Women have often held the role of story keepers and preservers of family and community histories. Women have also created archives as a means to tell stories in their own voice. Examples of this are seen in the papers of Caroline Boeing Poole, Bertha Parker Cody, and the Assistance League of Los Angeles. They kept records capturing both day-to-day life as well as the remarkable events.
“Some Yurok Customs and Beliefs- I”
August 1941
Authors: Bertha Parker Cody, Jane Van Stralen
Photograph
Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum; 570.6 LA Sm v.16
Although Bertha Parker Cody is attributed to being the author of this article, she notes from the start that “the following customs, beliefs, and experiences were related to the writer [Cody] by Mrs. Jane Vane Stralen, Yurok Indian living at Bucksport during the summer of 1940 and 1941.”
The article from the Southwest Museum publication, Masterkey, volume 16, no. 5, August 1941.
Jane Van Stralen
August 1941
Photographer: Bertha Thurston Cody
Photograph
Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum; P.2045
Stralen is standing beside the dress she wore in the Fish Dam Dance in 1885. In the article “Some Yurok Customs and Beliefs- I,” published in Masterkey, volume 16, no. 5, 1941, Bertha Parker Cody records Jane Van Stralen’s recollections:
“When I was 13 years of age I danced in the Fish-dam dance, and after certain rules of the dance had been followed, I was enjoying myself playing the games and having a fine time eating all the good things at different camps. Then my sisters came over and told me that there was a wealthy young man from Trinidad who wanted to meet me. I told them, I didn’t want to meet anyone, so I ran off into the bushes and hid.”
Clara Forslund
1949
Photographer: Gladys Knight Harris
35mm slide
Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum; CS.8941
Newspaper reports tell us that Forslund was born on December 28, 1909; danced for the Kotzebue Eskimo Dancers Association; died on July 18, 1986, at the age of 76; and was buried in Kotzebue, Alaska. The Gladys Knight Harris archives, however, reveal more about Clara Forslund. Harris captured moments from Forslund’s life in still and moving imagery and in written documents. These personal archives show that Clara grew up in Icy Cape, Alaska, with her two brothers; married Fred Forslund, a non-Native sailor; had 3 children; and contracted mumps at the age of 51.
Gladys Knight Harris “travel notebook #9”
1949
Gladys Knight Harris, Clara Forslund
Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum; MS.245
This notebook includes an oral history transcribed by Harris about Forslund's "girlhood" growing up in Icy Capy and Wainwright, Alaska.
Release form signed by Clara Forslund
1948
Gladys Knight Harris, Clara Forslund
Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum; MS.245
Although photographers nowadays almost always secure consent forms, few did so when Harris worked in Alaska. Her archives include stacks of consent forms and releases she collected from the people she documented—from adults to babies and even dogs. She also paid her subjects $1 per pose. She added additional biographical notes to her forms, reflecting her conscientious attempts to document more than just the faces and names she captured.
“Marie [sic], the famous pottery maker of San Ildefonso and her husband”
October, 1926
Caroline Boeing Poole
Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum; MS.245
Maria Montoya Martinez (misspelled in album) was a world-renowned master potter and celebrated matriarch of the early 20th century pottery revival in San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. Born in 1887, Maria learned to make pottery from her aunt, Nicolasa Peña Montoya. In 1907, while her husband Julian was working as a field assistant at the School of American Archaeology (now known as the School for Advanced Research), Martinez saw excavated ancestral pottery from the Pajarito Plateau. Inspired by the traditional designs, Martinez worked in collaboration with her husband to create a new style of matte black on black decorated pottery. Soon, other potters adopted the technique and pottery making became an avenue for economic opportunity for the people of San Ildefonso. Maria Martinez’s legacy of skill and innovation influenced generations of Pueblo pottery, who continue to expand the artistic vocabulary of Native art. Today, San Ildefonso pottery can be found in prominent institutions, museums and collections all over the world.
Back of object id 2018.60.5, framed art piece
2019
Photographer: Liza Posas
Digital photograph
Autry Collections staff member, Sara Ybarra, shows the back of a frame art piece collected by Caroline Poole. The reverse side holds artwork by Maria Martinez’s husband, Julian Martinez. Poole collected multiple pieces by this couple and often pasted articles or other documents about Maria Martinez on the back.
Stone Heart a play by Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
2006
Diane Glancy (Cherokee)
Play program
Autry Institutional Archives
Diane Glancy first published Stone Heart as a book. A play version was workshopped by the Native Voices theatre group from 2005-2006. The play is set during the Corps of Discovery journey from 1804-1806, also known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and told from the perspective of Sacajawea and York enslaved by William Clark. Reflecting on the inspiration for this work, Glancy wrote, “I am interested in the retrieval of historical voices, especially those voices that have not had a chance to speak, such as women and minorities. Maybe I’m interested in them because I am a part of some of the history that has been left out.”
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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