Virginia Kerr, digital technology librarian at Northwestern, was principal investigator of the project, and coordinated the organization and content of the digital collection. Lorraine Olley, head, Preservation Department, served on the Advisory Board and assisted in various aspects of the project. Arawa McClendon, formerly library assistant in the Preservation Department, served as research assistant to this project and contributed in many areas, including description of the images and transcribing captions, background research, preliminary indexing, and project communications. Dan Mulvihill, library assistant, helped compile background resources for the site. Other assisting present and former Preservation Department staff members included Deborah Howe, Franck Mercurio, Giselle Simon, Colleen Byrne Wallace, and Dan Zellner. John R. Stokes of JJT, Inc., created and processed the digital images.

Rebecca Routh, electronic resource cataloger in the Northwestern University Library Catalog Department, created all of the catalog records and indexing, compiled the topical list of index terms, and coordinated record mapping and exporting with OCLC's Project CORC staff. Andrea Stamm, head, Cataloging Department, contributed to the design of cataloging coverage.

Subject specialists, including many from outside Northwestern University Library, contributed enormously to the definition of project goals, selection guidelines, and creation of background content. In the Library's Collection Management Division, Leslie Bjorncrantz, Harriet Lightman, Tom Mann, and Diane Perushek contributed advice and referrals to other subject specialists. Current and past staff members of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History at the Newberry Library gave helpful advice at several stages of the project. Laurie Lawlor, author of Shadow Catcher, the Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis (1994), advised on contemporary interest in Curtis.

An Advisory Board for the Curtis Digitization Project provided guidance on content and cultural sensitivities issues, and recommended the structure of the Special Presentation "Curtis in Context," suggesting essay authors. LaVonne Ruoff contributed greatly to the project in additional areas, including editorial work with contributing authors. Members of the board were: Virginia Kerr, R. Russell Maylone, and Lorraine Olley from Northwestern University Library; David R.M. Beck, associate professor of Native American Studies at the University of Montana; Sorrell Goodwin (Tlingit, Athabascan, Aleut), curatorial assist ant, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian; Janice Klein, director of the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Kendall College, Evanston, Illinois; Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet) of the Piegan Institute, Missoula, Montana; Mariana Moreno-Goodwin (Quichua); and A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff, professor emerita of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

The authors of the essays provided advice and assistance in many ways: David R.M. Beck (also an Advisory Board member); Mick Gidley, professor of American Literature, University of Leeds, England; Hartman Lomawaima (Hopi), associate director, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona; and Gerald Vizenor (Anishinaabe), professor of American Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Among the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program staff who provided tremendous assistance with the entire project were: Mary Ambrosio, programmer; Caroline Arms, program coordinator and technical advisor for the LC/Ameritech competition; Andrea Dillon, graphic designer; Carl Fleischhauer, technical coordinator; Melissa Front, graphic designer; Melissa Smith Levine, legal advisor; and Barak Stussman, data transformation support.