JULY, 1955
SANTA BARBARA
On the Exhibition Calendar July 5 closed our current exhibit, which has featured the 1890-1925 period. This was the last of the three period exhibits to be sliown each year. The next will cover the earliest Spanish Colonial years to 1850, and will be up for three months. It will be followed by the intermediate period, that of Pioneer America, from ca. 1850 to 1885. The Spanish Colonial exhibit will present manuscripts, Spanish shawls and fans, paintings (includ ing a historic portrait of the De la Guerra family, and the romantic paintings of the pastoral California life by Alexander Harmer); also artifacts and other historical material of a period that begins with the Spanish occupa tion of California, to 1850. Space limitations prevent full coverage of our wellreceived exhibit, just closed, which ran the gamut from early-day photographs, and paintings by local artists, to heirloom silver, costumes, and old saddles. Particularly enjoyed was the pre-exhibit tea for mem bers, from 2:00 to 5:00 on Friday afternoon, April 22. At this time several hundred visitors were received at the Old Mission headquarters. Acting as hostesses were Mrs. Robert Ingle Hoyt, Mrs. James W. Colt, Mrs. Edwin S. Potter, Miss Anna Lincoln, Miss Margaret Conklin, Miss Catherine Lataillade. Tlie hostesses, as well as Mrs. Gledhill, were dressed authentically for the period, select ing costumes from a collection of 30 given the Society by Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Lewis, from the estate of Mrs. John Aniory Jeffers, long-time Santa Barbara resident. On loan for the current exhibit were paintings, photo graphs, drawings, sculpture, etchings and etching plates from the following donors: Mrs. Godwin Pelissero, Mrs. Clarence Mattel, Mrs. Edgar Stowe, The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Public Library, Miss Dorothy Cotton, Mr. and Mrs. William Louis Otte, Mr. and Mrs. Reginald W. Vaughn, Alexander House, Mrs. Allen G. Cram, Miss Pearl Chase, the University of California, Mrs. Charles L. Jacobs, Mrs. Edward Borein, Mrs. Fran cis T. Underhill, Miss Helen Low, The Music Academy of the West, Mrs. Lockwood de Forrest, Mrs. James Colt, Jr., Mr. R. F. Overbaugh, Mr. and Mrs. W. Edwin GledhilL Mrs. Harwood White, Mrs. T. Wilson Dibblee, Mrs. Dwight Murphy, Mr. Cameron Rogers, Los Rancheros Visitadores. Loans of silver, glassware, saddles and leather work, costumes, books and other historic memorabilia came from Mrs. Samuel J. Slanwood, Mrs. Agnes Field, Mayor John Rickard, Mr. David Hopkins Parma, Mrs. Hugh Weldon, Mrs. Henry Lincoln, Mrs. Caniillo Fenzi, Mrs.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FALL LUNCHEON MEETING Speaker: Dr. Philip W. Powell Topic: “Santa Barbara’s Spanish Heritage” Members will be advised of time and place.
Henrietta Von Blon, Mrs. Charles T. Pierce, Mrs. John S. Lincoln, Mrs. Melville Sahyun, Mrs. Joseph Knowles, Mrs. Luiza Peck, Mr. Herman Eddy, and others. Gifts on exhibit during current period were from: Mrs. Gertrude Wright Knox Feeley (two portraits by Alexander Harmer); Mrs. Lockwood de Forrest (land scape by Lockwood de Forrest, Sr.).
Foundation Grant Adds to Staff As a result of a grant received in June from the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Society is now able to open its headquarters on a six-day-a-week basis every day except Mondays, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. The Foundation generously set up a grant of $3,500 to be used for salaries of college student assistants to staff. They will act as hostesses and assist in cataloguing and research, under the training and direction of Mr. and Mrs. Gledhill, curators. Newly employed are the following students: Lila Linkey, of (^arpinteria (Westmont College); Barbara Howard (Westmont College); and Jacqueline Hopper (University of California, Santa Barbara College). Addition of these student assistants will relieve some of the pressure on our volunteers. On Sundays, vol unteers from Tierra de Oro Parlor No. 304, Native Daughters of the Golden West (Mrs. W. F. McKinney, President), and Reina del Mar Parlor No. 126 (Ellen Hayward, President), will act as hostesses. Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution also assist as hostesses on Sundays. Others giving of their time (not listed elsewhere) are: Mrs. Katherine Burke, flowers; Mrs. Guy Stockton, library; Mrs. Henrietta Von Blon, hostess. Mission Restoration . . . From the Fleischmann Foundation comes word of its $250,000 gift to the Santa Barbara Mission, for purposes of further restoration. A second quadrangle will be added, including a chapel on the grounds of the Mission’s first church, classroom, lecture and assembly halls, and residential facilities for student clerics. The new construction will restore to the Mission a quadrangle originally built in 1797.