YACHTING PHOTOGRAPHY OF ASAHEL CURTIS by Scott Rohrer

 

Asahel Curtis
Photo courtesy of the 
WA. State Historical Society 
and Wooden Boat Magazine.

"Probably no photographer did more than Asahel Curtis (1874-1941) to capture both the natural splendor and the emergent twentieth–century civilization of the Pacific Northwest. The Curtis Collection at the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma features significant images of almost every cultural and natural aspect of the place and its people––one of which was yachting.

Curtis was 13 when his family moved to Puget Sound but his father died within a few days of their arrival. The family was living in Port Orchard, Washington, when his older brother, Edward, moved to Seattle to join a commercial photographic business. When Edward dispatched Asahel to cover the Alaska Gold Rush of 1897, the younger brother had been working in the studio for two years.

Arriving at Skagway in early fall, Curtis headed up the trail to Lake Bennett and what he hoped would be a 500-mile sleigh ride in a crude drift boat down the Yukon River to the goldfields at Dawson. Starting too late, he spent the winter snowed-in at Summit Lake on White Pass. In the spring of 1898, low on provisions, he backtracked to Skagway, joined another party, and headed up again, this time via the rougher Chilkoot Pass. White Pass (also called Dead Horse Pass) was too steep for pack trains or dogsleds. It just devoured men. Curtis captured the hard realities of both places on 8" x 10" glass plates.

Edward Sheriff Curtis would later gain wide renown for his lavish series, the North American Indian. But in 1898, a heated dispute arose between the brothers after several of Asahel's Alaska images were published under Edward's name only. The brothers parted ways and never spoke again.

Asahel Curtis would continue his photography, slavishly recording an era of astonishing changes spanning the next four decades. From the agricultural boom of eastern Washington to the first ascent of many peaks in the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges, he moved easily throughout the Pacific Northwest on a multitude of projects. His detailed 1910 documentation of a Makah whale hunt off Neah Bay, for example, still defines this controversial practice.

He often encouraged other talented young photographers, sharing his studio with them. Imogen Cunningham, for example, often worked there. Curtis's early studio products included lantern slides, postcards, and "cabinet" prints, many hand-colored and framed in the popular "piecrust" style of the time.

An avid hiker and climber, Curtis became one of the area's earliest conservationists. He was one of the founders of the Mountaineers, a visionary group formed in 1906–and still very active today–to explore Northwest wilderness areas and collect the history of those places during a critical period.

Curtis's prolific commercial work often took him out of Seattle to places of farming, fishing, logging, and manufacturing. His photos of native canoes, square riggers, riverboats, steamers, locomotives, and early automobiles followed 20th-century transportation as each mode was eclipsed by the next. His work appeared in periodicals ranging from Seattle newspapers to National Geographic. 

In 1907, public interest in yacht racing exploded in Seattle, sparked by the dramatic Canadian-American match for the Alexandra Cup. Seattleites crowded the shoreline to witness some very close finishes. Large sums were wagered on the outcome. News and commercial photographers alike covered the races and found numerous markets for their photos. Vancouver, B.C., hosted a return match in 1908, but racing stopped abruptly in 1909 when the third challenge for the cup ended in a scandal that led to a bitter rift between the two cities. 

While visiting Seattle in 1912, while en route to meetings in San Francisco, Sir Thomas Lipton heard about the dispute while spending considerable time being entertained by local yachtsmen and their families. Ever a supporter of the sport, Lipton offered a challenge cup for a race involving yachts in the R class of the new Universal Rule. The baronet's generous intervention would revive racing–and friendships–between these two cities. 

The yachtsmen of both cities enthusiastically embraced the new format. The Alexandra Cup was put away and never awarded again. When the clubs met again in July of 1914, The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club took their new R–boat TURENGA south to face one of three Seattle boats, all purpose-built to defend the Lipton Cup. Together, they formed the first fleet of R–boats on the Pacific Coast.

Several Northwest marine photographers compiled larger catalogs of pleasure boating images than Asahel Curtis did–Webster & Stevens, Will E. Hudson, and Kenneth Ollar, come to mind. But Curtis was unique in capturing the feel of summer boating on Puget Sound with an artist's keen eye. At the same time, he covered the 1914 Lipton Cup races for Pacific Motor Boat magazine with a newspaperman's sense of history in the making." 

ORTONA
A fine yawl (above) was owned by 
Seattle architect John Graham.
She was built by the Johnson Brothers and
Norman C. Blanchard in 1912. 
She spent most of her life in S. California. 
Curtis has captured her in a typical Puget Sound 
setting: reaching short-handed down 
Admiralty Inlet with Foulweather Bluff just
visible off of her lee bow. 
ORTONA was designed by L.E. "Ted" Geary 
and was 48' x 36' x 12.6' and carried 
1,400 sq. ft. of sail.
Photo by Asahel Curtis

GWENDOLYN II

off Alki Point, Seattle. 
Lloyd Johnson designed "Big Gwen"
and built her with his brother, Dean, 
at Georgetown in 1907. She became the
first Seattle boat to race to Hawaii when
she sailed the 1908 Transpac Yacht Race
from San Pedro to Honolulu.
She was second to finish, second overall. 
A year later, her sails show the effects
of the race and the stormy home.
A large brass bell that was presented 
to the Johnson brothers before they left
for CA, hangs in the lounge of the 
Seattle Yacht Club, engraved with the 
words, "Go in and win."
GWENDOLYN II was 48'6" x 37' x 13' 9"
with 2,000 sq. ft of sail area.
Photo by Asahel Curtis

The victorious crew of the SIR TOM,

poised for Curtis as he came 
alongside at the moorage.
Geary is on the foredeck, alongside
sailor extraordinaire, Fritz Hellenthal. 
On the boom is Norman J. Blanchard, 
co-builder of the boat. 
Aft in his pinafore and sailor hat is 
John Dreher, sailing writer for the 
Seattle Times. Missing is the fifth man,
Dean Johnson.
Photo by Asahel Curtis
 

Asahel Curtis worked in his studio until his death, in 1941. Sixty thousand of his images are held in trust by the Washington State Historical Society.

Thank you writer Scott Rohrer. and Wooden Boat magazine. 

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In August 1906, Asahel Curtis needed to explore above sea level; with his "Mazamas" mountaineering group he reached the summit of Mt. Baker over a route that others had pronounced impossible. He and six other climbers deposited their names in the iron box and left it a new resting place 400 feet further up from its previous position at 1 p.m., 9 August 1906, and were back to their main camp by 11 p.m. 

The names of the climbers: F.H. Kiser, leader, of Portland; Asahel Curtis, of Seattle; C.M. Williams, of Seattle; L.S.Hildebrand, of Bellingham; C. E. Forsythe, of Castle Rock; and Martin Wahnlich, guide, of Bellingham.

At the head of the glacier that feeds Wells Creek, the party claims to have found a large vent in the mountain from which occasionally boiling water is gushed forth with a hissing sound. 

The San Juan Islander. 1906.