Carl Everton Moon (1879-1948)
An Ohioan by birth, Carl Moon apprenticed for six years, learning the art of photography working for various studios in Cincinnati, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia. He opened his own photographic studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico in about 1903. After struggling for several years, a chance meeting with the publisher John Adams Thayer, provided him with an entre into the New York publishing scene. His sensitively posed photographs of Southwestern Native Americans soon began appearing in Century Magazine, The Literary Digest, and the New York Times. In Washington, Moon’s photographs were exhibited at the offices of the Bureau of American Ethnology in the Smithsonian, the Cosmos Club, and at the White House. Other commissions followed. Major companies such as Wells Fargo and Stetson Hats also used his photographs for advertising purposes on calendars and logos.
In 1907 Moon began a long association with the Fred Harvey Company, serving as the company director of art. He was in charge of Fred Harvey’s Headquarters at the Grand Canyon, Arizona and also worked as the official photographer for the Santa Fe Railroad.
In 1914 he moved to Pasadena, California, and remained there for the rest of his life, publishing and writing. With the outbreak of World War I and the rise of anti-German sentiments, Moon wanted to make certain that his patriotism was unquestioned. Before 1914 he used, “Karl;” between 1914 and 1917 he continued this, but occasionally used, “Carl;” and after February 1918 he used only “Carl.”
Carl Moon and his wife, Grace, are famous for their work with Southwestern Indians. The Moons were known as artists, poets, and authors; Carl Moon’s photographs of Native Americans were authentic to the time and are valued by students of American Indian culture today.
Information courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc. September 2006