The Vanishing Race, 1904
Platinum Print

The Vanishing Race was Curtis’ signature piece and was the visual metaphor for the core concept underlying Curtis’ entire thirty- year project i.e., that Native Americans, as a culture, at least, were vanishing and that it was Curtis’ over-arching goal to capture a record of them and their world before they disappeared forever. Curtis searched for an image to illustrate this idea for nearly four years before creating The Vanishing Race. A century ago, it was by far and away Curtis’ most popular single image. Today it still remains a highly sought after classic.

 

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