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Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And today's

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Speaker 1: episode was actually inspired by our coworker Julie. Uh again, Yes,

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Speaker 1: Julie and I hang out a lot, so I got

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Speaker 1: lots of cool stuff from her. But also she just

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Speaker 1: came back from a trip through the American Southwest. And

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Speaker 1: when she came back, we had lunch and she was

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Speaker 1: talking about Mary Russell Coulton with such fascination and delight

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Speaker 1: that I was like, I'm going to look this person

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Speaker 1: up and will maybe do a show on her. And

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Speaker 1: we did. Uh. Mary Russell Ferrell Colton was a painter.

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Speaker 1: We're not going to talk a lot about her painting, Uh,

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Speaker 1: we'll mention it. But she was also an author and

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Speaker 1: an educator. But the thing that makes her the most

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Speaker 1: famous is the co founding of the Museum of Northern

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Speaker 1: Arizona and related programs and projects intended to preserve and

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Speaker 1: continue the art tradition of the Colorado Plateau. So quick

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Speaker 1: geographical reminder slash overview the Colorado Plateau overlaps the four

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Speaker 1: corners region of the southwestern United States. That's just where Colorado, Utah,

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Speaker 1: New Mexico, and Arizona all meet, and it is, per

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Speaker 1: the National Park Service, quote, one of the world's premier

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Speaker 1: natural showcases for earth history. There are volcanic mountains, plateaus, buttes,

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Speaker 1: and canyons, and a lot of National parks in the area. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's one of those things. I feel like people don't

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Speaker 1: always think about how much human history is contained in

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Speaker 1: these areas as well. We sort of associate I've talked

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Speaker 1: about it before archaeology is something that happens elsewhere, but

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Speaker 1: it's very Uh, there are a lot of really impressive

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Speaker 1: digs that have happened in the area. We'll talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about some of those. Flagstaff, Arizona, which becomes

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Speaker 1: a really focal point of Mary Russell Colton's story, is

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Speaker 1: on the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau and there

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Speaker 1: are six different ecological zones that can all be experienced

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Speaker 1: within a hundred miles of Flagstaff and a wealth of

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Speaker 1: history going back into prehistory. So it's a pretty incredible place.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of Native American tribes in the

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Speaker 1: area as well, including the Zuni, have a Supie, Navajo,

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Speaker 1: Hopie Ute, Willapie, Southern Piute, and piet Uh. And because

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell Colton worked with several of those Native American tribes,

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Speaker 1: that is why we mentioned them in this little intro piece.

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Speaker 1: But now we're going to transition specifically to Mary Russell's story.

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Speaker 1: She was born Mary Russell Farrell in Louisville, Kentucky, on

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Speaker 1: March nine, to parents Joseph Librand Farrell and engineer and

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Speaker 1: Elase Houston. The Houston side of the family was wealthy

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Speaker 1: and filled with really prominent members of society. Her grandfather

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Speaker 1: was Chief Justice of Tennessee Supreme Court, and they were

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Speaker 1: related to Sam Houston, the seventh Governor of Texas, and

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Speaker 1: through marriage, they were related to James K. Polk. As

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Speaker 1: a child, Mary Russell was curious and inquisitive, and she

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Speaker 1: loved learning, but her education in her younger years was

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Speaker 1: pretty informal. She was drawn to art from the time

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Speaker 1: she was small, though, and she had decided that it

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Speaker 1: would be her career path before she became a teenager.

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Speaker 1: When Mary was just fifteen, her father, Joseph died suddenly,

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Speaker 1: and while he had been a really good provider and

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Speaker 1: had done well for himself. At the time of his passing,

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Speaker 1: the family was in a tight situation financially. They had

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Speaker 1: just you know, kind of had one of those little

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Speaker 1: dips of income, and unfortunately that is when he died.

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Speaker 1: So at least her mother was forced to sell items

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Speaker 1: from the household to make ends meet. And it was

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Speaker 1: only through the patronage of a family friend that Mary

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Speaker 1: Russell was able to attend art school in nineteen o four.

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Speaker 1: That family friend was Mrs Annie Walbridge, and thanks to her,

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell began taking classes at the Philadelphia School of

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Speaker 1: Design for Women when she was just fifteen. The school

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Speaker 1: was intended as a place where respectable women who found

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Speaker 1: themselves needing to be their own bread winners could learn

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Speaker 1: how to do so through a career in art. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: This was you know, talking about post industry or part

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Speaker 1: of the Industrial Revolution, where there were more and more

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Speaker 1: instances where women were sort of finding themselves needing to

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Speaker 1: figure out how to make an income, and particularly for

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Speaker 1: women from wealthier families, art seemed like a good possibility.

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Speaker 1: And Mary Russell practiced and studied all kinds of art,

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Speaker 1: but she really gravitated towards oils as her preferred medium.

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Speaker 1: She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and then went

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Speaker 1: on to a year of post graduate work. She wasn't

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Speaker 1: particularly disposed to socializing, but she was generally well liked

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Speaker 1: by her peers at school. During this time, her mother

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Speaker 1: also remarried. This was something of a surprise, but she

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Speaker 1: remarried a successful publisher named Theodore Presser, and that marriage

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Speaker 1: provided both Elise and her daughter, Mary Russell financial stability

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Speaker 1: for the rest of their lives. After her postgraduate work,

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell and two other students opened their own art

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Speaker 1: studio in downtown Philadelphia, where they could all work. She

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Speaker 1: also made money working for museums to restore art, and

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Speaker 1: she did various work for higher art projects. Mary Russell

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Speaker 1: at this point was still living with her mother and

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Speaker 1: her stepfather, but she was not getting along particularly well

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Speaker 1: with Theodore Presser. They had just tension between them, so

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Speaker 1: Alice hatched a plan for Mary Russell to take a

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Speaker 1: trip to ease some of that tension in the household.

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Speaker 1: This trip was a hiking expedition in British Columbia in

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Speaker 1: nine and Mary Russell really fell in love with the freedom,

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Speaker 1: the hiking and the terrain of the West. When another

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Speaker 1: opportunity to go on another similar expedition came up the

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Speaker 1: following year. Mary Russell was delighted, and at one of

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Speaker 1: the planning meetings she met Dr Harold Seller's Coulton, who

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Speaker 1: was a professor of zoology at the University of Pennsylvania. Colton,

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Speaker 1: like Mary Russell, had family money and his work as

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Speaker 1: a professor was more of a passion than an income generator. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he really didn't make that much money teaching compared to

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Speaker 1: what he already had in the bank uh from his family,

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Speaker 1: and he also made some good investments along the way.

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Speaker 1: And Colton was interested in this trip, but the organizer

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Speaker 1: was unsure if he would be suited for it, so

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Speaker 1: he actually asked for Mary Russell's thoughts on the matter,

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Speaker 1: since she had been on the previous trip and really

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Speaker 1: knew what it was going to take in terms of

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Speaker 1: endurance and stamina, and she was okay with it. But

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Speaker 1: she and Colton were at best sort of about each other.

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Speaker 1: They didn't really hit it off, but they got along

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Speaker 1: well enough and they were in the end both included

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Speaker 1: in this party. During the trip, Harold Colton and another

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Speaker 1: member had separated from the party for a planned side

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Speaker 1: trip to California, and Dctor Charles Shaw, who was the

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Speaker 1: organizer of this expedition, had taken them in by canoe

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Speaker 1: to drop them off, but then he died on his

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Speaker 1: way back to join the main party when the canoe

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Speaker 1: over turned. So once the group was reunited after Dr

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Speaker 1: Shaw's death, they did continue their travels, and it seems

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Speaker 1: that during that time, Mary Russell and Harold grew closer,

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Speaker 1: and after they returned to Philadelphia, they began a correspondence

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Speaker 1: with one another. Initially, Harold was really more interested in

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Speaker 1: a romantic relationship than Mary Russell was. She was just

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Speaker 1: kind of interested in having a fun, smart friend. But

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Speaker 1: they eventually fell into a courtship and they were engaged

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Speaker 1: on May thirteenth, nineteen eleven, and married a year later

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Speaker 1: on May twenty three, nineteen twelve. The wedding took place

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Speaker 1: in the home of Alice and Theodore, her parents. Mary

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Speaker 1: and Harold's honeymoon proved really pivotal. They traveled once again

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Speaker 1: through the southwestern United States, and Mary fell even more

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Speaker 1: deeply in love with this area. It was a pretty

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Speaker 1: comprehensive trip as well. They visited Gloriata, Santa Fe, and

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Speaker 1: Albuquerque in New Mexico, they traveled through villages all along

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Speaker 1: the Rio Grand and into Arizona, which had only become

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Speaker 1: a state a few months leier. On February fourteenth, they

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Speaker 1: went to the Grand Canyon and all along the Colorado

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Speaker 1: River valley, and then they made their way to California.

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Speaker 1: Their journals and notes from this trip identified the American

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Speaker 1: Southwest as a potential home for the two of them,

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Speaker 1: and the couple, though did continue to live in Pennsylvania.

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Speaker 1: They were in Ardmore at that point, but they made

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Speaker 1: frequent trips west, studying Native American art. In particular, the

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Speaker 1: year after their honeymoon, they went back, this time with

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Speaker 1: friends in a much larger party. And for that expedition,

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell and Harold really made an effort to prepare

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Speaker 1: ahead of time and study Navajo and Hopie culture and

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Speaker 1: connect with scholars in the eastern US who had connections

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Speaker 1: to those people's on the Colorado Plateau. So on that

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen journey, the Coltons visited several Native American villages,

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Speaker 1: and they happened to be there just as a point

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Speaker 1: of trivia. At the same time that Theodore Roosevelt was

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Speaker 1: touring the area. Their curiosity also led them to exploring

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Speaker 1: so many areas that their vacations over the next several

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Speaker 1: years actually ended up identifying a number of spots that

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Speaker 1: wound up being of interest to archaeologists. The Colorado Plateau's

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Speaker 1: archaeology surveys started based on locations that the Coltons had

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Speaker 1: recorded as being of interest. And we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: more about their travels and discoveries and their archaeological connections

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Speaker 1: in just a moment, but first we're gonna pause for

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Speaker 1: a little sponsor break. Few years into their marriage, on

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Speaker 1: auguste the Coltons had their first child, a son named

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Speaker 1: Joseph Ferrell Colton, and this was the first year that

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Speaker 1: they didn't make it back west in the summer because

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Speaker 1: of the baby's birth, and they also skipped nineteen fifteen,

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Speaker 1: but they did go back to Flagstaff, Arizona for an

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Speaker 1: extended visit in nineteen sixteen, and one of the Colton's

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Speaker 1: discoveries that would have a lasting impact on research in

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Speaker 1: the area happened that summer, and it was actually thanks

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Speaker 1: to their toddler who found a broken ceramic piece and

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Speaker 1: handed it to Harold, who identified it as potentially important

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Speaker 1: and as a result, a decades long archaeological survey of

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Speaker 1: the area was conducted. Mary Russell and Joseph Farrell stayed

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Speaker 1: in Flagstaff after the summer due to a polio outbreak

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Speaker 1: back in Philadelphia. While Harold went back to his teaching duties.

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell ended up happening upon another site on an

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Speaker 1: autumn horseback ride that led to new information about the

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Speaker 1: prehistoric peoples of the area. These discoveries and others these

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Speaker 1: are not the only two that they were part of,

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Speaker 1: really got the Colton's excited about the archaeological and anthropological

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Speaker 1: research potential in the Colorado Plateau area, so much so

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Speaker 1: that Harold's interests really started to slowly transition away from

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Speaker 1: zoology and he started writing more archaeological papers, and Mary

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Speaker 1: Russell was also interested. She co authored a paper with

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Speaker 1: her husband in nineteen but her interests really remained more

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Speaker 1: intently on the contemporary cultures of the Native Americans in

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Speaker 1: the area. Their second son, Saban Woolworth Culton, the Fourth,

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Speaker 1: was born on September four, nineteen seventeen. That plus the

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Speaker 1: onset of World War One, in which Harold served in

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Speaker 1: the military intelligence, disrupted their regular visits out west. Once again.

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Speaker 1: They returned in nineteen nineteen, and soon they were bringing

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Speaker 1: family and friends with them as they had before the war.

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell lost her mother unexpectedly when Alice died while

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Speaker 1: visiting them out west in nineteen Because Mary Russell was

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Speaker 1: dealing with a combination of shock and grief at this

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Speaker 1: sudden loss, Harold made arrangements for the family to stay

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Speaker 1: in Tucson, Arizona, through the winter and spring instead of

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Speaker 1: returning to Pennsylvania. So in late spring of nineteen three,

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Speaker 1: they moved from Tucson to Flagstaff. Their youngest son, Saban,

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Speaker 1: who was six at the time, got sick during their

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Speaker 1: time and Flagstaff, and his ailment was eventually diagnosed as

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Speaker 1: that fever. This is an infection that developed after inhaling

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Speaker 1: a fungus that's commonly found in dry arid areas. The

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Speaker 1: family returns Philadelphia, but Saban never recovered, and the next

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Speaker 1: year he died on May third. They had had these

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Speaker 1: two tragedies in a row, but unfortunately there was another

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Speaker 1: one coming At the beginning of nine. The family had

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Speaker 1: to deal again with another loss when Harold's father, Saban

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Speaker 1: Woolworth Colton Jr. Who their son had been named after

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Speaker 1: died on January twenty nine, and that year the Coltons

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Speaker 1: decided to reclaim happier times, and they purchased land that

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Speaker 1: they had been camping on almost every year that they

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Speaker 1: visited Flagstaff, as well as another parcel of land right

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Speaker 1: next to it that I had a home built on it.

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Speaker 1: And this was really their first step toward moving to

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Speaker 1: their beloved American Southwest, although they did spend one more

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Speaker 1: winter in Philadelphia before leaving permanently. Mary really loved Flagstaff,

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Speaker 1: but she was underwhelmed at the town's effort to preserve

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Speaker 1: and promote the Native American art and culture in the area.

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Speaker 1: The Woman's Club of Flagstaff had assembled a small gallery

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Speaker 1: of things like pottery, baskets, and blankets, but it wasn't

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Speaker 1: nearly as robustic collection as Culton thought that it should be.

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell and Harold envisioned creating a science and art

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Speaker 1: facility that could accommodate a wider scope of Native culture

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Speaker 1: and communicate to visitors and residents alike the environmental and

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Speaker 1: cultural heritage of the Colorado Plateau. Additionally, as Mary Russell

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Speaker 1: and Harold made their nearly yearly trips to the plateau,

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Speaker 1: they had also started seeing archaeological finds packed up and

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Speaker 1: taken away to museums on the East coast, and they

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Speaker 1: were not the only ones that were noticing that it

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Speaker 1: was strictly a flow out where all of the culture

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Speaker 1: was kind of being taken elsewhere. As early as ninety two,

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Speaker 1: local papers were running articles discussing why antiquities from the

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Speaker 1: Colorado Plateau weren't being housed in a museum there in

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Speaker 1: the area. That called a local citizens had been the

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Speaker 1: catalyst for the Flagstaff Woman Club to set up their

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Speaker 1: small collection, but the desire and need for a larger

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Speaker 1: effort to protect the area's local heritage was in the

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Speaker 1: minds of more people than just the Coltons. The Coltons

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Speaker 1: were able to step in and offer some financial resources

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Speaker 1: that had been lacking in this whole project, and as

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Speaker 1: early as nineteen twenty four, before the couple had made

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Speaker 1: Flagstaff their permanent home, they had paid for display cases

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Speaker 1: that the Woman's Club exhibit. They really wanted to back

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Speaker 1: this whole effort, so uh, as Tracy just said, even

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Speaker 1: before they were really local residents, they were still they

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Speaker 1: were already giving money to this effort, and in the

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Speaker 1: late summer of nine a Museum study committee was appointed

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Speaker 1: by the flag Staff Chamber of Commerce. Harold Colton was

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Speaker 1: on that committee and Mary Russell was also added. After

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Speaker 1: the initial group formed by December of nine, a constitution

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Speaker 1: and by laws for the museum were written, but then

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Speaker 1: there was debate about whether it should be part of

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Speaker 1: a college or a standalone institution, and the Coltons felt

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Speaker 1: strongly that it should exists outside of the confines of

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Speaker 1: a college structure, and it should offer something back to

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Speaker 1: the community whose art and culture it was intending to preserve.

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Speaker 1: And a letter that appeared in the Coconinot Sun, Mary

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Speaker 1: Russell wrote, the desirability of the establishment of a museum

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Speaker 1: for the care of our geological, zoological and archaeological treasures

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Speaker 1: is acknowledged by all, but has the great educational value

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Speaker 1: of a continuity between the ancient and modern Native arts

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Speaker 1: been thoroughly considered. Our opportunity for this dual development is

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Speaker 1: exceptional here located, as we are close to the Hopie

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Speaker 1: and Navajo Indians, whose people have instituted the very arts

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Speaker 1: that you are about to go to much pains to preserve. Today,

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Speaker 1: those people's will soon have forgotten the secrets of their crafts,

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Speaker 1: and when they vanish, our country will have lost its

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Speaker 1: only true Native American art. This is our chance to

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Speaker 1: lend them a hand, encourage our Indians to produce only

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Speaker 1: the best using the beautiful old designs available in museum,

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Speaker 1: where they would bring their finest examples of modern an

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Speaker 1: Indian craftsmanship for exhibition and sale, side by side with

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Speaker 1: the work of the ancient people's. So okay, obviously there's

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Speaker 1: some stuff to talk about here. We should make it

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Speaker 1: clear that Colton had good intentions. She really did want

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Speaker 1: to preserve indigenous art and give the Native peoples of

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Speaker 1: the Southwest the resources to preserve and develop their own

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Speaker 1: artistic traditions. She tried to get input from those people's

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Speaker 1: when planning archaeological work and figuring out what to put

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Speaker 1: in the museum's collection, and then later on when she

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Speaker 1: worked on educational systems. But at the same time, she

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Speaker 1: was making a lot of these decisions in a pretty

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Speaker 1: paternalistic way, assuming that she knew what was best to

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Speaker 1: preserve another people's heritage. She also wrote about Native American

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Speaker 1: artists and their culture and ways that were simultaneously complimentary

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Speaker 1: and dismissive. She considered this work to be cultural handicraft

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Speaker 1: and not fine art, and this was a pretty common

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Speaker 1: mindset among wealthy white progressives at the time. Additionally, Mary

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Speaker 1: Russell had some concerns about the proposed placement of the

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Speaker 1: museum on college property. She thought that was going to

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Speaker 1: put it in a less affluent part of town, which

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Speaker 1: would detract from its mission because no one would want

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Speaker 1: to go see art in a poor neighborhood. Uh. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: She also one of the other things that becomes tricky

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Speaker 1: when you're reading her writing is that she uses a

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Speaker 1: lot of words that we would separate out today kind

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Speaker 1: of as synonyms. So she would talk about art, craft, handicrafts, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, other words that we're all really referring for

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Speaker 1: her to the same thing, but today have more specific meaning.

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Speaker 1: So that gets a little tricky when you're reading her

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Speaker 1: writing as well. But we are going to delve into

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Speaker 1: where all of this museum discussion led in just a moment,

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Speaker 1: but first we will take a little break and have

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Speaker 1: a word from a sponsor. So the Colton's continued to

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Speaker 1: advocate pretty vocally for the museum to be an independent

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Speaker 1: entity and not part of a college. Uh. And they

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Speaker 1: eventually got their way and By the end of that year,

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Speaker 1: a nonprofit corporation was founded to govern the museum, that

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Speaker 1: year being n and in May of nine, a board

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Speaker 1: of trustees was elected. Harold was the Museum of Northern

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Speaker 1: Arizona's Board of Trustees president and Museum Director, which is

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Speaker 1: a position he was elected to in that May meeting.

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Speaker 1: Mary was the facility's art curator and eventually also became

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Speaker 1: the curator of Ethnology. For the next two decades, the

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Speaker 1: couple steered museum's development and direction, and because they were

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Speaker 1: running everything themselves, they had a unique level of autonomy.

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Speaker 1: Researcher William James Burns wrote this and his thesis about

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell Coulton quote. A potential threat to validity exists

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Speaker 1: when a researcher or institution receives funding for a study

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Speaker 1: from an outside agency, whether federal, state, municipal, or private.

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Speaker 1: The Culton's independent wealth sheltered their research studies from outside influences.

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Speaker 1: Although they resisted the notion that the museum was theirs,

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Speaker 1: In point of fact, the Coltons funded the institution in

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Speaker 1: full for the first thirty years of its existence. From

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Speaker 1: eight from ninety, Doctor and Mrs Colton enjoyed the luxury

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Speaker 1: of pursuing studies that they were interested in without having

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Speaker 1: to be concerned about utilitarian purposes for their work, or

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Speaker 1: without a funding agency with an agenda encouraging them to

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Speaker 1: push a certain set of values. That's sort of this

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Speaker 1: will sound um, sort of like I am a brilliant

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Speaker 1: student of the blazingly obvious, But that really struck me.

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Speaker 1: I had not considered how unusual that situation would be.

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Speaker 1: Where you set up your own museum, and even though

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Speaker 1: it is a public museum, you could go, no, we're

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Speaker 1: just going to do what we want. Uh. I imagine

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Speaker 1: most people that work in museums today would have a

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Speaker 1: hard time even contemplating what that would be less like uh.

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Speaker 1: And initially though, the museum was still housed in the

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Speaker 1: Flagstaff Woman's Club building, but soon it really grew too large,

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Speaker 1: even after it had expanded from that single room that

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Speaker 1: was there when they moved to Flagstaff to fill the

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Speaker 1: entire clubhouse. So at that point the museum was basically

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Speaker 1: paying to rent the clubhouse as a museum space. The

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Speaker 1: next additional space was actually annexed in a nearby hotel storefront,

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Speaker 1: but even that was quickly overrun, there was not enough space,

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Speaker 1: so a larger, more permanent space just became more and

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Speaker 1: more of a pressing need. In ninety two people visited

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Speaker 1: the museum, and this was noteworthy because there were fewer

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Speaker 1: than people living in Flagstaff at the time. Finally, in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three, after the nonprofit incorporated, which gave it

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Speaker 1: legal right to own property, Mary Russell donated twenty nine

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Speaker 1: acres to the museum, dedicated to her deceased son Sabing,

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Speaker 1: so that the permanent facility could be built to house

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Speaker 1: this ever growing collection. The Coulton's financed the construction as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the way it tended to work out was that Mary's

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Speaker 1: family money was paying for things like land, and Harold

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00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,760
Speaker 1: Colton's family money was paying for things like the construction.

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Speaker 1: Mary Russell was, as we too earlier, very focused particularly

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Speaker 1: on Hopie and Navajo arts, and she was concerned that

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Speaker 1: these cultures were losing their knowledge of the old methods

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Speaker 1: of creating art, and so she sought to bring education

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Speaker 1: programs to the museum and its education efforts that was

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Speaker 1: going to keep them alive. And in her writing about

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Speaker 1: teaching this information though, she was really careful to instruct

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Speaker 1: teachers to give children and adults alike the tools and

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Speaker 1: knowledge to create using methods that were classic or handed

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Speaker 1: down through Native people's but to let the artists make

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Speaker 1: their own decisions about using those tools to express whatever

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Speaker 1: they desired. She also advocated for craftsmen within Hopie and

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Speaker 1: Navajo villages to be chosen as teachers and paid for

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Speaker 1: their work. She really looked at these projects from their

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Speaker 1: absolute base material needs all the way through to their completion.

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Speaker 1: So she wanted weavers to have the best quality wools,

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Speaker 1: so she studied breeds of sheep to find the one

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Speaker 1: that produced the most optimal fibers. She hunted down indigo

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Speaker 1: pigment that was closer to what had been you in

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Speaker 1: legacy Hopie textiles, which was more brilliant and richer in

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Speaker 1: tone than the colors that had come into favor over

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Speaker 1: the years. And in the realm of pottery. She worked

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Speaker 1: to recreate the methods that had once been common in

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Speaker 1: Hopie work, and to achieve this, she not only had

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Speaker 1: to experiment with trying different paints and firing procedures, but

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Speaker 1: she also went so far as to test different soils

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Speaker 1: for the creation of clay to replicate previous methods as

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Speaker 1: closely as possible. Another idea she promoted was for each

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Speaker 1: community or school to have its own sort of informal

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Speaker 1: mini museum where work that had been produced by students

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Speaker 1: could be exhibited and rotated each year. And we've spoken

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Speaker 1: before on the show about the federal Indian boarding school system,

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Speaker 1: which sought to eliminate Native culture from children through a

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Speaker 1: system that was really designed, as we mentioned, particularly in

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Speaker 1: our two parter on the Fort Shaw women's basketball team,

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Speaker 1: to quote kill the Indian and save the man. And

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Speaker 1: this approach, which was intended to strip Native American students

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Speaker 1: of their cultural identities, was an utter failure with truly

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Speaker 1: grim and damaging results. So this idea of education was

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Speaker 1: turning a little by the time Mary Russell Colton was

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Speaker 1: implementing her own programs and writing about teaching that Native

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Speaker 1: American children. A lot of this shift was thanks to

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Speaker 1: a scathing report on the schools published in nine titled

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Speaker 1: quote the Problems of Indian Administration, and it was still

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Speaker 1: an issue of discussion. She believed that quote teaching them

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Speaker 1: their own crafts when they are young, and thus encouraging

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Speaker 1: them to feel a pride of race would go far

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Speaker 1: towards solving some of the most difficult and painful adjustment problems.

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Speaker 1: Colon really thought that it was possible and beneficial for

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Speaker 1: Native American students to get an education that was going

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Speaker 1: to blend both an Anglo and a Native American curriculum.

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Speaker 1: She wasn't really interested in this idea of assimilation that

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Speaker 1: had given rise to those horrible boarding schools, and she

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00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,760
Speaker 1: also really believed that education needed to be carefully tailored

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Speaker 1: to each tribal culture where it was being implemented, rather

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Speaker 1: than developing one curriculum that was trying to serve every

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Speaker 1: single village. In the same way, she fought aggressively to

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Speaker 1: ensure that all public schools had art as part of

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Speaker 1: the curriculum. She wrote and published a passionate letter to

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Speaker 1: citizens of Northern Arizona as an extra publication of the

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Speaker 1: museum's newsletter, and which she pleaded quote, do you know

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Speaker 1: that art education is being deliberately strangled in the public schools?

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Speaker 1: Your children are being deprived of their rights to a

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Speaker 1: creative education. Art education is both a practical and liberal

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Speaker 1: education in life, and as closely inextricably correlated with every

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Speaker 1: other subject in the school, Our enlightened country should feel

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Speaker 1: shame indeed at having countenanced for a moment such a

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Speaker 1: backward step in education. And in nine, just four years

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Speaker 1: after the Coltons moved permanently to Arizona, Mary held the

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Speaker 1: Arizona Artists Exhibitions, and in these shows, local artists had

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Speaker 1: an opportunity to share their work with an audience and

433
00:24:57,320 --> 00:25:00,200
Speaker 1: promote what they had to offer. This was, in her mind,

434
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 1: also away for them to generate an income. This exhibition

435
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:06,800
Speaker 1: was very successful and it continued to be an annual

436
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 1: event for the next six years. As an offshoot of

437
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:13,960
Speaker 1: the exhibition success as a teaching tool, Mary Russell Coulton

438
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:16,600
Speaker 1: created a traveling exhibit that she could take around to

439
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:20,200
Speaker 1: schools and to other museums to show collections that featured

440
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:24,360
Speaker 1: art from a variety of Native American cultures and explained

441
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 1: the techniques that were used to create them. Traveling educational

442
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 1: shows were called treasure chests. Yeah, sometimes they would just circulate.

443
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:34,679
Speaker 1: She wouldn't necessarily go with them, but they would like

444
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:39,680
Speaker 1: go to a school with a little curriculum. Uh. Explainer

445
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,879
Speaker 1: included for teachers to kind of talk through with kids

446
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:44,399
Speaker 1: what was in the box, and they could have them

447
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks at a time. It was

448
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:48,240
Speaker 1: kind of an interesting idea. She was not the first

449
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,000
Speaker 1: person to come up with that idea. There were other things, uh,

450
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:55,840
Speaker 1: there were other educators that were trying similar concepts um

451
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,960
Speaker 1: but Mary Russell Coulton really wanted to ensure that the

452
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 1: children of this areo we're getting both in education, in

453
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 1: local art history as evidenced by these touring teaching exhibitions,

454
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: and also she wanted to make sure that future generations

455
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:11,359
Speaker 1: were going to learn and preserve the art techniques and

456
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:15,360
Speaker 1: methods that were part of their cultural history. To that end,

457
00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 1: she started a junior art show for grade school children

458
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 1: to share their work in nineteen thirty one. She felt

459
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,920
Speaker 1: very passionately that all children should receive art lessons, no

460
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,879
Speaker 1: matter what future career or life they might have, and

461
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,639
Speaker 1: after several years of working with children and developing a

462
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:35,160
Speaker 1: curriculum for teaching art, in four Colton wrote a book

463
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:38,639
Speaker 1: to teach other educators in the region titled Art for

464
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: the Schools of the Southwest, An Outline for the Public

465
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:45,359
Speaker 1: and Indian Schools. This very busy and productive time in

466
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 1: Mary's life was not something that she could sustain though,

467
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,879
Speaker 1: she turned back to her own art started painting again,

468
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:54,400
Speaker 1: but at the same time she turned away from most

469
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:59,720
Speaker 1: social activities. She increasingly stayed home. Eventually, she was diagnosed

470
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: with Arthur sclerosis of the brain, which is a condition

471
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: in which there's a thickening or stiffening of the brain's

472
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,800
Speaker 1: arterial walls. This is associated with certain types of dementia,

473
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:11,240
Speaker 1: and it puts patients at a high risk for stroke.

474
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:15,960
Speaker 1: In night, Mary stopped working full time at the museum.

475
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 1: Her husband, Harold, though, continued the programs that she had begun,

476
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: and as she planned to leave her job, she worked

477
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: on writing down ideals that would guide the museum's art

478
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: department after she was gone, and those were to stimulate

479
00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:33,120
Speaker 1: Native American arts and crafts, to foster creativity in the community,

480
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: and to present the museum's scientific information artfully. Even when

481
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,119
Speaker 1: Mary Russell retired, she still had a position of authority

482
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 1: at the museum. As chair of the museum's Art Committee.

483
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,679
Speaker 1: She could continue to steer the policies and decisions without

484
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,680
Speaker 1: the burden of her full time position. She was chair

485
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 1: of the Art Committee for a decade, stepping down in

486
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 1: that same year. She also had an exhibition of her

487
00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: own paintings, and Harold retired from his position as director.

488
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:04,400
Speaker 1: The following year, nineteen fifty nine, when the museum celebrated

489
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: its twenty fifth anniversary. Mary Russell attended the celebration, but

490
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:12,400
Speaker 1: her health had really started to decline. Uh. Harold Colton

491
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: died on December twenty nine of nineteen seventy and Mary

492
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:19,439
Speaker 1: died the following year, on July six, ninety one. She

493
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 1: was eighty two at the time. She was buried outside

494
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,199
Speaker 1: of Philadelphia in a cemetery where her family had a plot.

495
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:28,679
Speaker 1: And finally, how he wanted to include a sentiment that

496
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: Mary Russell wrote as part of a paper titled Art

497
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,400
Speaker 1: as a Personal and Economic Necessity because it really encapsulates

498
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: why she was so passionate about art and about sharing

499
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: it and teaching it. We travel rough roads in life,

500
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,920
Speaker 1: and we all know that there are many joys that

501
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,480
Speaker 1: slip away and many disappointments along the road. But if

502
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 1: we have a love of beauty, life will hold many

503
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: satisfactions for us which we cannot lose, and we can

504
00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 1: feel that it has been worthwhile. I have listener mail.

505
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 1: Have two pieces of listener mail today. Uh. They are

506
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: both about um Mary Breckenridge, and they're both very fairly brief,

507
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: so I thought we had time to do both of them.

508
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:12,160
Speaker 1: Our first one is from Christine and she said, I

509
00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:14,960
Speaker 1: just finished listening to your episode about Mary Breckenridge and

510
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 1: her work, especially in Appalachia. I know that is pronounced

511
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: differently by different people. However you liked to pronounce it.

512
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:24,280
Speaker 1: Is great. Reminded me of our own local hero. Dr

513
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 1: Kate Newcomb was a doctor in northern Wisconsin in the

514
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties in our rural area. Like Mary, she came

515
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: to a place where there was not an established system

516
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:34,880
Speaker 1: of medical care for residents, and she helped to establish

517
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: it during the harsh winters. Instead of traveling by horror,

518
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 1: she gained the nickname Angel on Snowshoes that she would

519
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 1: find a way to her patients however she could. Eventually,

520
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:46,520
Speaker 1: she too wanted to start a hospital, and for funds,

521
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: she turned to an unexpected source school children. Kids at

522
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 1: a local school wanted to see what a million some

523
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 1: things would look like, so they collected one million pennies

524
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: and they donated the funds to Dr Kate's hospital. I'm

525
00:29:57,920 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: a local teacher and I always make sure we do

526
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: some hometown history research so that students can learn about

527
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 1: Dr Kate and other local heroes. Keep up your great work.

528
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:08,719
Speaker 1: I refer my students to the podcast is a way

529
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: to learn a little bit more about whatever we're studying.

530
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 1: Thank you Christine for being an educator and also what

531
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: a great story. I think. There are so many um

532
00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 1: unsung people in the medical industry that have have done

533
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: similar things throughout the years, so I'm glad any of

534
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: them get a little more attention. Uh. The other one

535
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 1: is from our listener Jenny. She says, Hi, I wanted

536
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 1: to drop a quick line of thanks for the many

537
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 1: hours of listening joy you've given me. I've listened to years,

538
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: first when I was living in Egypt, where you'd keep

539
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: me company on my walk to and from work, and

540
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: now in Iraq as I try to film the many

541
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,480
Speaker 1: hours of relative boredom. She works for the u N

542
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: and she spends a lot of time on the road,

543
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: flying around uh or simply in a car driving around

544
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: northern Iraq to work camps for people displaced by conflict.

545
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 1: Over the last few years, I always feel like I

546
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 1: have a couple of friends with me talking about super

547
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 1: interesting things. Which helps keep my mind from stressing about

548
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 1: falling out of this guy she's afraid of flying, or

549
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 1: from endlessly dwelling on the many, many horrible stuff stories

550
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:05,959
Speaker 1: of suffering we hear in the camps. I found your

551
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,200
Speaker 1: episode on Mary Breckinridge especially interesting, as many of the

552
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,960
Speaker 1: medical issues she was dealing with we are still grappling

553
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 1: with as well. Ensuring that children have access to quality

554
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,480
Speaker 1: healthcare in a combat post war setting is tremendously challenging.

555
00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: I won't go into the gory details here, just mentioned

556
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,080
Speaker 1: that the parallels between her work in World War One

557
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: and our current work are quite striking. It's amazing how

558
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: while the methods of war have changed, the work to

559
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: be done in the aftermath has not. UH. She wrote

560
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: a really great blog post about the challenges of working

561
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 1: for children's health in in Iraq, and she thinks us

562
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 1: to the many happy hours of listening. Jenny is another

563
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:43,560
Speaker 1: person who should be thanked for her efforts, because that

564
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: sounds like a very, very stressful and demanding job, and

565
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 1: I'm glad someone wonderful is doing it. But it is

566
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:52,720
Speaker 1: interesting that Mary Breckenridge brings up all of these these

567
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 1: UH ideas of parallelism because there's still plenty of places

568
00:31:57,080 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 1: in the world that need help to So I just

569
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 1: wanted to read both of those since one reaches into

570
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: the past, one into our current timeline. Uh, and they're

571
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 1: both very interesting. Yeah. I also wanted to mention at

572
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 1: the end of our Mary Russell Colton that there is

573
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 1: a secondary story about her that I want to explore,

574
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 1: I think in a separate podcast. So in case any

575
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 1: of you know about her and you go, why did

576
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 1: you not mention the Philadelphia Ten, which was a group

577
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: of women artists that we're all exhibiting together, and she

578
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: was part of that, uh, and it evolved, it wasn't

579
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:29,280
Speaker 1: always the same women. But it's an interesting story. And

580
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:31,920
Speaker 1: so if you're wondering why we didn't mention that, because

581
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: I'm saving it for the future because I wanted to

582
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 1: focus more on her work uh in the American Southwest.

583
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:41,680
Speaker 1: So that's what's up with that. If you would like

584
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 1: to write to us, you can do so at History

585
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 1: Podcast at how Stuffworks dot com. You can also find

586
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:49,960
Speaker 1: us pretty much anywhere on social media as Missed in History.

587
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: Missed in History dot Com is also our website where

588
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:56,040
Speaker 1: you can find every episode that has ever existed, long

589
00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:58,760
Speaker 1: before Tracy and I were involved at the show, as

590
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: well as show notes for any of the episodes that

591
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:02,360
Speaker 1: Tracy and I have worked on, So come on and

592
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:10,240
Speaker 1: visit us at miss in history dot com. For more

593
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how staff

594
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 1: works dot com. M