A stunning record of vanishing Native American tribes, one of the earliest complete versions of Curtis’s early 20th-century work, will be offered for auction in its original binding by Swann Auction Galleries in New York on 18 October, with an estimate of $1m-$1.5m.

Check them out for more information and start to see our world through photos!

Mósa – Mohave

Compiled by Curtis from 1907-30, the 20 volumes of text accompanied by 20 folios of large-format photogravures, document the lives and customs of the Native American tribes

Photograph: Swann Auction Galleries

Oasis in the Badlands

One of the most celebrated images from The North American Indian publication

Qa’Ĥíla – Koprino

Curtis explained his motives in the introduction to the first volume in 1907: ‘The information that is to be gathered … respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the

opportunity will be lost.’ The Koprinos are part of the Kwakiutl group

Carved posts at Alert Bay

Photographed on Cormorant Island, Canada

Navaho

A chief of the desert, from the south-western US

Masked dancers of the Qáĥgyuĥl

Part of the Kwakiutl tribe of the western coast of British Columbia in Canada

Páqŭsĭlahl

A masked dancer of the Qáĥgyuĥl

Hamatsa emerging from the woods – Koskimo

An image from British Columbia

A lodge interior of the Piegan

Members of the Blackfoot confederacy