The Clement Hungerford Pollen Collection Clement Hungerford Pollen (1869-1934) was born in London to an illustrious and art loving family that traced Samuel Pepys as a distant ancestor. His parents, John Hungerford Pollen (18201902)—a decorative artist, former Anglican priest, professor and curator—and his mother, Maria Margaret La Primaudaye Hungerford Pollen (1838-c. 1919)—a lace collector, author and historian—were friends with John Newman, William Morris and William Thackeray. His mother was famously sketched by Dante Gabriel Rosetti. When Clement was 6 his family moved to Newbuildings Place in Sussex—a 16th century estate owned by the poet, traveler and Arabian horse breeder, Wilfred Scawen Blunt (1840-1922). It is here that Pollen and his older brother Arthur, credited their transformation to lovers of horses and explorers of the outdoors. After secondary school, Pollen followed Arthur, to Wyoming, where he lived in a cabin and worked with cattle and horses. After an accident with a shotgun, he briefly worked as assistant secretary in the Bahamas to Governor Ambrose Shea. In 1897, once again following his brother Arthur who had illustrated and written the preface for H. Somers Somerset’s, The Land of
the Muskeag, 1895, Pollen traveled to North Western Canada. He settled in the Kootenay River area of British Columbia eventually owning an 814-acre property called Skookumchuck Ranch, as well as a home in Cranbrook, British Columbia. The area was inhabited by the Ktunaxa Nation. Pollen greatly admired the Native peoples and developed close relationships with them. In the early 1900s, Pollen became involved in the design, construction and management of the Kootenay Central branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He served as Lieutenant Colonel, 1st Battalion Kootenay Regiment, and as a Major in the 54th Battalion, Cranbrook, BC during WWI. Pollen returned to England with his wife and children and died in Surrey. Clement documented his years in Wyoming and British Columbia with photographs, written memoirs and by collecting Native North American made objects and fossils. His extensive correspondence includes letters from family friend Neville Chamberlain and Theodore Roosevelt. The collection is a rare historic record of a specific North American time and place: of Western Plains life, exploration, the life and arts of Native peoples, and the transformation of the West.