CHICAGO – Hindman will offer a complete copy of Edward S. Curtis’ seminal The North American Indian as part of an auction of Fine Books from the Dorros Family Collection on Thursday, November 9. The catalog is now available for bidding at LiveAuctioneers.

Curtis’ The North American Indian was one of the most ambitious and expensive publication projects of its kind, taking more than two decades to complete. By 1907, when he embarked on the work, the great tribes that once spread across the North American continent had dwindled to small enclaves after centuries of colonization and westward expansion.

Funded in part by J.P. Morgan, Curtis set out to document as much of Native American culture and history as he could. Writing in the introduction, he explained that “the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost.”

All told, The North American Indian is comprised of 40 volumes: 20 text volumes featuring 1,511 illustrations, 1,505 photogravures, four maps and two diagrams, along with 20 supplemental folio volumes featuring some 723 full sheet photogravures in sepia. Many have become familiar images.

Morgan originally commissioned 500 copies of the set, although little more than half were ever completed.

The set offered in Hindman’s November auction is No. 88 and was originally sold to the Free Public Library of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It is estimated at $700,000-$1 million.

Other highlights from the Dorros library include a very fine copy of the deluxe issue of George Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio, featuring hand-colored plates and a second double elephant folio edition, the so-called “Bien edition,” of John James Audubon’s Birds of America. The firm’s mixed-vendor sale of Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, including Americana, follows on Friday, November 10.

Christie’s sold the ornithological library assembled by cardiologist Gerald Dorris in 2017.