View XML QR Code

Asahel Curtis photographs, 1853-1941

Overview of the Collection

Photographer
Curtis, Asahel, 1874-1941
Title
Asahel Curtis photographs
Dates
1853-1941 (inclusive)
Quantity
5.46 cubic feet (13 boxes)
1,677 photographic prints
Collection Number
PH0482
Summary
Includes photographs of the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska and scenes of Seattle and other Washington locations
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

Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries' Digital Collections website. Permission is required to view originals.

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.
Return to Top

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.

Return to Top

Content Description

The photographs span Curtis's career and show the wide variety of his subject matter. The collection includes photographs of the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska and scenes of Seattle and other Washington locations.

Return to Top

Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.

Alternative Forms Available

View the digital version of the collection:

Return to Top

Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection has been arranged by Curtis's numbering system which is chronological. Some images which appear out of order chronologically but in correct order numerically are copies of earlier photographs. Photographs for which the Curtis number is not known have been assigned an arbitrary identification number.

Acquisition Information

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

Processing Note

Processed by Erin Whitney, 2008;

"Inconsistently numbered" in the notes of certain prints refers to the occurence of more than one print (or sometimes only one print) associated with a certain number, and the way this is denoted is inconsistent, e.g. 2000, 2000-1, 2000-2 versus 2000A, 2000B, 2000C, etc. It is unknown if this was the photographer's numbering system or a later addition.

The photographs were relocated from the Asahel Curtis Papers, Accession no. 4058-3 and 4058-4 in the repository, in 1998.

Related Materials

Another portion of the Asahel Curtis photograph collection is located at the Washington State Historical Society Museum in Tacoma.

Return to Top

Detailed Description of the Collection

 


2009 (Last modified: 7/9/2025)

CC0

About Creative Commons Licenses in Archives West