Edward Curtis began his photographic documentation of the Plains, Northwest Coast and Southwest Native American peoples in 1899. In a typical work such as his view of the Navajo, called “Vanishing Race,” he treated the Indian as a romantic figure of the past rather than of the present.

The orotone process was popularized by Curtis. The negative was printed on the back of the frame’s glass and dusted with gold pigment to produce a translucent, nostalgic image.