Asahel Curtis

American, 1874–1941

BiographyAsahel Curtis was born in Minnesota in 1874; the family moved to the Puget Sound area (Washington State) in 1888. His older brother, Edward S. Curtis, opened a photo studio in Seattle in 1892, and Asahel began working there in 1895. He went to the Klondike in 1897 to take photographs for the studio. Differences over credit for this work later led to a break with his brother. By 1901 Asahel Curtis had joined with scenic photographer William P. Romans to form the Curtis & Romans studio. After a brief period in San Francisco and Tacoma, working sometimes as a photoengraver, Curtis returned to Seattle as a newspaper photographer. From about 1907 to 1911, he worked for Romans Photographic Co., becoming president and manager of the firm. A partnership with Walter Miller as Curtis & Miller lasted for several years before Curtis returned to the Romans Photographic Co. In 1920, this became the Asahel Curtis Photo Co., under which name it operated until his death in 1941. Curtis was an active outdoorsman and mountaineer, an advocate of roads and highways, and instrumental in the development of Mt. Rainier National Park--interests which are reflected in his photography.

Asahel Curtis pictures illustrated many of the early logging practices in the Pacific Northwest
[http://www.cfr.washington.edu/classes.esc.520B/AsahelEng10000.htm]

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