Carl Everton Moon

Carl Everton Moon (October 5, 1878 – June 24, 1948) was an American photographer, book and magazine illustrator, painter and writer focused on Native American subjects. He has been called "the imitator of Edward Curtis" and "the last of the great early photographers to go west".

Early life and early career

Carl Everton Moon (or Karl, as he spelled his name prior to anti-German sentiment during World War I) was born in Wilmington, Ohio, on October 5, 1878. In addition, as a boy, Moon had determined to head West after reading James Fenimore Cooper's adventure stories.

Bessie died shortly after their arrival in Albuquerque. Moon began his work with the Indians alone. As a result of a meeting with publisher James Adams Thayer, Moon's photos appeared on the covers of Ridgway Magazine, The Literary Digest, Century, The Burr McIntosh Monthly and The New York Times. The photos would become the Fred Harvey Collection of Southwest Indian Pictures. Harvey ordered hundreds of thousands of DPC Phostints to sell in his hotel gift shops alongside the Native American jewelry, blankets and baskets he commissioned from local artisans.

During the same time frame, Moon also sold photos to major companies such as Stetson Hats and Wells Fargo for use in advertisements, calendars and logos.

In addition to his photographic duties at The Harvey Co., Moon served as the director of art. In this position, he assisted Harvey and the American Museum of Natural History in acquiring paintings of Indians.

Indian Legends in Rhyme (1917) Lost Indian Magic (1918) Wongo and the Wise Old Crow (1923) Chi-Wee, The Adventures of a Little Indian Girl (1925) Chi-Wee and Loki of the Desert (1926) Nadita-(Little Nothing) (1927) The Flaming Arrow (1927) The Runaway Papoose (1928) The Magic Trail (1929) The Missing Kachina (1930) The Arrow of Tee-May (1931) Painted Moccasin (1931) The Book of Nah-Wee (1932) Far-Away Desert (1932) Tah-Kee The Boy from Nowhere (1932) Shanty Ann (1935) Singing Sands (1936) White Indian (1937) Solita (1938) Daughter of Thunder (1942) One Little Indian (1950)

Runaway Papoose won a Newbery Medal in 1929.

Moon continued to make photographs and paintings at the Pasadena studio. He painted 24 Indian studies for Henry E. Huntington, four for the Otto Vollbehr collection in Charlottenburg, Germany, and 26 oil paintings of Southwest Indians for the Smithsonian Institution.

Moon died at the home of his daughter in 1948. for Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, in which he explained his photographic objective and approach.

And later in the same article:

In a joint biography of the Moons, In Search of the Wild Indians: Photographs & Life Works by Carl and Grace Moon, author Tom Dreibe offers the highest praise for the artist, "Perhaps if his travels had led him West ten years earlier, he may have been considered the greatest Indian photographer of all time".

Collections Moon's artwork is in the collections of Hubbell Trading Post, Huntington Library, Montclair Art Museum, Southwest Museum of the American Indian, Library of Congress, American Museum of Natural History, The Getty Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.

The Huntington Library holds the largest collection, the 24 oil paintings made specifically for Henry Huntington and 293 photographic prints purchased by the collector.