Back to Results
1955.970.470.22
View full size image or right-click on image to save
Photograph
Group seated on the beach with trade items, Port Townsend, circa 1900
Order an ImageThe people in this photograph are not identified, but the items they brought with them in their large sea-going canoes are visible-- bundles of dried cattails for weaving mats and a large, decorated Chinese trunk. The woman in the center appears to be holding a mirror.
The buildings in the distant background indicate the location is probably Port Townsend, Washington. At this time, many Indigenous people traveled to Port Townsend to conduct trade on the beach. Most of the subjects of this image have their backs to the camera. At least one surviving account from Port Townsend indicates that white photographers often photographed Indigenous people, and that some of the Indigenous subjects resented being photographed, asked for compensation, or attempted to avoid being photographed.
The photographer, James McCurdy, was born in Port Townsend in 1872. He spent many years of his childhood in Neah Bay on the Makah reservation and returned to Port Townsend in 1894.
Caption information source: Charles T. Hommel, A Guide to Historical Photograph Collections in Seattle, p. 33
Caption information source: “The Indian and His Point of View,†by Katherine McCurdy, The Westerner, Vol. IV, No. 5, April 1906.
The buildings in the distant background indicate the location is probably Port Townsend, Washington. At this time, many Indigenous people traveled to Port Townsend to conduct trade on the beach. Most of the subjects of this image have their backs to the camera. At least one surviving account from Port Townsend indicates that white photographers often photographed Indigenous people, and that some of the Indigenous subjects resented being photographed, asked for compensation, or attempted to avoid being photographed.
The photographer, James McCurdy, was born in Port Townsend in 1872. He spent many years of his childhood in Neah Bay on the Makah reservation and returned to Port Townsend in 1894.
Caption information source: Charles T. Hommel, A Guide to Historical Photograph Collections in Seattle, p. 33
Caption information source: “The Indian and His Point of View,†by Katherine McCurdy, The Westerner, Vol. IV, No. 5, April 1906.
ID Number: 1955.970.470.22
Date: Circa 1900
Creator(s):
McCurdy, James G., 1872-1942, Photographer
Additional Information: View the finding aid for this collection at https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv98175
Credit: MOHAI, James G. McCurdy Photographs, 1955.970.470.22
Copyright: All Rights Reserved
Other matching results
Makah woman making baskets at Neah Bay, circa 1905
Makah woman drying fish on a rack, Neah Bay, circa 1900
Two Makah basketmakers, Neah Bay, circa 1900
Makah woman and child with puppy, Port Townsend, circa 1900
Coast Salish canoe in Port Townsend Bay, circa 1900
West Coast style canoe with two sails, circa 1900
Women shopping for baskets on the beach, Port Townsend, circa 1895
Strip of young adult admission tickets for the Indian Village exhibit, Seattle World's Fair, 1962
