HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS FALL/WINTER 2005

THE FACE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Conifers Around the World

A MEXICAN COSSACK IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens The Huntington Library,Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

SENIOR STAFF OF THE HUNTINGTON FROM THE EDITOR STEVEN S. KOBLIK President A PLACE IN THE WORLD GEORGE ABDO Vice President for Advancement

PATRICIA DAVINI Executive Assistant to the President ENJAMIN FRANKLIN WAS 51 YEARS OLD IN 1757 when he JAMES P. FOLSOM Marge and Sherm Telleen Director of the Botanical Gardens set out for England as a representative of Pennsylvania’s provincial

SUSAN LAFFERTY Assembly. He would spend approximately 25 of his final 33 years Nadine and Robert A. Skotheim Director of Education abroad—first in England and then in France, where he courted SUZY MOSER Band secured an alliance with Louis XVI during the American Revolution. In Assistant Vice President for Advancement our cover feature, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell writes that Franklin felt at JOHN MURDOCH home in France, where artists competed to capture his image for posterity. Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections In this issue of Huntington Frontiers, we encounter stories of people whose ROBERT C. RITCHIE ambitions carried them far from home: Scholar Samuel Truett introduces us to W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research Emilio Kosterlitzky, who sought exile not once but twice.The Russian émigré LAURIE SOWD Director of Operations came to Mexico in the late 19th century and served in the Mexican army before

ALISON D. SOWDEN arriving in California, where he found unique employment in Los Angeles. Vice President for Financial Affairs American geologist Raphael Pumpelly traveled in the opposite direction, finding

SUSAN TURNER-LOWE himself in pre-Soviet Turkestan in 1903, excavating the ruins of an ancient Associate Vice President for Communications civilization.Writer Mark Wheeler explores the link between Pumpelly and a DAVID S. ZEIDBERG modern-day archaeologist named Fredrik Hiebert. Avery Director of the Library Such international exploits should not be relegated to a bygone era. Botanist Zsolt Debreczy is currently visiting The Huntington, taking a break from his MAGAZINE STAFF frequent travels documenting conifer trees of the temperate zones of the world. Editor He is putting his finishing touches on his book Conifers Around the World and MATT STEVENS contemplating his next expedition. Contributing Writers LISA BLACKBURN On such journeys of discovery and exploration,The Huntington is both TRAUDE GOMEZ-RHINE destination and departure point.Archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert’s interest in Designer Raphael Pumpelly brought him to The Huntington, where Pumpelly’s papers LORI ANN VANDER PLUYM are housed. Others, though, can trace the seed of discovery to a moment in the Proofreader Huntington’s archives, as in the case of Cyndia Clegg (see page 25). CAROL B. PEARSON Indeed,The Huntington has long been a place for the comings and goings of scholars, Huntington Frontiers is published semiannually by the Office of Communications. It strives to connect who in turn share with us the adventures and readers more firmly with the rich intellectual life of accomplishments of the famous and obscure The Huntington, capturing in news and features the work of researchers, educators, curators, and others alike. But it is also a place for contemplation, across a range of disciplines. a place where sixth-grade students from This magazine is supported in part by the Rockdale Elementary (page 18) can enter the Annenberg Foundation. world of history and find a place of their own. INQUIRIES AND COMMENTS: Matt Stevens, Editor Huntington Frontiers MATT STEVENS 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, CA 91108 [email protected]

Unless otherwise acknowledged, photography provided by the Huntington’s Department of Photographic Services. Opposite page, upper left: Cones of the Himalayan pine (Pinus Printed by Pace Lithographers, Inc. wallichiana). Photo by István Rácz, © DAP. Upper right: Terracotta portrait City of Industry, Calif. medallion of Benjamin Franklin, 1777, by Giovanni Battista Nini (Italian, 1717–1786), Huntington Art Collections. Bottom: Emilio Kosterlitzky on a © 2005 The Huntington Library,Art Collections, and white horse, with his customs guards on patrol in Sonora. Courtesy of Botanical Gardens.All rights reserved. Reproduction Arizona Historical Society/Tucson, AHS no. 4377. or use of the contents, in whole or in part, without permission of the publisher is prohibited. [ VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 ]

Contents F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 0 5

AMERICAN IDOL 6 The face that captured French hearts and minds by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell

SEEING THE FOREST AND THE TREES 9 The man who wrote the book on conifers by Matt Stevens

A MEXICAN COSSACK IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 14 Fame, notoriety, and anonymity in the borderlands by Samuel Truett

9

6

DEPARTMENTS

WORK IN PROGRESS: Scholar gives voice to long- neglected women authors | by Traude Gomez-Rhine 2

LESSONS LEARNED: Sixth-graders weigh in on Luks’ Boxing Match | by Susan Alderson Hoffmann 18

DISCOVERY: A modern-day archaeologist excavates 1 4 a hero | by Mark Wheeler 20 BOOKS IN PRINT: Recommended reading 24

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 1 [ WORK IN PROGRESS ]

Novel Americans

SCHOLAR ELAINE SHOWALTER GIVES VOICE TO LONG-NEGLECTED WOMEN AUTHORS

by Traude Gomez-Rhine

ONSIDER THE CAREERS of these ambitious putting her on the academic map and causing much debate 19th-century American women writers: within universities around the world. Rebecca Harding Davis was a pioneer of Showalter had long hoped to do an American version realist fiction and a nationally acclaimed of the British book but for years was as daunted by the journalist.C Her groundbreaking novella Life in the Iron prospect as she was intrigued.“For a long time I just Mills, first published in 1861 in The Atlantic Monthly, didn’t think it was possible,” she says, adding that a typical launched a 50-year career that would produce at least American woman writer of the 19th century would publish 500 published works. 50 books. Meanwhile in England,“Emily Bronte writes Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ most famous book, The Gates one great novel and dies.That’s kind of sad, but it makes Ajar, appeared in 1868, selling almost 200,000 copies. Set your life as a critic a lot easier,” she says. during the Civil War, her popular novel was translated into Showalter, however, is not one to shy away from big several languages. projects, or controversial ones. During her 20 years at Julia Ward Howe is best remembered as having penned Princeton, she wrote more than 20 books, including the lyrics for “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” but was also famous in her lifetime as a poet, essayist, and lecturer. In 1908 Howe was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Their legacy? Famous during their lives, these women were largely forgotten thereafter. Elaine Showalter is on a mission to revive their spirit and move them more prominently into the American literary consciousness.The professor emeritus from Princeton University came to The Huntington last year to do research for a book about American women writers from 1650 to 2000.“This is an American legacy that has been neglected and forgotten,” she says. The topic, of course, is enormous in scope—350 years of American women writers. In one book? Such ambition is usually reserved for multi-volume projects taken on by a committee of academics. Showalter has already carried out a similar mission for British women writers, publishing A Literature of Their Own:British Novelists from Bronte to Lessing in 1977, which highlighted many minor and forgotten women writers from the 1840s through the 1970s. Her work ultimately helped to launch the field of feminist literary history in the United States and Europe,

Elaine Showalter at El Alisal, the Charles Fletcher Lummis House nestled in the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena. In the early 1900s, writers like Mary Austin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman joined an informal literary circle hosted there by Lummis. Photo by Lisa Balckburn.

2 Fall/Winter 2005 The New Feminist Criticism (1985), The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture (1986), and Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (1997). She also has maintained a fruitful side career as a journalist, writing for British newspapers such as the Evening Standard and Financial Times and American newsstand perennials Vogue and People magazines. Such an eclectic array of publica- tions might seem strange for a powerhouse academic, but Showalter loves dabbling in pop culture.As often as she has been lauded for her ambition, she also has been lambasted, frequently on the Internet, where a Google search can return a long list of retorts and rebuttals to

her books and ideas. Even news interviews with a more California writer Mary Austin (second from left), best known for her book The “objective” tone carry such headlines as “Who’s Afraid Land of Little Rain, in Carmel, Calif., ca. 1906. There Austin helped to estab- of Elaine Showalter?” and “Elaine Showalter:An Anarchist lish an artists’ colony that included (left to right) the writers George Sterling, in Academia.” Jack London, and James Hopper. Mary Austin Collection, Huntington Library. Such a formidable reputation arises from Showalter’s willingness to express the frank views of a feminist in the life,” she says.“It was like winning the lottery.” So she and public spotlight and to take on controversial topics. (In her her husband packed the car and headed west. Once the couple settled into an apartment in Pasadena, Showalter delved into her research, focusing primarily on Famous during their lives, 19th-century women writers, an area of particular strength in the collections here.“I really didn’t know that The these women were largely Huntington would have virtually everything that I would need,” she says.“Everything.Amazing.The holdings in forgotten thereafter. American literature pre-1900 are astonishing.” Many of these volumes were unwittingly collected by book Hystories, for instance, she candidly expresses her Henry E. Huntington, who during his lifetime purchased hypothesis about chronic fatigue syndrome, which resulted more than 200 complete libraries. In 1936 the Huntington in some furious responses and even hate mail.) She main- Library accepted a gift from Josephine P.Everett of about tains her direct manner with her current project.“There has 500 titles concerning women and women’s history.These been a lot of scholarship on individual [American women] books formed the core of the holdings in women’s studies writers, but no one has put it all together,” she says.“I am and provided the impetus toward collecting more in sure my conclusions will make a lot of people angry. So this area. they will argue with me, but that is what scholarship is But Showalter was aided in her research by forces that about. I am not going to mince words in this book.” stretched beyond the Huntington’s rarified historical col- Aware of the difficulty of writing a book while main- lections to the egalitarian realm of the World Wide Web. taining a full academic schedule, Showalter retired from Getting her hands on actual books is critical, but access to Princeton in 2003; she has since put many of her journalism secondary sources is also crucial. Fortunately, a number of assignments on hold.The Showalters—her husband is a libraries have put their holdings online. French professor retired from Rutgers University—had just This virtual world—coupled with the range of resources sold their New Jersey home of 40 years and moved to all physically situated at The Huntington—contrasts dra- Maryland when a letter arrived from the Huntington’s matically with Showalter’s experience in the 1970s, when Robert C. Ritchie, the W.M. Keck Foundation Director she would spend an entire year traveling from library to of Research, inviting Elaine for a 10-month residency as library in England in a quest for women writers’ archives, the R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Fellow. sitting long hours in chilly reading rooms. She has written Showalter had planned to use the Library of Congress of this experience,“I was often rewarded by becoming for the book’s primary research, but Ritchie’s letter changed the first scholar to read a harrowing journal or open a everything.“Getting that invitation to come out here was box of letters.”Despite the romantic image she conjures just the best thing that ever happened to me in my whole up, Showalter says she would never be able to pull off

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 3 [ WORK IN PROGRESS ]

her current project if she had to crisscross the continental United States in the same way.“People don’t think of scholarship as involving physical labor, but if you have to be going all over the place, it can really wear you out. Working at The Huntington really makes it possible to complete this project in a reasonable amount of time.” Showalter has enjoyed more company in her research on American writers than she had with English ones. A number of American women writers forgotten by history are gaining their due, says Nicolas Witschi, associate professor of English at Western Michigan University and himself a Huntington researcher.Witschi has done signifi- cant scholarship on California writer Mary Austin, who had frequented literary salons held at the Charles Lummis home in the Arroyo Seco early in the 20th century, as did the writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman’s work has been brought back to life in the last 30 years, says Witschi, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (far right) with fellow suffragettes Anna Gordon and Three hundred and fifty Alice Stone Blackwell, date unknown. Huntington Library. “America is now wholly given over to a d—d mob of years of American women scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash.” writers—in one book? The sentiment was that women—whose books often sold in the thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands— and Austin has gained new acclaim in environmental were driving more deserving writers out of the literary literary circles for her masterpiece, The Land of Little Rain. marketplace with what could only be drivel. Showalter But Austin wrote widely in many areas and harbored has a strong distaste for a stereotype that has continued literary ambitions that were just as fierce as those of her to gain acceptance even today: that women novelists of male peers who have received more recognition.“Elaine this period were commercial writers while the men were Showalter, throughout her career, has done tremendous artists.“Their careers and ambitions were much more work in drawing attention to the accomplishments of complicated than that,” says Showalter. women writers,” says Witschi.“She is no doubt crafting She hopes her scholarship will have an impact on another necessary corrective, to help with the continuing how American literature is taught while also captivating effort to recover the voices of women writers on their a wide readership that extends beyond academia. Knopf own terms.” will publish the book, slated for 2007-8, with an accom- Other notable writers in Showalter’s new canon include panying anthology. Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Lydia Maria Child, and Fanny “This is a book I would like Laura Bush and Barbra Fern, not exactly household names of the same ilk as Streisand to read,” Showalter says.“I want to reach Maria James Fenimore Cooper,Washington Irving, Nathaniel Shriver and Oprah Winfrey.” It will be a book of literary Hawthorne,Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and opinions, she says, unabashedly told from her point of Samuel Clemens, but true talents nonetheless. view, about a tradition of achievement that has been only Critics have long acknowledged Cooper and Irving for partially understood. ushering in an American literary tradition in the 1820s. Experience has taught Showalter to be prepared for a Showalter is not simply calling for equal recognition of bumpy ride.After A Literature of Their Own was published, women like Sedgwick and Child, who wrote during the she was widely praised and attacked for the work, so much same period. She argues they were better writers than so that 20 years later she wrote a summation of her expe- Cooper and Irving. rience in the Brown University publication Novel:A By the 1850s, best sellers tended to be written by Forum in Fiction (1998):“What I did not anticipate was that women. In 1855 Nathaniel Hawthorne famously said, in feminist literary history and criticism, as in every other

4 Fall/Winter 2005 CROSSING PATHS IN PASADENA

Mary Hunter Austin (1868–1934) George Sterling. She later moved to first met Charlotte Perkins Gilman New York, participating there in feminist (1860–1935) in Pasadena in the late causes with Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 1890s. Both women frequented the Gilman is perhaps best known for her artists’ colony at El Alisal, Charles 1890 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Fletcher Lummis’ adobe home along Written while Gilman lived in Pasadena, the Arroyo Seco. The two women shared it narrates a young wife and mother’s much in common: both had left unhappy descent into madness and is considered marriages to devote themselves to their her most autobiographical work. writing; both were active in feminist Gilman’s major concern during her life- causes; both found personal freedom time was feminism—women’s suffrage by moving west and developing a deep as well as women’s economic inde- kinship with the California landscape. pendence—and she achieved interna- much. Its calm sublimity of contour, Mary Austin was born in Carlinville, tional fame with the 1898 publication richness of color, profusion of flowers, Ill., and moved with her family in 1888 of her seminal work, Women and fruit and foliage, and the steady peace to the San Joaquin Valley. She was keenly Economics: The Economic Relation of its climate were meat and drink to affected and inspired by the region and Between Men and Women as a Factor me.” In 1932 Gilman learned she had would later write of it profoundly, most in Social Evolution. breast cancer. She spent the rest of her notably in The Land of Little Rain (1903). Gilman was born in New England, a days completing her autobiography, Austin came to Southern California descendant of the prominent and influ- The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. in 1899 and described Pasadena as “a ential Beecher family—she was the With no hope for recovery, she took her city of residences, beautiful as the great-granddaughter of another writer, own life on Aug. 17, 1935. dream of a poet, but quite staid and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Despite this sedate, and proud of its quietness.” famous ancestry, her family lived in The Huntington holds the Mary Austin Here she taught school and joined the poverty. In 1888 she left her husband, Collection, purchased from the Austin literary circle established by Lummis, the Charles Walter Stetson, and moved with estate. Within it are approximately noted author and editor, who became a her daughter to California. She rented 11,000 items—letters, manuscripts, and mentor. In 1905 she moved to Carmel, a cottage on Orange Grove Boulevard research materials such as her extensive where she helped establish an artists’ for $10 a month and wrote, “To documentation on the Indians of the colony that included Jack London and California, in its natural features, I owe Southwest and Spanish American folklore.

field, being first has its disadvantages, because you become Whatever the reception of this book, Showalter ulti- the launching pad for subsequent work and the starting mately hopes that her scholarship will help to expand point for everyone else’s improvements and corrections. the American literary legacy to include these overshad- For the past 20 years, I have been attacked from virtually owed women writers, bringing their rich work to new every point on the feminist hermeneutic circle, as separatist, audiences and keeping their voices alive. careerist, theoretical, antitheoretical, racist, homophobic, politically correct, traditional, and noncanonical critic.” Traude Gomez-Rhine is a staff writer at The Huntington.

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 5 American

The face that won the IdolAmerican Revolution by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell

hree hundred years after Benjamin Franklin’s birth,Americans are poised to celebrate his multifaceted genius: Franklin the politician, printer, post- master, writer, scientist, and inventor. Benjamin Franklin,T our quintessentially French hero? As historian Gordon S. Wood reminds us in his recent book, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin,“Franklin belonged to France before he belonged to America.” After all, Franklin spent nearly nine years as a diplomat in Paris nego- tiating and maintaining a political alliance between the United States and France.The popularity of the American cause in France— and the singularity of Franklin’s appearance there—won him unprece- dented fame and immortalized his furrowed countenance, graying locks, and balding pate for posterity. For all his powerful intellect and shrewd statesmanship, it was Franklin’s Everyman qualities that fascinated the French, who perceived America as a nation of farmer-philosophers.As Wood writes,“America in their eyes came to stand for all that 18th-century France lacked—natural simplicity, social equality, religious freedom, and rustic enlightenment.” Portrait of Benjamin Franklin, ca. 1778–87, Huntington Franklin, in turn, came to stand for all that America represented; his plain Art Collections. This pastel is attributed to Jean Valade (1709–1787), who copied it from a well-known portrait speech and dress gave him an air of homespun dignity that was lacking by Joseph-Siffrede Duplessis (1725–1802). in the empty magnificence of the French court.

6 Fall/Winter 2005 When he arrived in Paris in the too, were fascinated by Franklin’s autumn of 1776, Franklin stood out in unconventional appearance. Whether “the costume of an American farmer: clad in rustic furs or plain cloth and his hair lank and unpowdered, his linen, he seemed the round hat, his suit of brown wool con- living embodiment of trasting with the sequined, embroi- the democratic beliefs The portrait conveyed the dered suits, the powdered and scented for which America was hair of the courtiers of Versailles,”wrote fighting—beliefs that deceptively unsophisticated Madame Campan, lady-in-waiting to were becoming increas- Marie-Antoinette. ingly popular among image Franklin wished to On a previous visit to France in the French, who would project to the world. 1767, Franklin had worn conventional overthrow their own n clothing, donning a wig and a fancy king just a few years French-made suit for an audience later, in 1789. Franklin complained:“I with Louis XV.Upon his return nine have at the request of Friends sat so years later, however, he dressed down, much and so often to painters and going about town in a plain brown Statuaries, that I am perfectly sick of suit and a marten fur cap he had it. I know of nothing so tedious as acquired in Canada. Under his cap, sitting hours in one fix’d posture.”But Franklin wore his hair unpowdered the demand for portraits of the and loose, rather than tied up in a American patriot was insatiable. queue or covered by a wig. Indeed, he No artist captured Franklin’s suffered from a scalp condition that physical and psychological likeness as made wigs uncomfortable; Franklin successfully as Joseph-Siffrede Duplessis ordered one for his audience with (1725–1802). His iconic portrait in Louis XVI but abandoned it at the oils was hailed as a masterpiece when it appeared in the Salon of 1779. One critic com- Benjamin Franklin, our mented: “[Franklin’s] large forehead suggests strength quintessentially French hero? of mind and his robust neck the firmness of his character. last minute. Instead, he met the king Evenness of temper is in his eyes and bareheaded and wearing a suit of plain on his lips the smile of an unshakeable velvet with no sword when swords, serenity.” Copies appeared for sale wigs, and embroidered suits were almost immediately. Franklin encour- dictated by etiquette.This was not just aged this; the portrait was a personal a fashion statement, but a calculated favorite, and reproductions saved him political move; Franklin knew that he the trouble of sitting for other artists. was his own best advertisement for his More importantly,though, the portrait ambitious diplomatic agenda. conveyed the deceptively unsophisti- Far from being offended, Franklin’s cated image Franklin wished to project aristocratic hosts were charmed. “No to the world.The Huntington’s pastel man in Paris was more fashionable, version, attributed to Jean Valade more sought-after than Doctor (1709–1787), is one of many replicas Two portrait medallions of Franklin from the Franklin,” the royal portrait artist of the portrait made in the 1780s. Huntington’s French art collection. The first, from Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun testified. In addition to the pastel, the 1777, is in terracotta and executed by Giovanni Indeed, coiffures à la Philadelphie and Huntington collections include two Battista Nini (Italian, 1717–1786). The second is from Sèvres, Royal Porcelain Manufactory, ca. gowns of gris Américan soon adorned portrait medallions of Franklin, one in 1778. It is a soft-paste porcelain with clear glaze the ladies of the court. French artists, Sèvres porcelain and one in terracotta. and gilding.

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 7 The latter may be the one Franklin play with, is derived from the When Franklin died in 1790, the described in a letter to his daughter word IDOL. From the number French government declared three days dated June 3, 1779: of dolls now made of him, he of national mourning in his honor. may be truly said, in that sense,to And it was a French philosophe,A. R. J. The clay medallion of me you be i-doll-ized in this country. Turgot,who best eulogized his friend say you gave to Mr. Hopkinson was the first of its kind made in Franklin’s humble France. A variety of others have “phiz” (his physiognomy, Franklin knew that he was his been made since of different or face) masked his talent sizes; some to be set in the lids of for self-promotion and own best advertisement for his snuffboxes, and some so small subtle manipulation.This ambitious diplomatic agenda. as to be worn in rings; and the unlikely American idol numbers sold are incredible. wore his democratic cre- These, with the pictures, busts dentials on his fur-trimmed sleeve. His Franklin, linking his early scientific and prints, (of which copies diplomatic mission was successful; he accomplishments to his mature cam- upon copies are spread every- obtained France’s financial and mili- paign for democracy:“He seized light- where,) have made your father’s tary support, which enabled America ning from the skies and the scepter face as well known as that of the to win the Revolutionary War.Today, from tyrants.” moon, so that he durst not do when we picture Benjamin Franklin, anything that would oblige him we tend to picture him as he looked Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell is a Mellon to run away, as his phiz would during his residence in France. Foundation Curatorial Fellow in French discover him wherever he should Though his countrymen mistrusted art at The Huntington. venture to show it. It is said by Franklin for his Francophile and learned etymologists, that the Anglophile sympathies, the French name doll, for the images children never forgot his friendship, or his face.

Commemorating the 300 th Anniversary of Franklin’s Birth

The three Huntington portraits of Benjamin Franklin will be displayed in the exhibition “The Art of Virtue: Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography,” on view from Dec. 17, 2005, to March 26, 2006, in the Library’s West Hall. The exhibition showcases one of the Huntington’s greatest treasures— the autograph manuscript of Franklin’s renowned autobiography.

In commemoration of Franklin’s 300th birthday in January 2006, historian Gordon S. Wood will deliver the Allan Nevins Memorial Lecture, speaking on the “Americanization of Benjamin Franklin.” Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor of History at Brown University and a scholar of the early American republic. In 1997–98, he received the Fletcher Jones Distinguished Fellowship at The Huntington. The lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006, in Friends’ Hall.

The first page of Franklin’s autobiography, 1771–c.1790, Huntington Library.

8 Fall/Winter 2005 Seeing the FOREST and the TREES

Visiting botanist Zsolt Debreczy writes the book on conifers by Matt Stevens

Zsolt Debreczy is at home in the world.Well, at least in its temperate zones. Born in Hungary and raised behind the Iron Curtain, Debreczy is at ease in just about any part of the world with a temperate climate.Take away the polar circles and tropics, and you’re left with vast stretches of geography in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.The botanist spent a total of five years—cobbled together from count- less trips over the past 15 years—scouring the woods in Europe, China,Taiwan, Japan, North America, Chile, the Caribbean, New Zealand, and Tasmania. His diligence paid off. He managed to track down and document nearly 500 species of conifers, including pines, spruces, firs, and cypresses. Conifers Around the World has been a massive undertaking: more than 520 taxa (including subspecies and vari- eties) presented in 3,000 photographs bound in a two-volume set that will fill 840 pages. The English edition adds almost 200 species to the mix. Despite these impressive figures, the book pales in comparison to Debreczy’s greater obsession: The Dendrological Atlas. Dendrology is Greek for the “study of trees,” and “atlas” evokes— aside from the obvious connotation to mapping—the mythical hero who bore the world on his shoulders. Debreczy has been carrying the bur-

Above: Kathy Musial, the Huntington’s curator of living collections, assisting Zsolt Debreczy with the den of this enterprise since 1971. At English translation of his book on conifers. Previous page: A close-up view of the Montezuma cypress in 34 years and counting, the atlas proj- the Huntington’s Rose Garden. Photos by Lisa Blackburn. ect has almost matched the half-way mark of James Murray’s ambitious “No one else has studied so many skirts of the Huntington grounds to compilation of 70-plus years—the conifers in their native habitats help Musial identify some conifers Oxford English Dictionary. throughout the world,” says Bill whose labels had disappeared years Like Conifers Around the World, the Thomas, former president of the before. Musial is returning the favor atlas narrows its focus—if you can say American Conifer Society and co- by serving as Debreczy’s editor. that—to trees from the temperate and editor of Growing Conifers: Four- Debreczy has labored a lifetime adjacent regions of the world. Based Season Plants. “Debreczy’s study has over how to capture the essence of a on field documentation, it will weigh been of worldwide significance and is tree in words and images, and Musial in at 14 volumes—the first four focus an incredible undertaking that may admits to putting in many sleepless on gymnosperms, with the remaining never be matched by anyone else.” nights getting at the essence of 10 volumes addressing angiosperms. Debreczy recently traded in his Debreczy’s translations. Angiosperms are the flower-bearing hiking boots for a desk in the Debreczy published his original plants and constitute by far the major- Huntington’s botanical library, where book in 2000 and called it Fenyök a föld ity of the tree species in the world. he has been translating his book on Körül, a title that translates literally Gymnosperms are in the minority, conifers from his native language into into “Conifers Around the Earth.” producing their seeds in exposed English. He used the reference mate- Translation is often an inelegant busi- structures, like cones, rather than in rials there to supplement his field ness, and though Debreczy is fluent in protective ovaries housed in flowers. notes. The revised and expanded English, he benefits greatly from some- Conifers are a relatively small group work will be published by Dendro one who might suggest the more palat- of gymnosperms, numbering about Press next spring. able Conifers Around the World. Musial 700 species. The gymnosperm por- His work space is in close proximi- first met Zsolt—pronounced “jolt”— tion of the atlas is a massive undertak- ty to that of Kathy Musial, Huntington on an Earthwatch expedition to Chile ing alone—with 10,000 black-and- curator of living collections, whose in 1996. She is quick to explain that white photographs and 480 full-page wide-ranging responsibilities include she is not a conifer expert:“Flowering line drawings. A publication date has managing all acquisitions to the plants are my gig.”Musial is comfort- not been set. Garden’s permanent collections, as able with geography,however, and is a Debreczy hadn’t set out to publish well as verifying the identification and stickler for the accurate spelling of a distinct book on conifers. He and his correct nomenclature for all the place names. (It’s not surprising that long-time collaborator, photographer plants in the collections. Several years she is the ultimate arbiter for all labels István Rácz, had amassed more than ago Debreczy ventured to the out- in the Huntington gardens.) 340,000 black-and-white and color

10 Fall/Winter 2005 photographs over the years, many of on conifers. Both works will which were taken for documentation appeal to nature lovers and profes- purposes. The two collaborators fre- sionals in the fields of botany, quently showed some of the images forestry, and horticulture, but in slide presentations and lectures, Conifers is probably more accessi- including several talks at Harvard’s ble to the casual enthusiast. Arnold Arboretum in the late 1980s Debreczy’s earliest inspiration and early 1990s when they both served was Alfred Rehder’s Manual of as Mercer Fellows there. Both had Cultivated Trees and Shrubs Hardy in begun their careers at the Natural North America: Exclusive of the Subtropical History Museum in Budapest, now the and Warmer Temperate Regions, first Hungarian Natural History Museum— published in 1927 and revised in 1940. Debreczy in 1965, and Rácz in 1976. The subtitle might have given They interspersed their images with Debreczy an early inkling of how to travel extensively anecdotes from the field and research set the parameters of his own future and instead relied on from their scholarship: the pair had study. Rehder’s work was published Csapody’s renderings only in English and forced Debreczy of dried and pressed to expand his descriptive vocabulary. specimens from the And the lack of any photographs or herbarium. Even though drawings did not discourage Debreczy Csapody’s drawings were well as much as it fueled his imagination. crafted and precise, Debreczy noticed How might he illustrate such a work? that they looked different from the From early childhood, Debreczy trees he encountered in nature. liked making sketches of insects and “Plants, particularly woody plants,”he flowers and frequently exhibited his explained, “are not like butterflies, drawings in grade school. In college, he which can be rendered in flat draw- found success when he organized his ings that are useful for viewing speci- information visually. He could take a mens in display cases or in the wild.” 500-page botany textbook and convert Branches, cones, needles, and leaves it to 50 richly illustrated pages. He are very different in three dimensions. would then read the more manageable Thus, around 1973, he abandoned an “guide” several times to absorb the expanding treasure trove of two- material. “When I followed my method,” he says modestly, “I would earn the best grade.” Debreczy abandoned an Producing a book requires a similar process—taking a wide expanding treasure trove of base of knowledge and reducing two-dimensional drawings and Two views of the Pinus wallichiana, more com- it to its essence. In 1971 he had monly known as the Himalayan pine. István Rácz’s photo is reproduced in Conifers Around published a book on temperate- set out to capture specimens the World, and Li Ailii’s drawing will be published zone evergreens, relying heavily in The Dendrological Atlas. on the artistic talents of Vera in three dimensions. Csapody.The botanical illustrator published 12 books and 250 articles in was already a legend in Hungary Hungary before coming to Harvard. when Debreczy met her in the late dimensional drawings and set out to While the plan for the atlas had 1960s. She had contributed 4,250 plant capture specimens in three dimen- always entailed black-and-white pho- drawings to Sándor Jávorka’s ambitious sions. Sadly, this realization coincided tographs accompanied by drawings, Hungarian Flora in Pictures (1934). In with Csapody’s declining health. He they realized that the color pictures the early stages of the atlas project, was able to secure the services of could comprise a stand-alone book Debreczy didn’t have the resources to other talented artists, but he had to

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 11 Two specimens of the Taxodium mucronatum, more commonly known as the Mexican bald cypress or the Montezuma cypress. The young tree (upper left) is from the Huntington’s Rose Garden; El Arbor del Tule grows near the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. Photos by Lisa Blackburn and István Rácz.

An unlikely example of a vulnerable What might that conifer look like conifer can be found on the outskirts if it took root in a cultivated botan- of Oaxaca, Mexico. On a trip in the ical garden or arboretum? In 1912, 1990s, Debreczy and Rácz gloried in Mr. Huntington’s landscape gardener the majesty of El Arbor del Tule and and ranch superintendant, William later wrote about it in an article in Hertrich, traveled to Chapultepec Park Harvard’s Arnoldia magazine. The in Mexico City and brought back tree, known to botanists as Taxodium seeds of the same species.Three spec- mucronatum, is more commonly called imens now occupy the center of the Huntington’s Rose Garden, with sev- eral more gracing the Lily Ponds. At 93 years of age, they tower over the property but are mere saplings com- pared to the ancient giant. The Huntington specimens will not likely experience the dramatic explosion of growth—or the endangerment—of El Arbor De Tule. They lack the large, Debreczy can point out move on without his mentor and dear friend. dozens of distinctions Debreczy loves talk- ing about trees and relies among trees of the same on body language as species depending on their much as any other form of communication. All locations. of us have seen children “acting” like trees by standing still and spreading their arms the Mexican bald cypress or the knotty “cypress knees” at their bases, in an effort to maximize their span. Montezuma cypress. But nothing is which are common in swamp envi- Debreczy has his own method of tree common about this particular tree— rons, where roots are submerged in impersonation to convey the essence more than 1,500 years old, its circum- water, as opposed to the soil found in of a tree in its natural surrounding.To ference is in excess of 200 feet. That the Huntington’s Rose Garden or even emphasize the protective “instincts” means it takes nearly 20 people—join- adjacent to the Lily Ponds. Debreczy of a tree, Debreczy hunches over in a ing hands and with arms fully extend- can point out dozens of distinctions crouch, adopting the position of a ed—to encircle the massive trunk.The among trees of the same species school child in a classroom earth- name of the town,Tule, derives from depending on their locations. He appre- quake drill.Trees in nature are suscep- the word for “marsh” in the local ciates botanical gardens and arboreta tible to a variety of forces: scarce Zapotec dialect. The small town has but understands that trees in cultiva- resources, weather and soil variability, become threatened by the nearby city tion can be radically different from harsh climate, burrowing animals, and of Oaxaca, whose half million inhabi- those in nature. hungry insects, to name a few. tants vie for water and other resources. His commitment to thoroughness Depending on circumstances, trees of At the time of Debreczy’s visit, the requires exhaustive fieldwork, a chal- the same species in the wild, there- tree had lost some of its light-green lenge that does not come easy for some- fore, might grow at different rates and foliage, and some of its branches had one who cut his teeth in a Soviet state. exhibit variations in structure or size. become brittle and dry.Today, thanks Ironically, his scramble for resources Furthermore, one specimen or the to local intervention, the tree is get- might have been more challenging other might be indistinguishable from a ting the irrigation it needs to survive after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. tree of a related—but distinct—species. for future generations. Before then, Hungarian citizens were

12 Fall/Winter 2005 more likely to have the leisure time to support gardens and clubs, and the government provided more resources in support of the sciences. But Debreczy’s adaptive traits rival those of the trees he finds in nature. He splits his time between the Massachusetts- based International Dendrological Research Institute, where he is research director, and the International Dendrological Foundation in Hungary. On trips he continues to rely on col- laboration with people like Musial, who helped Debreczy document the vegetation surrounding conifer speci- mens in Chile, Taiwan, and Japan; she also organized the fieldwork on Debreczy collecting Hidalgo fir, or Abies hidalgensis, at Agua Zarca in eastern Hidalgo state, Mexico, trips to New Zealand and Australia. September 2004. Assisting him are local forestry volunteers Felipe Hernandez Juarez and his nephew Debreczy has long practiced synecol- Zenon Hernandez Juarez. Photo by István Rácz. ogy, or the science of how plants live together in a habitat—a term that After all these years, one might Hungary. But as he explains, “The might just as easily apply to the inter- expect that Debreczy is ready to set forests, rocky slopes, deserts, temper- dependence of botanists and other down more permanent roots in one ate rainforests, herbaria, and libraries professionals in the field. place, either in New England or of the world are my actual home—be they in Chile, China, or Mexico.” And now, as he spends more time in the library than in nature, he takes stock of his inventory of mate- rials—photos, drawings, descriptions—and settles back to work with the same passion he exhibits in the field.

Matt Stevens is editor of Huntington Frontiers magazine.

Unless otherwise noted, images are courtesy of the Dendrological Atlas Project. Copyright DAP.

From the book Conifers Around the World, a view of a mixed coniferous forest in Glacier National Park, Montana. Photo by István Rácz.

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 13 Fame, notoriety, and anonymity in the borderlands

by Samuel Truett itants and transplanted right Stranger still was the scientist than a soldier,” here in San Diego.” bronzed man in a white sun another reporter wrote. It was a strange sight helmet and a linen suit The man before him was In August 1913,San Diego because the United States who towered over the Emilio Kosterlitzky, a leg- witnessed a strange sight. was not at war with Mexico. endary warrior whose Trains bearing Mexican These men, women, and S career extended from the prisoners of war rolled children were refugees from Like the enigmatic Apache wars to the Mexican into town, depositing their border battles of the Mexican Revolution. Some called border hero of pulp human cargo near the gov- Revolution, raging since him a soldier of fortune, a ernment barracks on Market 1910. International law fiction, Kosterlitzky world traveler in search of Street.“Leather-lunged sol- stipulated that the United was a man without a good fight. Others said he diers shouted weird mili- States—a neutral neigh- a history. was a Cossack who had tary orders, and bewildered bor—had to hold them as traded the Russian steppes Mexican men and women prisoners of war until they S for the Mexican country- chattered excitedly,” wrote could safely be returned to side. Like the enigmatic a reporter for the San Diego Mexico. They were bound other Mexicans. More than border hero of pulp fiction, Sun. It was as if “some lit- for an internment camp at six feet tall, with thick he was a man without a tle Mexican town had been Fort Rosecrans, just across glasses, he looked “more history, a citizen without picked up with all its inhab- San Diego Bay. like a college professor or a a nation. What larger twist of fate The borderlands offered brought this notorious expansive vistas for e Emilio Kosterlitzky E warrior to California? His Kosterlitzky. He became passage from Mexican bat- Mexican by marrying into tlefield to U.S. internment a Mexican family, but he camp evoked a familiar also became part of a fron- western plotline: a wild tier military fraternity that warrior caged, a lone rider gained status by fighting unhorsed, the transfor- Indians. In the 1880s, in the mation of the wide-open wars against Apache and frontier into a patrolled Yaqui Indians, Kosterlitzky space between nations. Riding west into the sunset, S Kosterlitzky prepared to What larger twist vanish.“I have nothing to of fate brought this say that would make inter- esting reading,” he told notorious warrior spectators. “I have been to California? talked about enough in the papers. I want to be left out S of them as much as possible became a defender of the from now on.” nation’s front lines. By bru- Border crossings were tally repressing one group, not new for Kosterlitzky. he earned his place as a He was born in Moscow in citizen of another. 1853 as Emil Kosterlitzky, The Apache wars also the child of a German opened doors north of the mother and Russian father. border. In 1882, Mexico and His father was said to be a the United States signed a Cossack, a member of a reciprocal crossing treaty, military caste, usually com- allowing troops to pursue posed of ethnic outsiders Indians across borders. In from Russia’s frontiers who the 1880s, Kosterlitzky served as soldiers of the helped U.S. soldiers in the Tsarist state. Emil hoped to Geronimo campaigns, and Above: Posing in uniform, date unknown. The triangle of stars on his visor signify his rank as colonel in the Mexican army. Opposite: Kosterlitzky (first follow in his father’s foot- he later assisted in the sup- row, 16th from left) and fellow refugees at Fort Rosecrans, September steps, but instead ended up pression of such “bandits” 1913. Both images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Arizona in the navy.At 18, as a mid- as the Apache Kid. He was Library, Kosterlitzky Papers, AZ 333. shipman on a training vessel, once described as “a favorite he deserted off the Venezuela with all the boys in blue.” a citizen of a foreign land, his colleagues were consid- coast. “Still clinging to his Americans equated the fantasy of the frontier ered rough characters. love for horses and his boy- Kosterlitzky with the free ensured his rise as a local Kosterlitzky also opened hood ambition to become and wild Cossack, a mythical hero. His white skin—and doors as a master linguist. a leader of cavalry,” a jour- icon not unlike the U.S. white horse—set him apart He not only spoke Spanish, nalist later embellished, he cowboy. The fact that he from his brown-skinned but also English, French, sailed to the border state of rode the Mexican country- neighbors, whom white German, Russian, Italian, Sonora, Mexico, and joined side, not the Russian steppe, Americans equated with Polish, Danish, and Swedish. the Mexican army.Changing made him only more roman- banditry, not heroism. In Americans with poor Spanish- his name to Emilio, he set tic. If the violence of the popular accounts, he was a language skills turned to him out to make a fresh start. frontier made Kosterlitzky picturesque leader, whereas as a cultural broker. In 1885,

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 15 combat smuggling, fight “bandits,”and suppress labor strikes. Like the Cossacks of Russia, he epitomized the police power of the state— but also of corporate elites, who relied on Kosterlitzky to police the borderlands to their advantage. He thus evoked what was unfree— and not just free—about the frontier. The Mexican Revolution was fought in part to redress the inequalities of this trans- national world. Many rebels sought to open doors that had beenS closed to ordinary Kosterlitzky evoked what was unfree— and not just free— aboutS the frontier. people and political outsiders. But they also shut other doors. Violence drove out foreign entrepreneurs, and “Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Systems” (detail), Rand McNally & Co., 1911. Huntington Library. fears of revolutionary ban- Railroad networks knit Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, together after the 1880s, dits and U.S. intervention turning an isolated frontier into a crossroads between nations. These connec- encouraged both sides to tions, controlled largely by the Southern Pacific, paved the way for transnation- see the border as a dividing al development. By policing this crossroads, Kosterlitzky made Mexico safe for line, not a crossroads. investors. But confidence was shattered when the Mexican Revolution broke And so it was in 1913, out.The dashed lines on the lower right corner of this map show a ghost land- when Kosterlitzky—now scape of railroads that were never built, a Southern Pacific promotional dream almost 60—lost a battle for that faded after rebels swept across the sierras in 1912. the border town of Nogales, Sonora. Outnumbered by rebels, he and his troops sought refuge in Arizona. he moved to the center of U.S. investment in Sonora law and order to increase He remained in Nogales, a new transnational world as was booming by 1900, and investor confidence. Arizona, for several months an officer in the gendarmería Kosterlitzky served as a In this capacity, he was before being sent to Fort fiscal, or customs guard, policeman and gatekeeper. often anything but heroic. Rosencrans. where he managed the He distinguished between He patrolled the border Upon his release in migration of people, goods, legitimate and illegitimate together with such groups 1914, Kosterlitzky and his and capital across borders. border crossings and kept as the Arizona Rangers to Mexican family moved

16 Fall/Winter 2005 north to Los Angeles. an agent with the Bureau embraced Kosterlitzky by Mexican exiles in Los Mexican Los Angeles was of Investigation (the prede- turning him into a spy. Angeles, questioned the booming as a result of the cessor to the FBI). Webster During World War I, he deeper loyalties of this “sol- chaos in Mexico; people asked him to send fellow passed as a German doctor dier of fortune,”who shifted were leaving in vast num- internees to San Diego to and spoke German with from one nation to the bers, and most immigrants mingle with local Mexicans immigrants in Pershing next, offering his services, were moving to East Los and learn about revolution- Square in downtown Los like the Cossacks of old, Angeles,a center of Mexican ary activities. Kosterlitzky to those in power. But California even now. Yet would then translate their S Kosterlitzky rarely strayed Kosterlitzky and his family findings for Webster. The United States far from Mexico, at least in bought a bungalow to the This relationship opened embraced Kosterlitzky the way he perceived his west of downtown Los new doors, for soon after own identity. He never by turning him into Angeles.The only Mexicans he moved to Los Angeles, gave up his Mexican citi- on the block, they were lost Kosterlitzky found steady a spy. zenship, and when he died in an Anglo-American sea. work as a linguist.According S in 1928, he was buried at Why choose exile? It was to the 1920 census, he had Calvary Cemetery,near East not the first time Kosterlitzky become a translator for the Angeles. Shortly before he Los Angeles. “We consider had jumped ship, vanishing U.S. Postal Service. But his retired in 1927, he turned Kosterlitzky as a soldier of into another culture. Yet family knew something once again to Mexico while the Republic,” wept his whatever his motivation as the census taker did not. investigating a plot to over- Mexican pallbearers. a teenager, he now had a Kosterlitzky lived incognito throw the government of new reason to lie low and because he was a special kind Baja California. Samuel Truett is assistant “be left out of the papers as of linguist, employed by the Despite his comments professor of history at the much as possible.” Bureau of Investigation for back in 1913, Kosterlitzky University of New Mexico. In his last days at Fort a country that was increas- had not escaped coverage in While at The Huntington as a Rosecrans, Kosterlitzky had ingly concerned about its all newspapers. La Opinión, Mellon Postdoctoral Research met up with F. P.Webster, borders. The United States a publication read by Fellow in 2004–5, he con- ducted research on a biography of Emilio Kosterlitzky as well as on a history of ruins and empire in America.

Kosterlitzky with his wife, Francisca, and daughters Anita and Mary Louise, on the beach in Los Angeles, 1914. Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Arizona Library, Kosterlitzky Papers, AZ 333.

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 17 [ LESSONS LEARNED ]

Armed with this background information, students Weighing In turned their attention to the aesthetic qualities of the paintings.Which art elements did Luks use? And why STUDENTS CONTEMPLATE A BOXING MATCH did he use them? In the classroom, Mayhew and Riley reviewed the elements of art as detailed in the state’s by Susan Alderson Hoffmann guidelines for primary education. Line, shape, texture, color, and space became the language of the Rockdale students, important tools they would use during their visit to The Huntington. The in-depth classroom study helped the students HAT EXCITES A YOUNG MIND? achieve an important goal of the program: to develop the For a group of sixth-graders, it was the skills needed to view a work of art in a museum setting opportunity to visit the Huntington’s and make informed opinions on its meaning.When the Scott Gallery of American Art and students approached the Luks painting at The Huntington, weighW in on the meaning of Boxing Match (1910) by they led the discussion, with teachers and docents joining George Benjamin Luks (1867–1933). Like the crowd at in.“They were contemplative,” Mayhew noted,“very ringside, the students drew near to wonder about the thoughtful and focused.” Riley agreed.“They felt they had boxers, the audience, and the reasons Luks chose to depict something to say.” this scene. Back at school, in written essays, students interpreted Their interest in the painting began at school, in the the work. Some focused on the elements of art and how classrooms of Jim Mayhew and Doris Riley. Both are they contributed to the subject. Recalling the surface of teachers at Rockdale Elementary, a school in Eagle Rock the painting as “very thick and rich,” one student concluded that is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. For that the “texture makes it very real.” the past two years, the entire Rockdale faculty has worked The dramatic encounter of the boxers, one nearly with members of the Huntington’s education staff to falling from a punch, caught the attention of many students, develop an in-depth art program inspired by works in who described the scene in terms of what they called the Huntington art collections. Each grade studies a single “unbalance”: “George unbalances the picture…[making] work of art over the course of the year. it look like something is really happening.” Mayhew and Riley chose Luks’ Boxing Match for their In their own way, these young students recognized the sixth-graders.This gritty view of urban life inspired class- realism of the scene and appreciated how the artist directed room discussions on the history of New York around 1910. the viewer’s attention. Luks depicted a shallow space, one Students discovered that former slaves and their families— student hypothesized,“because he wanted people to focus as well as recent immigrants—were moving to American on the boxers.” cities at this time; some of the newcomers entered the Other students brought the subject of the match, with world of sports to earn a living. Private clubs, perhaps like its racial overtones, into the context of their lives today. the one shown in the painting, hosted fights for wealthy “The racism problem is still in the air that we breathe” fans (in ringside seats) and members of the lower classes, was the conclusion drawn by one student.Another formed whose faces disappear into the background. a different view, writing,“Luks made this painting…to show The teachers addressed the sensitive issue of racism that the racism and segregation against blacks back then….This accompanied many of the famous boxing and wrestling is very different than how it is now.”The audience depicted matches of this time. In 1910, the African American boxer in the painting drew as much attention as the fight.“We Jack Johnson defeated his white opponent, Jim Jeffries. can see the faces of the upper-class people but not the That victory set off race riots across the United States. lower-class people.Why is it that people think white Luks didn’t identify the fighters in his painting, nor the people are so superior?” location of the match. Like George Bellows, another Such reflection on art brought these students into the realist painter who depicted brutal fights and wrestling community of museum visitors—children, adults, and matches, Luks generalized his scenes. But common to the scholars—who study art and interpret its meaning.The work of both was the suggestion that the African American success of the program depended upon the determination would overwhelm his white opponent, fueling racist notions of teachers, school administrators, and Huntington educators of ethnic superiority.

18 Fall/Winter 2005 recognized the need to include local arts providers in the program, appreciating how the combined resources of the classroom and arts institutions would enhance the programs offered to their students. Rockdale Elementary was one of the first schools in LAUSD to receive funds for arts education.Today, the goal of arts for all has been achieved at Rockdale, with all students receiving instruction in art, dance, music, and theater.The Huntington is now using the Rockdale model to build a partnership with schools in the Pasadena Unified School District. Bringing schoolchildren into a direct experience with art, via school tours, has been a tradition at The Huntington

Sixth-graders Jennifer Estrada, Delaney Harris, and Courtney Canlas discuss since 1937, as has the preparation of “pre-visit” materials for Luks’ Boxing Match in the Virginia Steele Scott Gallery of American Art with teachers.The new model, with collaboration at its core, their teacher, Jim Mayhew. Photo by Lisa Blackburn. combines the best of the classroom experience, where the foundation for learning is laid, and the magic of viewing to bridge the divide between the classroom and the art art in person.The benefits of this model can be seen—and museum, a place foreign to many students from Rockdale. heard—in the responses of students.They have entered Partnerships like the one forged between The into the world of history, learned the language of art, and Huntington and Rockdale Elementary School belong developed the confidence to make informed opinions. to a program developed by the LAUSD in 1998.That More than looking, they are now “weighing in” on what year, the district began a 10-year plan to reintegrate arts art means to them. education into the curriculum—at every grade and for every student attending Los Angeles schools. District leaders Susan Alderson Hoffmann is the Art Educator at The Huntington.

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 19 [ DISCOVERY ]

Back to the Source

A MODERN-DAY ARCHAEOLOGIST DIGS DEEP IN CENTRAL ASIA AND EXCAVATES A HERO

by Mark Wheeler

HEN ARCHAEOLOGIST FREDRIK by fact collecting and testing—to the study of prehistoric Hiebert returned from a 1988 dig in sites in Asia.A collection of Pumpelly papers is housed at the Kara Kum Desert in Turkmenistan, The Huntington. he thought he had it made. He was, “Raphael Pumpelly was part of an intellectual commu- heW believed, the first American archaeologist to dig in the nity that was pushing science forward in the 19th century, Soviet-controlled country, and he was convinced that what following Darwin and the theory of evolution,” says Dan he had found there would rewrite history. Lewis, curator of the history of science and technology at Hiebert, then a graduate student at Harvard, was inter- The Huntington.And he had an advantage over scientists ested in the origins of the Silk Road, the legendary trade route that connected China with countries to the west. Digging alongside his Russian colleagues at a now dried-up desert oasis in the Murghab River delta, Hiebert expected to find artifacts from the 2,000-year-old classical era. Instead, the group found a much older civilization that they thought to be unknown to the West. Dating back 4,000 years, it was comparable in age to the great civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, India, and China.

Pumpelly was one of those larger-than-life figures who lived a life of adventure.

“I was starry eyed, thinking we’d found this great, 4,000- year-old civilization!” says Hiebert, an archaeologist with the National Geographic Society and formerly a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.Then he found out from his doctoral adviser at Harvard that he wasn’t the first American to excavate a site in Turkmenistan after all, nor was his party the first to note the existence of a previously unacknowledged civilization.That honor went to, of all things, a geologist, who beat him to Turkmenistan by some 84 years. The man was Raphael Pumpelly, the first professor of mining at Harvard University (1866–75), the head of the New England section of the U.S. Geological Survey from Three generations of Raphael Pumpellys, 1917. In 1960, the geologist’s grandson donated the Pumpelly papers to The Huntington. Photo by Elise 1884 to 1889, and a man who brought a geologist’s eye and Pumpelly Cabot, from Pumpelly’s autobiography, My Reminiscences (1918), the now-standard scientific method—hypotheses, followed Huntington Library.

20 Fall/Winter 2005 Raphael Pumpelly’s journals from 1903 and 1904. Huntington Library. Photo by Lisa Blackburn. today, says Lewis.“It was a tight-knit group. He could write a letter to the very best people in a field and not only receive a reply, but develop a long-term correspondence with the best minds of his day.”These correspondents included such colleagues as Louis Janin, one of the country’s most active and important mining engineers; Bailey Willis, an old friend and colleague of Pumpelly who was renowned for his work on seismol- ogy during the early 20th century (and whose papers are also held by The Huntington); and William Morris Davis, among others. Davis, often called the father of American geology, accompanied Pumpelly to Asia in 1903 and created the field of geomorphology, the study of the earth’s landforms. The Pumpelly collection comprises letters, field notebooks, and diaries—more subsequent field season than 15 boxes of material—all donated to The focused on learning more about the Huntington in 1960 by Pumpelly’s grandson, Raphael ancient culture in Turkmenistan that so fascinated Pumpelly. Pumpelly III.These include the diaries of his wife, Eliza Scholars from around the world placed the ancient cultures Shepard Pumpelly, who accompanied her husband to Asia of Turkmenistan in the context of other world civilizations. in 1904. Fred Hiebert used Pumpelly’s field notes and Eliza’s The recent excavations continue the tradition of sieving for diaries to deepen his own understanding of the day-to-day seeds, bones, and shards of pottery.Anau, it turns out, was archaeological experience of that time. In 2003 he published something of a trade post 4,000 years ago, a small, fortified settlement guarding an important pass that “Notebooks from this fieldwork are gave central Asians access to the goods and wealth of the civilizations to the south. Born in 1837 in New York and educated in chock-full of drawings, measurements, Germany, the six-foot, three-inch Pumpelly, who had a fondness for cigars and wore a and Pumpelly’s characteristically tiny, long, flowing beard, was one of those larger- than-life figures who lived a life of adven- crabbed penmanship,” says Dan Lewis. ture. He “dodged Apache arrows,” as his biographer Margaret Champlin described A Central Asian Village at the Dawn of Civilization:Excavations it, while in Arizona developing a silver mine; taught at Anau,Turkmenistan.“I was able to use these notes, written Japanese miners to use gunpowder to clear rock before by Pumpelly in 1904, as if they were modern field notes he was kicked out of that country after being accused written by one of my graduate students working today,” of being a spy; and traveled by camel and cart from China he says. across Mongolia, Siberia, Russia, and on to central Asia. “Notebooks from this fieldwork are chock-full of He crossed huge, dried inland seas, where he could see the drawings, measurements, and Pumpelly’s characteristically ruins of cities on the ancient shorelines. It was during this tiny, crabbed penmanship,” says Lewis. Hiebert’s research at trip that, by studying the geology of the area, he became one The Huntington continues to inform his fieldwork; in 2004 of the first individuals to investigate how environmental and 2005 Hiebert again traveled to Turkmenistan to attend conditions could influence human settlement and culture. a conference commemorating the 100th anniversary of Forty years after his first trip from China into central Pumpelly’s excavations. Both the conference and the Asia, Pumpelly, now 65 in 1903 and at a time in life when

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 21 [ DISCOVERY ]

many people begin to slow, reinvented himself as an and shafts. He carefully labeled the archaeologist by applying for and receiving a grant from position of each found item, using the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C.The institu- methods that are now utilized tion, newly founded in 1902, had just announced its intent by modern archaeologists. For to fund scientific research. Pumpelly was an early applicant example, he practiced fine-scale (heartily endorsed by prominent historian Brooks Adams); archaeology, using sieves to cap- his goal was to return to central Asia to study the prehis- ture seeds and tiny bones, and toric archaeology he had seen years before and to study employed specialists, such as the geological and climatic factors that affected these early botanists and anatomists, to ana- civilizations. Pumpelly speculated that a large inland sea in lyze his finds.The pioneering central Asia might have once supported a sizeable popula- methods, says Hiebert, would tion. He knew from his travels and study that the climate only develop incrementally in his in central Asia had become drier and drier since the time field over the next 50 years or so. of the last ice age.As the sea began to shrink, could it have And in the absence of modern forced these people to move west, bringing along their methods like radiocarbon dating, Pumpelly used his training skills, especially agriculture and an early proto-language, as a geologist, keeping careful stratigraphic records to date to the primitive Stone Age people of Europe? sites. His findings would come close to matching data col- This is a scenario that modern archaeologists still debate lected years later using modern technology and, as Hiebert today, especially concerning the origin of language. In puts it,“spending a lot of money.” Pumpelly’s early interest 1903 and again in 1904, Pumpelly traveled to what was in how humans respond to environmental change, he notes, then called Turkestan to conduct a geological survey and is still a keynote feature of archaeology.The kurgan digs to excavate a site named Anau, near the border of Iran. unearthed pottery, objects of stone and metal, hearths and His findings convinced him that an ancient civilization cooking utensils, even the remains of skeletons of children had indeed existed in central Asia. found near hearths. He discovered evidence of domesticated

At Anau, Pumpelly carefully excavated two 50-foot animals and cultivated wheat—sureN signs of civilization. A T mounds—called kurgans—by digging a series of terraces But his work was stoppedS abruptly by, of all things, an H K infestation of grasshoppers. A

Z A Eliza wrote in her diary 55 60 65 K in early May 1904:“The KAZAKHSTAN grasshoppers have invaded

TURKMENISTAN our camp.They come at Dashhowuz Sariqamish t noon almost as suddenly Kuli r a e y Garabogaz s r e a D as a thunder shower but Aylagy D m u u m K A have not disappeared as ra a K UZBEKISTAN quickly. Raphael went 40 Turkmenbashi 40 down in the well yesterday Caspian Sea TURKMENISTAN and he said they rained Chärjew upon him in swarms and for a little while he had

Amu Dar’ya a horrid time fighting ASHGABAT Gara Anau gum Canal them….These grasshop- Mary b a h g pers are not enchanting r u M companions.”A week later she had had enough:“The

IRAN grasshoppers are still here Gushgy AFGHANISTAN and the air still smells of 35 35 them—we are hurrying 0 50 100 150 200 km to get off and hope to be 0 50 100 150 mi 55 60 65 gone by the end of the

The excavation site of Anau in Turkmenistan, 2004.

22 Fall/Winter 2005 Raphael and Eliza Pumpelly (third and fourth from the left) with members of the excavation team at the north kurgan at Anau, 1904. From Pumpelly’s autobiogra- phy, My Reminiscences (1918), Huntington Library.

week.” Raphael and his excavation party were forced to stopped thinking about it.” Soviet archaeologists did abandon the site. Pumpelly was never to return. conduct work throughout the Kara Kum Desert, he says. Hiebert’s initial disappointment to learn that he wasn’t Their method was to mount large-scale excavations the first American to excavate in central Asia quickly (often of entire settlements), revealing the existence of turned to admiration for the man and his farsightedness. numerous heavily fortified, large urban centers.That work, Hiebert now calls Pumpelly his hero, a “mythic figure” though, was only published in obscure Russian journals, in archaeology. mostly ignored by western archaeologists.And things stayed “So why isn’t he heralded as the founder of modern archaeology instead of being relegated to a footnote in history?” Hiebert asks.“Most people in my field have never even heard of him. I’m bugged by that.” The reasons, he says, are varied. One was a defense of conventional wisdom. In 1904 Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean were the accepted great centers of civ- ilization.“So why in the world would Pumpelly have gone to Turkmenistan to look for civilization? To his

Fredrik Hiebert now calls Raphael Pumpelly his hero, a “mythic figure” in archaeology. peers, it made no sense; people couldn’t comprehend it.” Second, using sedimentation rates to date the site, Pumpelly originally estimated Anau to be about 10,000 years old. Fredrik Hiebert on the south kurgan in Anau, October 2004. Photo by Some 12 years later, after other research in nearby areas Lisa Pompelli. had been published, Pumpelly reevaluated his data and revised his date, saying it was closer to 6,500 years old, that way, says Hiebert, until Turkmenistan began to “defrost,” dating to around 4500 B.C. But in the interim, Hiebert finally declaring its independence from Russia in 1991. says, the extended date may have hurt Pumpelly’s credibility. Beginning in 1993, following Turkmenistan’s independ- Then, notes Hiebert, by 1919–20 Turkmenistan had ence from Russia, Hiebert returned to excavate, this time been absorbed into the Soviet empire, and scholars “just choosing to work at Anau. In 1996 he and his colleagues

HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 23 [ DISCOVERY ]

were digging in the same kurgan Pumpelly had dug in 1904.“We dug further down than Pumpelly had Books in Print been able to do, and what we found was a confir- mation of everything he believed.”There was early evidence of civilization in the form of farming— A SAMPLING OF BOOKS BASED ON RESEARCH specifically, tiny grains of white wheat. Proof, says IN THE COLLECTIONS Hiebert, that the Turkmen people were engaged in agricultural production as early as 6,500 years ago. Hiebert’s wife, a zooarchaeologist (who joined the LAND OF SUNSHINE: AN ENVIRONMENTAL dig just as Eliza had 95 years earlier), discovered HISTORY OF METROPOLITAN LOS ANGELES bones of domesticated animals.“So here we were, William Deverell and Greg Hise, eds. almost 100 years after Raphael Pumpelly had been University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005 here, confirming that he was right.” Land of Sunshine explores the environ- In 2004, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary mental history of greater Los Angeles. of Pumpelly’s 1904 Anau dig, Raphael’s great-grand- Although many people might equate Los Angeles with daughter Lisa Pompelli (who uses the original spelling uncontrolled sprawl, history shows that it was intensely of her family’s Italian surname) accompanied Hiebert planned.The contributors to this volume attempt to recast and his archaeological team to Turkmenistan to the region as a sustainable metropolis, highlighting regional attend the international conference and celebrate history and the ways in which metropolitan nature has the opening of that country’s museum devoted been constructed and construed for well over a century entirely to wheat and its early cultivation. in greater Los Angeles. While it might seem odd to devote an entire museum to the celebration of wheat, Hiebert notes A GREAT AND NOBLE SCHEME: THE TRAGIC that the Turkmen have become very interested in STORY OF THE EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH their own history.“It’s a history that was repressed ACADIANS FROM THEIR AMERICAN HOMELAND for some 70 years by the Soviets,” he says.“So they are just now, in the 21st century, exploring their John Mack Faragher own lost past and their heritage.And now they’ve W.W.Norton & Co. Inc., 2005 discovered this western scientist.” So excited are On Aug. 25, 1755, the New York Gazette they about Pumpelly, he says, that they’ve even printed a dispatch from the maritime province of Nova republished all of Pumpelly’s original work.“Of Scotia:“We are now upon a great and noble Scheme of course,” says Hiebert, with a smile,“none of us can sending the neutral French out of this Province.” New read it because it’s written in Turkmen!” Despite the England troops were rounding up some 18,000 French- language barrier, the enthusiasm and excitement for speaking Acadian residents at gunpoint and scattering Raphael Pumpelly is not lost on Hiebert. them throughout the British Empire. Faragher brings to light a tragic chapter in the settlement of America. Mark Wheeler is a freelance science writer whose work has

appeared in Smithsonian and Discover magazines. UNSETTLED: THE CULTURE OF MOBILITY AND THE WORKING POOR IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND Patricia Fumerton University of Chicago Press, 2005 Poor migrants made up a growing class of workers in late-16th- and 17th-century England. By 1650, half of England’s rural population consisted of homeless and itinerant laborers. Unsettled attempts to reconstruct the everyday lives of these dispossessed people. Fumerton also explores seamen, who were a particularly large and prominent class of mobile wage laborers in the 17th century.

24 Fall/Winter 2005 B A C K

ART IN A SEASON OF REVOLUTION: PAINTERS, F ARTISANS, AND PATRONS IN EARLY AMERICA L

Margaretta Lovell A

University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005 P Lovell positions both well-known painters and unknown artisans within the frame- work of their economic lives and families. Highlighting maritime settlements such as Salem, Newport, and Boston, Lovell considers the ways in which 18th-century New England experience was conditioned by its markets and the cataclysm of revolution. Photo by Lisa Blackburn

MUSICAL METROPOLIS: LOS ANGELES AND THE CREATION OF A MUSIC CULTURE, 1880-1940 THE PEACEABLE AND PROSPEROUS REGIMENT OF BLESSED QUEENE Kenneth Marcus ELISABETH: A FACSIMILE FROM HOLINSHED’S CHRONICLES (1587)

Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 Edited by Cyndia Susan Clegg, with textual commentary by Randall McLeod Marcus argues that the study of music in Huntington Library Press, 2005 Los Angeles reveals the development of the city itself. Performers and audiences came from a variety of different backgrounds, but the notion of diversity went Cyndia Clegg knew something was odd when she sat down to well beyond ethnicity.A “media diversity”—recordings, look closely at two copies of the 1587 edition of Raphael radio, and film—influenced the music culture of Los Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland at The Angeles, which in turn influenced America at large. Huntington back in the early 1990s. Shakespeare had consulted the Chronicles, which surveys the history of the British Isles from

NARRATING SCOTLAND: THE IMAGINATION OF the earliest times well into the reign of Elizabeth I, and Clegg ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON was working on an article on Richard II. She thought to herself, “These copies are quite different!” Barry Menikoff Clegg began exploring copies in the British Library, the University of South Carolina Press, 2005 Cambridge University Library, and several more in private Narrating Scotland reveals that Stevenson’s hands. The result is this facsimile of Holinshed’s history of the goal was nothing less than the reconstitution reign of Queen Elizabeth. Clegg has used the Huntington’s in fictional form of his country’s history in the period “Melton Holinshed” (pictured above)—named after the previous just after the collapse of the Jacobite rebellion. Menikoff owner of the book—as the primary text. It comprises a complete contends that in Kidnapped and David Balfour Stevenson set of 16th-century page proofs—that is, original pages with imaginatively reconstructed that culture, in part for the proofreading corrections. She supplements it with variants from sake of his nation, and for its posterity. a total of eight other copies (three of which are also from The Huntington). SUNSET LIMITED: THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC Randall McLeod uses the Melton Holinshed to analyze 16th- RAILROAD AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE century printing practices. Clegg’s essay explains how so many AMERICAN WEST, 1850-1930 substantially different copies could have entered the market- Richard J. Orsi place, detailing the three stages of censorship by Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council. “Censorship is always going to University of California Press, 2005 exist in one form or another,” Clegg concedes. “We learn more if The Southern Pacific was the only major we ask, ‘Who has the power to censor?’” Far from mere propa- U.S. railroad to be operated by westerners and the only ganda, the variant copies reveal subtle concerns about the railroad built from west to east. Sunset Limited explores depiction of Mary Queen of Scots’ trial and execution, anti- the railroad’s development and influence—especially as Catholicism, and justice. it affected land settlement, agriculture, water policy, and the environment—and offers a new perspective on the – Matt Stevens company’s role in shaping the American West. On the Cover

The face has long been familiar to Americans, from school children to anyone lucky enough to have had a $100 bill in his or her wallet. The Huntington’s late-18th-century pastel portrait of Benjamin Franklin is attributed to the French artist Jean Valade, who copied it from a well- known portrait by another French artist, Joseph- Siffrede Duplessis. (In fact, it was a Duplessis image that served as the inspiration for the rendering on the $100 bill.) To commemorate the 300th anniversary of Franklin’s birth, we explore the French lineage of a uniquely American icon. Valade’s pastel (front cover) and the medallion (on the left) from the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Sèvres are two of the nearly 300 items from the Huntington’s collection of 18th- century French art. A four-year research project of the collec- tion will culminate in a forthcoming catalog.

THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, Non-Profit Org. ART COLLECTIONS, AND BOTANICAL GARDENS U.S. Postage PAID 1151 Oxford Road • San Marino, CA 91108 Pasadena, CA www.huntington.org Permit No. 949 Address Service Requested