MSNC 732 Richard Guy Walton Collection
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Richard Guy Walton Collection, MS/NC 732 1 Catalog, with Annotated Index of Names & Genealogical Addendum prepared by Anthony Shafton, 2018–21 Catalog Introduction Richard Guy Walton (1914–2005) was an artist, photographer and writer. He experimented with many styles of painting over a long career, and is considered Nevada’s preeminent abstract artist of the twentieth century. Walton was born in San Francisco, grew up in Fresno and Stockton, and came to Reno in 1929 to live with his briefly remarried mother. He gained the better part of his art education at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles before returning to Reno to join the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under Robert Cole Caples, who became a friend. In 1938 he married Marie Jeanne Etcheberry, daughter of John P. Etcheberry, Basque sheepman, and Louise Larralde Etcheberry, proprietors of Reno’s Santa Fe Hotel. When Walton and Marie Jeanne separated in 1958, Walton moved to Virginia City. He married his second wife Vivian Diane Washburn, daughter of his friend Mary VanderHoeven, in 1963. They lived in Virginia City until 2003 when they were forced by his illnesses to move down the “hill.” The Nevada Historical Society’s Richard Guy Walton Collection, MS/NC 732, comprises 30 boxes of materials plus 2 artworks. The first 12 boxes and the artworks were gifted by the artist to the NHS by a deed dated December 22, 2000. Of these boxes, Boxes 1 through 3 hold voice recordings by Walton, while Boxes 4 through 12 hold documents, letters, manuscripts (typescripts), clippings, photographs, catalogs, magazines, books and miscellaneous objects. The balance, Boxes 13 through 30, contain a similar mix. These additional materials were donated by Walton’s widow Vivian over a period of several years, the last in January, 2021. Anthony Shafton assisted Vivian, whose informant she was as Shafton researched his biography of Walton: A Nevada Life: Richard Guy Walton (2021), Fonthill Media. Boxes 1 through 3 Boxes 1 through 3 contain 180 two-sided audiocassette tapes of 60 or 90 minutes each which Walton recorded between 1974 and 1982. Within those years and later he made many other audio recordings, mostly on audiocassettes but also reel-to-reel, which are contained in other boxes in this collection. Why he gifted the contents of Boxes 1–3 in 2000 and not the other recordings isn’t apparent. Walton made recordings for several purposes. (1) He wished to preserve information of historical and genealogical interest. (2) He used the recording machine as a contemporaneous journal, a project he deemed to constitute an original literary form. Obsessive monologuist that he was, he veered into digressions of all sorts. (3) A number of tapes are devoted in whole or in part to theories of perception and perspective relevant to his artwork. (4) Never far from his mind were various writing projects of his for which the recordings were to serve as raw material or which he chose to read from manuscripts as a means of preservation. The inventory of Boxes 1–3 combines information from up to 5 written sources provided by Walton for each of the 180 recordings: Richard Guy Walton Collection, MS/NC 732 2 Catalog, with Annotated Index of Names & Genealogical Addendum prepared by Anthony Shafton, 2018–21 (1) Spine label. On masking tape applied by Walton to the spine of the cassette boxes, Walton labeled each cassette. This is what one sees when viewing the cassette boxes collectively in their carrying/storage cases. The labeling provides a quick reference to the main or general content of a cassette – although that isn’t universally so, from what can be divined from comparing all 5 sources of information, as well as from listening to the tapes. The label includes Walton’s numbering of each cassette as well. The numbering does not always correspond to the chronological order of recording. Nor, for that matter, did Walton store all cassettes in numerical order. Their order as created by Walton has been preserved in these 3 boxes. (2) Sides. Beginning after the first several tapes, Walton began applying masking tape to the sides of the cassette boxes, sometimes one side, often both sides, and occasionally also inside. On the masking tape he wrote notes, sometimes brief, sometimes detailed. (3) Cassette. Walton also wrote notes on the manufacturer’s paper label affixed to the cassette on each side. On the paper or on the plastic cassette itself he usually also wrote the date(s) on which the side was recorded. (4) Paper notes. In a small number of cassette boxes Walton placed further written notes, usually on small folded white envelopes. (5) Table of contents. In each of the two sides of the first (but only the first) of the three cassette carrying/storage cases, in Box 1, Walton placed a table of contents, written on large cards. One quickly discovers that there is not always agreement among these separate sources of information. In some cases the discrepancies are so great as to raise doubts as to what is actually recorded on the tape in question. Those doubts can only be resolved by listening to the tapes (or by reading them if transcribed). Meantime, an attempt has been made to cross-check and integrate the information from all 5 sources, avoiding repetition insofar as possible. (Only the spine labels are always faithfully transcribed as written, here underlined.) Where necessary for clarity, braces { }or italics are used to indicate wording, punctuation or information provided by the cataloger. These uses should be clear in context. A bracketed ellipsis {...} indicates that the cataloger has intentionally omitted text. This expedient is employed to reduce redundancy and to eliminate matters which, in the judgment of the cataloger, would be of little if any value to researchers. Anyone may examine Walton’s original notes to recover the cataloger’s elisions. The tapes themselves are of course intact. Unless otherwise indicated, the initial ‘R’ as used by Walton stands for himself, Richard. Box 1 Richard Guy Walton Collection, MS/NC 732 3 Catalog, with Annotated Index of Names & Genealogical Addendum prepared by Anthony Shafton, 2018–21 • Tape 1/1 ..................................................................................................................... undated Label: Ancestry Side 1: Ancestry: the Taylors {maternal grandmother’s family} & Fooses {maternal grandfather’s family} Side 2: Ancestry cont.: Newport, Indiana • Tape 1/2 ............................................................................................................. Jan. 27, 1978 Label: Taylors Side 1: Taylors: Early Virginia Onward Side 2: Taylors: Continued . • Tape 1/3 ............................................................................................................. Mar. 8, 1981 Label: Taylor/Foose Side 1: Background – Taylor, Foose Side 2: Blank • Tape 1/4 ............................................................................................................. Jan. 17, 1974 Label: Walton–Jones Sides 1, 2: Waltons & Jones, my father & uncle go to an aunt’s at Santa Cruz, Aunt Emma Sorensea (Jones), Aunt Myrtle, her brothers, joyous last days with dad, Viva & Lorraine, Viva an artist, Aunt Myrtle Porter & Uncle Charles..........Aunt Bessie – her son George Strauch, Virginia Waltons [W. Va.], Civil War exodus, fear of poverty (Tom Wilson 1930 story) – Steve Walton (grandfather) • Tape 1/5 ..................................................................................................................... undated Label: Walton–Jones Side 1: Missouri days, San Francisco, chewing gum story, two children, Alf & Marie, Myrtle {Walton’s mother}, window shopping days, the “chocolate soldier,” Myrtle & Marie on the town, Myrtle travels with R & F {Florence, Walton’s older sister}, Lewellyn {sic} Jones Side 2: Welsh! Wilson story “This is Florence,” Myrtle’s camera, Florence & culture brownies, “Lumpy Doodle{”} a trinity F {Florence}, M {Myrtle} & R {Richard}; a first haircut, two stores, picnics, sailor & soldier suits, Golden Gate Park, de Young Museum 1920, toy cars, Fresno • Tape 1/6 ............................................................................................................. Jan. 22, 1975 Label: Fresno / Santa Paula Side 1: 1925 Santa Paula / early pioneers / Santa Barbara {/} learning to drive / painting – nude, Wieland Side 2: cont. nude, restoring – an early restoration {/} Charlie Carter, Zapatistas & Rae {Steinheimer} / Stockton 1926–7 Box Sides: {Uncertain what is side 1, what side 2} Santa Paula Mupu Indian days and Pawdad Harpold, pre-oil, lemons, the town & region, Santa Paula 1925, Santa Barbara earthquake{,} a fist fight, newsboy, Santa Barbara days – El Paseo – Leo Carillo parades, learning to drive, Calvin Coolidge on radio{,} Santa Paul{a}, Fresno (1925–6), wrestling!, Saroyan years, WGW {Wilber Guy Walton, Walton’s father} (1926), Stockton 1927 • Tape 1/7 ............................................................................................................. Jan. 25, 1975 Label: Fresno / Stockton / Reno Side 1: Pres. Ford, Stockton days, Myrtle’s {Walton’s mother’s} trunk, c. 1928, a lost family; Richard Guy Walton Collection, MS/NC 732 4 Catalog, with Annotated Index of Names & Genealogical Addendum prepared by Anthony Shafton, 2018–21 gap; ----------- the early books, on plots, on writers, on “Pyramid,” on publishers paying? Publishers’ demands, poetry & the Americas Side 2: gap...... Montana & a letter, – on Neil Vanderbilt, Puyallup, 1930