remains under Accession 4058-2.

Accession 4058-2 was filmed from the originals at the University of Washington Libraries.

Separated Materials

Photographs were transferred to the Asahel Curtis Photo Company Collection, PH Coll 482, in the division.

Bibliography

Sucher, David (ed.), The Asahel Curtis Sampler: Photographs of Puget Sound Past (Seattle, Puget Sound Access, 1973).Frederick, Richard and Engerman, Jeanne, Asahel Curtis : Photographs of the Great Northwest (Tacoma, Washington State Historical Society, 1983).Satterfield, Archie, Seattle: An Asahel Curtis Portfolio (San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1985).

Related Materials

The Washington State Historical Society Museum in Tacoma holds a large collection of Curtis's photographs.

The records of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce are housed at the Seattle Public Library.

The records of Mt. Rainier National Park are divided between two locations: the National Archives and Records Administration's Pacific Alaska Region (Seattle) facility and the Mt. Rainier National Park headquarters in Ashford, Washington.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • City promotion--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Land use--Washington (State)--Planning
  • National parks and reserves--Washington (State)
  • Outdoor recreation--Washington (State)
  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)
  • Photographers--Washington (State)--Seattle--Archives
  • Place marketing--Washington (State)
  • Regionalism--Northwest, Pacific
  • Roads--Washington (State)--Planning
  • Wilderness areas--Washington (State)--Recreational use

Personal Names

  • Curtis, Asahel, 1874-1941--Archives

Corporate Names

  • Mountaineers (Society)
  • Seattle Chamber of Commerce

Geographical Names

  • Dawson (Yukon)--Description and travel
  • Klondike River Valley (Yukon)--Gold discoveries
  • Mount Rainier National Park (Wash.)
  • Olympic National Park (Wash.)
  • Olympic Peninsula (Wash.)
  • Rainier, Mount (Wash.)
  • Seattle (Wash.)
  • Washington (State)


1996 (Last modified: 5/17/2023)

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