Carl Oscar Borg Issue

Navajo

Carl Oscar Borg Issue

Vol. XI, No. 3

Summer, 1965

NAVAJO GRAVE

Etehinci

N€TICIA5 QUARTERLY BULLETIN OF THE SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Carl Oscar Borg Santa Barbara in 1906, when Carl Oscar Borg first came was a smaller town than now, but a distinguished one. Later, when he returned to live here, he found his place at once among the friendly artists and many other friends, and they very soon knew that he was an artist’s artist and a serious one. He left his mark here.

Borg was born in March 3, 1879, in Grinstad, Sweden, in the province of Dalsland, ihe son of Gustaf and Kristina Olsdotter Borg. His father was a Swedish soldier.

As a small boy he herded sheep in the summertime and one summer he lived with an old couple, Olavus and Brilta, truly kindhearted folk. There for the first time in his young life he had enough to eat. His schoolteacher lent him books and magazines with illustrations and this started him painting and drawing and eventually took him to the United States of America.

There is a story in his autobiography about young Carl finding some malleable blue clay and from this clay he modeled figures. He made a figure of the sexton, an old soldier, named Ode, in uniform with the collection plate in his hand, and put it on a stone by the wayside. His teacher came by, stopped, looked at the figure and put in three coins in the sexton’s collection plate. The boy had watched out of sight. He had sold his first work of art, the talk of the countryside for a long time.

When Carl was fourteen years old he went to the parish minister, hoping to persuade him to take him as a stable boy. The boy was accepted and in that way came in contact with the two persons. Pastor A. Magnus Nilman and his wife Maria, who became a deciding factor in his destiny. After the day’s work it was wonderful to sit in the kitchen and read to his heart’s content from the stock of books that were willingly lent him. The minister criticized his work and encouraged him at the same time. The years with the Nilman family were happy ones in which he did his work, read omnivorously and drew and had no worries. But one day the minister called his stableboy into his office and spoke of his future. He wrote to a painter con tractor in the town Vanersborg, and asked him to take Carl Oscar on as an apprentice, and this request was granted. In Vanersborg Carl, picking up a considerable amount of information about Stockholm, decided to leave Van ersborg for Stockholm and, if possible to study at an art school there.

1

CARL OSCAR BORG, A.N.E. (Portrait now hanging in Los Adobes de los Rancheros]

Summer, Arizona

He returned to Grinstad to say good-bye to his parents and to the Nilman family. We quote from Carl’s autobiography: “Early one frosty morning in April 1899 at about 4 a.m. I was ready for the great adventure. I was going out into the world to seek my fortune.

Everybody in the cold room was asleep except my mother, who was making coffee and frying potatoes and pork drippings. When I had finished my break fast, I shook hands with everybody—they were all awake by that time— and said goodbye.

“The hour for departure had come. My mother followed me out on the road. Cold winds were blowing over the dreary snow-covered fields. The heavens were a heavy blue-gray with a lambent lighter gray streaming from the eastern horizon. We walked along the country road, which led to Grinstad’s church, whose tower was silhouetted against the luminous light. Neither of us said anything. My mother cried softly. At last she stopped and said: ‘Well, I must go back now’, and stretched forth her hand. I clasped it in mine—it was icy cold. I looked at her and yearned desperately to say some thing, but I could not. It was the same with Mother. We were not accustomed to display our feelings. I stood still for a long time and watched her go. Now 3

and then she turned to wave her hand. The wind whipped her thin skirts about her and her shawl resembled great black wings as she waved to me.

Then she was beside Anders the blacksmith’s cottage and that was the last lime in my life I saw her. I flourished my hat for a last lime and turned to continue along the road.”

In Stockholm Borg worked much of the time on ships that were being put in order for the breakup of the ice and for journeys abroad. One day he had an opportunity as a decorator to go on a ship to France. When the ship reached Dunkirk, he was invited by the ship’s captain to accompany him and the other officers to the Casino to play the horses. There he won about 800 francs in silver and bills. His work on board the ship was finished and so, in the morning, he decided to leave the ship. He did not know any languages except his own, but he knew he wanted to be an artist. He wanted to study in Paris. The Swedish chaplain however, advised him to go to Calais, which was a larger and better city. In Calais he met the Swedish seamen’s chaplain, the famed Nathan Soderblom, later archbishop of Sweden.

He advised Borg to go to London.

In London he lost his money, his watch and most of his clothes; and so he had to learn to hold out his hand and beg and, like many other un fortunates, he searched through garbage cans to find something that at least looked edible. He became acquainted with a picture agent, who intro duced him to someone else who hired him to paint marine pictures and portraits. He even worked at Drury Lane Theatre at scene paintings. In 1901, he left for America on a Norwegian steamer and obtained free passage because he painted pictures in the captain’s cabin.

He landed in Norfolk, Virginia, and was almost constantly employed by an interior decorator. Later, he also worked as a woodcarver.

In 1903, Carl came to San Francisco, as an able-bodied sailor on the “Arizonian”. He left the ship and decided to go to Los Angeles. He had to walk because he had very little money. He earned money on the way by working on farms. Everybody was friendly and sometimes he got a ride.

On his way he saw something interesting. He writes: “It was a middle aged man on horseback. He sat on a silver-trimmed saddle and wore a big widebrimmed hat that shaded his sunburned face. He had not coat, just a gray and black checkered shirt and a red kerchief around his neck. He wore wide leather trousers with big silver buttons along his sides, and a belt with gun holsters. His feet and lower legs were encased in elegantly sewed boots with huge spurs. I did not dream that he was just an ordinary cowboy or rancher from a forgotten age, and even today I can feel the breath of ad venture which the sight of him inspired.”

In Los Angeles he was employed as an interior decorator and also paint ed scenery for a little theatre in Broadway. His first work was exhibited in the Ruskin Art Club in May and June 1905. Ida Meacham Strobridge, well known at that time in literary and art circles in Los Angeles, sold some of Borg’s paintings in her tiny gallery called “A Little Corner of Local Art”.

On April 17, 1906, he returned to San Francisco to pick up some of the pic tures he had left there. The seventeenth had been a glorious holiday and, in the evening, Caruso had sung “Carmen” in the Opera House. This was the night before the San Francisco earthquake.

4

At Oraibi, Arizona

Carl got out of town on the fourth day and returned to Los Angeles, where he had prepared for an exhibition. He did not arrive in time for the opening, but Anthony E. Anderson, the well known art critic, and other friends had arranged everything and some canvasses already had been sold.

Anthony E. Anderson was then and continued to be for many years, until his death, the art critic of the Los Angeles Times and, as such, he was an extremely powerful man in Southern California art. He took an active and kindly interest in Carl and his work. At one time Anderson criticised the way in which Borg was handling his skies. Later Anderson wrote: “Borg, always susceptible to intelligent suggestions . . . readily admitted the justice of the criticism and during the succeeding three months painted nothing but skies.” Further, as a result of correcting this lack in his art, Borg de veloped an intense interest in skies—their moods, colors, dramatic values, and ever-changing subtleties. From that time on, if there was any dominating factor in Borg’s painting, it was the skies.

Most of the years 1907 and 1908 were passed in Santa Barbara. He met a Captain Roselin Vasquez, who sailed out to the Santa Barbara Islands, 5

Navajo Papoose

or as they usually are called, the Channel Islands. He sailed a motor launch, the “Gussie M” with a crew of Chinese, Japanese, Negroes and Mexicans.

Carl asked him if he could go along to paint. First he laughed and found it comical, but finally he said that if Carl would come along as one of the crew, he would see to it that he would have time to paint.

Carl said in his autobiography: “1 j)ainted rather a great deal, in spite of the fact that I had gone to work among sealhunters. The seals were caught alive and were sold to Hagenbeck’s in Hamburg. Although they were a mixed crowd we all become good friends and many times, when it was my turn 6

to work, one of the crowd came and said, ‘I will take your turn. You go aliead and paint’.”

The actual hunting was done at Painted Cave on the south side of Santa Cruz Island. A painting of the cave by Borg, owned by McGuire, shows the cave to be about 150 feet wide and almost as high. Another painting illu strates how the men stationed at the net throw lariats around the seals necks and force them into cagelike boxes which have a door at one end. It was a fascinating procedure and as close as Borg—who abhorred bloodshed— ever cared to come to hunting of any kind.

During this year Carl made several trips to Santa Cruz Island with friends. On those trips they often camped out for weeks at a time. Borg sketched constantly during the daylight hours. But, he did not always go to the Islands on group trips. He often went alone, just as later he was to spend weeks and even months alone in the desert, painting and enjoying the solitude which he craved. Captain Vasquez would take Borg out on one of his trips and pick him up weeks later on his next trip. While he was alone he explored and enjoyed the fact of being alone.

During the course of his solitary stays on the Islands, Borg’s interest in the American Indian and in archaeology was furthered by what he found.

Before the white man came, Indians had lived on the Islands and they had left remains, not only of themselves, but of their everyday activities.

Borg was already a collector of sorts; his barn studio at 315 South Bunker Hill Street, in Los Angeles, was ornamented with ancient books, armor and weapons. The battle with himself that was to last a lifetime—the battle to control a passion for collecting rare, odd, exotic and beautiful objects— had already begun.

At that time, while he was out on the Islands, he unearthed, along with a collection of cooking and domestic utensils and ornaments, two human skulls.

There were some archaelogists from Stanford at the Island at the time and, learning of Borg’s finds they came to him and examined the skulls. They offered to buy the skulls from him, but he refused to sell. Measurements taken on the skulls led the professors to the conclusion that one was that of a seven-foot prehistoric man and the other of a woman almost as tall. Once he came to a place where there was a stretch of land covered with human bones. The island on which lie made these discoveries is the most desolate and deserted of the entire group. For a few days he lived on it all alone.

Late in the summer of 1908 Carl returned to Los Angeles. On his way from the Southern Pacific Depot, he met Mrs. Mary Gibson and one of her friends, Mrs. Woods. Mrs. Gibson was the mother of Hugh Gibson, who was Secretary of the American Legation in Honduras, later legation secretary in Belgium, minister to Poland and ambassador in Brazil. They asked Carl to go with them to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to see Hugh. They arrived in Central America where Carl stayed for nine months and painted in many [ilaces there.

At this time Carl according to his friends was slender, thin-faced, with hollow cheek bones, long blond hair, and a boney, ascetic face. He had blue, reflective eyes, a fine high forehead, a strong, determined, well-formed mouth and jaw, and a straight nose. He wore soft white shirts and collars and a drooping artist’s tie. He was a very poetic looking youth, rather like the 7

romantic conception of an artist. Borg was a romantic. He was delightful to liave around, although he could be cross too. He was a vivid, descriptive speaker and an excellent story teller. Somewhat nervous in temperament, with an overabundance of energy, he was always busy with his hands, his head, or both.

Mrs. Charles Lummis, whose husband was a friend of Carl’s, sent a sketch of Carl’s to Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst in San Francisco. Mrs. Hearst was so delighted with this sketch that she invited the artist to her mountain home near Shasta. Mrs. Hearst, well known for her philanthropies, decided to send Carl Oscar Borg to Europe for five years to study. She also sent with him. Dr. Gustavus A. Eisen, a native of Stockholm Sweden, and a famous scientist.

Borg and Eisen first went to Spain and afterwards to Egypt in the hope of getting some Egyptian relics for Mrs. Hearst. On the 25th of February, 1911, when Borg had just returned to Luxor from Thebes, a curious thing happened to him. Borg was silting on the porch of the Hotel Rossmore when he heard someone behind him address him by name and in Swedish: “Do you want your fortune told”? Borg turned in surprise to find a Hindu stand ing there. This man told all about Borg’s past life and told his fortune for five shillings. He predicted that Borg would marry twice: The first marriage would not be good, but later he would find a wife in Sweden and she would bring him happiness. The Hindu said that Borg would receive a medal from his native country in later life, mentioned a few other inconsequential bits of information, and then left. Years later, Borg was to remember this incident and marvel at it when the Hindu’s predictions came true.

In January, a dealer came to Borg and asked him to have an exhibition in the Jules Gautier Gallery at 19 Rue des Sevres. Borg accepted the offer and by the 19th all the arrangements had been made. The exhibition was very successful and several pictures sold. The reviews were excellent. Masques et Visages writes: “It is rare to find an artist of the temper and the character of Carl Oscar Borg . . . Still young, for he is not yet thirty-one, he hides under a timid and frail exterior a tough, firm temperament with the disposi tion of a wanderer, like the people of his country. He had already wandered over half the world in search of curious and rare impressions, working them on the canvas with personal art which shaped itself all alone, without nature, without guide and without teacher . . , one is delighted to find an artist so little like all the others, sensitive, intense and free.” The 1913 issue of L’Art et les Artistes was largely devoted to an article on Borg by Thadee de Gorecki. The article said in part: ‘Carl Oscar Borg is a painter, a painter in love solely with his visions and his works are profoundly philosophic; it is because they are the purest and most varied expression of the consecration of the sentiments of an artist and of a thinker, from whence comes the simplicity of line and of that movement still greater, in the sketches, which are the first endeavors of release.” The article also states that with his palette, the gentleness and beauty of things express his emotions to the fullest of his powers.

The following month according to his diary, the artist received notice that the Societe des Artistes Francais had accepted three of his pictures for their 1913 Salon. At the same time he was informed that the Royal Academy 8

in London had accepted one picture for their 1913 exhibition. Finally the Universite Exposition in Ghent accepted two paintings. He went to Ghent to see the exhibition and later to Sweden for a short visit. He had left Sweden some thirteen years before, a poor young lad with one set of clothes. His return was a triumph the twenty-year-old might have dreamed about. He wore fine clothes, he was the favorite of one of the wealthiest patrons in America, he had travelled w'idely, his pictures had been exhibited throughout the world, his future was practically assured—how far different from the poor creature we have seen through the memoirs. And how proud his family and friends, the Nilmans, must have been of their Carl, who had made good in the great world outside Dalsland, as they had hoped he would do.

Paris awarded him in 1913 with the Croix d’Honneur for the work he had hung at the International Exposition at Wichy. The Studio, London, said: “Carl Oscar Borg is without doubt one of the most interesting painters of California, and one giving the greatest promise”. Borg showed with the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, as with the Societe des Amis des Arts de Seine-et-Oise. California claimed Borg as its own. The Los Angeles Tribune announced that Borg had “arrived” with the headline, “Los Angeles Succeeds in Paris.”

After the first World War broke out, Borg came back to San Francisco in October 1914. Mrs. Hearst, who had a deep interest in the Indians of the Southwest, suggested he go out among the Indians to paint, observe, and to take photographs and motion pictures for the University of California, Ber keley. Mrs. Hearst got in touch with the Department of the Interior and they gave Borg permission to go into the reservation to paint and to take motion pictures, provided the pictures were not put to commercial use. He accepted Mrs. Hearst’s offer. It was in the Southwest that he was to find himself. He spent many following summers with the Ilopi and the Navajo Indians. Each year Borg arrived in the desert at the end of the winter. The Indians called him “Hasten Na-va-ha-sa”, “He-who-comes-in-lhe-spring.”

Carl wrote in his catalog of an exhibition of paintings from the “Land in of the Hopi and the Navajo” in the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, ir.

February 1917: “North about a hundred miles from the railroads beyond the little Colo rado. in the opal and amethyst haze of the painted desert lies the land of the Hopi and the Navajo. The region that the Spanish discoverers called the Province of Tusayan.

“The inhabitants of these great solitudes, these limitless horizons, this wilderness of color and form, are marked by an Arcadian simplicity, by a dignity and reserve that I am sure would be hard to find among any other living peoples. As a rule they are the most contended and happy people imaginable. Whether they be the home-loving Hopi or the nomadic Navajo, they ask for nothing better than to be left alone to work out their own salvation along their own lines and according to their own laws; the laws that have been tested for centuries and that have kept their races intact.

“These dwellers in the wilderness are like all primitive people, of an intensely religious inclination. Both the Hopi and his less stable brother, the Navajo, have evolved out of the surroundings and the natural phenomena, a philosophy and a religious system that can be more than favorably com pared with most of the religions of the ancient world. In this country of 9

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scant vegetation, where food depends on tlie all-important element of water, it is J10 wonder that the religious beliefs of ceremonies center about this precious fluid. So the famous Hopi snake dance that takes place in the latter part of August every year, the different Katchina dances and innumerable other ceremonies, the so-called dances among both peoples—are most asso ciated with water; in fact they are prayers for rain.

“Every element in nature, every phenomenon, has its symbol and spirit.

Often the prayers are symbols or illustrations: Fainted rain clouds—sticks made in the shape of lightning—others to resemble ears of corn. Their arts, such as pottery, the weaving of blankets, ^he making of beads, etc. for per sonal adornment or for religious purposes, are full of these silent prayers to their elemental Gods. But there are no degrading prayers for personal salva tion or personal gain. The prayers are not for the individuals, but for the community. At the different times, when prayers are offered for the fields, prayer sticks are deposited by special messenger on everybody’s fields alike.

When the visitor in these silent lands feels his beliefs, his learning, his sham modernity of face appearances fall away, and he becomes more or less one with these dwellers in the desert, becomes again a child of the one great mother—Nature. still “Although everything is peaceful, silent and impressive one can . feel the struggles, that have taken place here. The lonely mesas, with their saw-tooth backs like strange monsters rising from the plains. The boulderstrewn hillsides, skylines, jagged and broken into a thousand strange forms.

The primeval struggles that have made this land are visible everywhere. But now' is peace and quiet and it seems difficult and unreal to think of the crowded cities that lie beyond these wide and distant horizons. In its varying moods this country seems endless.”

And he wTites again; “There is no end to the phenomena of light, color, form and distances. Everything is enveloped in a haze—blue, yellow, pink, lilac.”

“And the night! How wonderful, how mysterious and magnificent!

How unlike everything that most men ever see. Silent, fathomless, shadowy.

The stars, like jewels against the black curtain of the sky. By day or by night, this old land is always calm and majestic. The ruins that are scattered all over are, also, a never ending wonder. On the high mesa, on the windswept plains, are these abandoned ruins of cities of the long ago. This that man has forgotten, Nature seems to cherish.

“These strange spectral-gleaming ruins of palaces and cities in the walls of Canyon del Muerto, and others, all add to the mystery, all of them form questions on our lips. But the answer is hidden in the Sphinx-like silence of beauty of the desert, and so, for those that love the primitive beauty of simplicity this land, its blazing skies will furnish inspirations of the sublimest nature, and a visit to the land of Tusyan should be a never-to-be-forgotten experience .

After his precipitous return from Europe, Borg took a studio on Post Street in San Francisco, dividing his time between there and Mrs. Hearst s hacienda at Pleasanton. In San Francisco he became a member of that small group of artists w'ho clustered around N. R. Helgersen, who had a gallery.

There Carl met Clarence Hinkle, born in the Mother Lode country. Later Hinkle and his wife Mabel settled in Santa Barbara. Borg has been described 11

by a member of the group he belonged to, as being at that time a neat, welldressed gentleman, slender and aesthetic”, who was extremely proud of his collection of Egyptian art objects. Borg was giving more attention to the creation of his exhibition pictures than he was to selling them. Although many of the young men in the group spent hours talking about art, aesthetics and the old masters, Borg rarely, if ever, entered into these discussions. Art was so sacred to him, he was so humble before the works of the masters, that he felt it to be presumptions to engage in the small-talk about art that the others indulged in. He was known as a busy, industrious painter, a serious student, self-contained, and certainly not a Bohemian as were so many others of the group. He was able to meet people outside of the world of art and get them interested in himself and his art, although many times he became so engrossed in conversation with customers he thought interesting that he neglected the opportunity to sell pictures.

Borg worked at his studio on Post Street in San Francisco and sometimes, when Mrs. Hearst came into town, Borg would meet her and go back to Pleas anton with her in the afternoon.

In 1915 and for several years after that, Borg returned to the desert every summer. He made friends among the Indians. Su-pe-la, chief of the snake clan, his wife, Sa-la-ko, matriarch of the clan, and their son, Harry, became intimates of Borg’s, as intimate as Hopis ever become with white men.

During the remainder of the year he spent a great deal of time in Santa Barbara, where he met Mr. and Mrs. Reginald Vaughan and their son, Sam. all of whom became lifetime friends. Borg had been teaching classes in outdoor painting in Santa Barbara, and the Vaughans became his pupils.

Borg, who loved to camp out. would go with the Vaughans on camping trips in their old car, on the chassis of which they had constructed a house-like structure, They would be driving along the mountain roads when Borg would suddenly shout, “Slop, stop here, Reginald Vaughan would pull the car to a screeching stop and Borg would scramble out, whip out his painting kit and make a sketch with amazing rapidity and facility. The sketch com pleted, they would move on patiently until they came to another fine vista, at which place the routine would be repealed, and then they would move on again. Progress on these trips, Vaughan admits, was very slow.

In the evenines, they would sit around the camp fire and Borg would choose one out of the stack of cowboy magazines that were always brought along on the trips and read western stories aloud in his strong Swedish ac cent, much to be delight and amusement of himself and the Vaughans. Borg never got over his love for the romantic cowboy, he had seen in Santa Monica 1903.

Once some of Borg’s Indian friends came to Santa Barbara on a visit, Borg took them to see his friend, Falvy’s, house, which was filled with fascinating antiques. There were some crystal chandeliers hanging in the room and at the moment they walked in, the sunlight pouring in through the window was captured by the prisms of the crystals and released in beautiful spectral colors. The Indians, much impressed with this, nudged Borg, saying, “You catch it, you catch it.” Borg had to explain again and again that he could not catch the light.

One day in 1931 Carl read in the Los Angeles Herald, that his old Indian 12

Canon de Chcliy, Arizona

friend, Harry Su-pe-Ia, had died, 55 years old. The Article noted, that Harry Su-pe la had danced especially hard in August 1913 because his friend Colonel Theodore Roosevelt was an honored guest of the clan. Harry had initiated Roosevelt into the mysteries of the washing of the snakes, a ceremony that precedes the public dance. Harry was the head of the snake clan at the first mesa and had posed for Carl many times. He had been Carl’s companion on many a trip through the desert. Carl wrote: “ . . . Well, good luck in the land of the Lost Ones. You were better than most white men I have knowm.”

The Old Chief Su-pe-la and his wife Sa-la-ko were Harry Su-pe-la’s parents. The old Su-pe-la died on a 4th of July when most of the young Indians were away for celebration. Harry came to Borg and said: “Old man dead, going to bury him today. No missionary, all to celebration. Old w'oman want to give him Christian service.” Harry asked Carl to do the service. Sa-la-ko was a Christian, but not Su-pe-la. Carl made the service both as for Indians as for Christians and Sa-la-ko was satisfied.

Carl had many interests in his life and for this he had to be grateful for his maternal grandmother, Pastor A. Magnus Nilman and his wife Maria.

His grandmother taught him his alphabet and interested him in books and especially their beautiful pictures.

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When El Paseo de la Guerra, Lobero Theater, La Placita, were built the old Spanish adobes on the Plaza, many artists had studios there.

Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Harmer lived in the old pink adobe in whose garden Mission fathers long before had planted pear and other fruit trees. This was the old Lugo-Yorba-Abadie adobe.

There is a large oil painting in the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, painted by Carl and donated to the Museum by Mr. Reginald Vaughan, Carl’s old friend. This painting has attracted much attention. The artist caught the luminous light of the Navajo Country with the far horizons. The painting has the title of “Navajo Indians in Navajo Country.”

Carl was represented in a portfolio of Western Artists, produced by C. 0. Middleton, who had a home in Santa Barbara. Among the artists fea tured were Charles Russell, John M. Gamble, Clarence Mattel, Colin Campbell Cooper, Ed Borein, Jack Wilkinson Smith, Clyde Forsythe. Borg’s painting was entitled “Land of Mystic Shadows, Grand Canyon.” Under the painting was written: “Carl Oscar Borg is at home among grand forms and vast dis tances, seeking the untamed in Nature and people. His search has led him far into Arizona desert, land of lone riders and red buttes, painting the luminous pictures of western life and landscapes that have brought him worldwide fame.” near

Carl taught art in the Santa Barbara School of the Arts in one of the buildings in the old Presidio. His friend, Edward Borein, taught etching there when the late Frank Morley Fletcher, Edinburgh, Scotland, came as head of the school. Charles Russell, a summer resident from Great Falls, Montana, had an exhibition of his paintings in one of the old Royal Presidio adobes about a year before it was destroyed, in the 1925 earthquake. Russell was a friend of Carl’s and of Frank B. Linderman of Helena, Montana, who wrote in Carl’s guest book: March 10, 1923. Dear BorD’ may your moccasins make tracks in 100 snows.”

The School of the Arts, now sometimes referred to as Alhecama Thea ter, had an important place in Santa Barbara in its time—there was a well known faculty of the Art, Music and Drama Branch. At about the same time there was an informal Art Discussion group, which met every month for an evening dinner meeting. The meetings w'ere held in the newly built El Paseo Restaurante. Carl w'as a member and the group was quite interna tional in its scope, for most of the members had studied art abroad. The talk was mostly about art but it always ended up by fabulous story telling with nearly everyone having an hilarious story to tell.

Carl, since a little boy, had always loved to read. He not only collected books for their value as first editions or parts of his collection of Americana or as items of trade, but he read them. He was an omnivorous reader with tastes ranging from philosophy to cowboy stories. Mostly he read about art, religion, ancient history and philosophy. He could and would talk for hours on these subjects. He was fascinated by religion, especially the more esoteric religions, but never a member of any sect or church. He was interested in cults but more as a scientific observer of comparative religion than anything else, for he always stayed on the outside, not a joiner. He had been initiated by the Hopis into their kiva, which was as close as he ever came to joining an orthodox religion—the Hopi being closest to what he wanted in a religion.

In his book, “The Great Southwest” he wrote a poem “Navajos at the Pacific Ocean:”

14

1

uapaM$ 'pu«|S|eo i9ij4ouipueJ9 pio uy

“In worlclless wonder we stand Before you, Mother of Waters; In silence we have waited this hour To stand before you, Giver of Life, Mother of Waters, Greetings to you from Thy children of the Painted Sands.

Gifts we bring thee.

Turquoise, the sacred meal.

Prayers said in lonely places, Give us abundance from your depths, Mother of Waters, Giver of Life.

May the tokens from your shore.

The Medicine of sacred shells, Give water to the dry places and cool the burning sands We pray—we that have seen your face and your blue-green wonder And heard llie songs of your moving tides.

We go home to the desert, To the starlit nights, To the rosy dawn, to the golden-red cliffs, To the scented sage, to the vibrant air And the endless sands.

Where smoke from the hogans Speak to the sky.

And the song of the Navajos Floats on the wings of the night; And there in the sacred councils We will speak of your unmeasured depths— Mother of Waters—Giver of Life.”

In 1918, when Carl was leaching art classes in San Francisco for a time between trips to the desert he married one of his pupils, Madeline Carriel, a marriage that did not last long because of a disparity of age and interc'ts.

Carl had always wanted a house in Santa Barbara and in January he pur chased the site for the building. He had just returned from Arizona and had been making his headquarters at Mrs. Hearst’s hacienda at Pleasanton. He drew up the designs for the house himself and had it constructed of hollow concrete—that is, two concrete walls lied together with galvanised iron wires, with a hollow space between them.

Charles W. Northrop built Carl’s house on the Mesa next door to his friend Albert Falvy, an antique dealer, who had moved from San Francisco.

They had known each other in the northern city.

Mrs. Hearst wrote Carl a seventeen-page letter, telling him how pleased she was with the house he was building, and asked him about what he needed in furniture, beddings, rugs, linens and other necessaries. She was as always the “little Mother” for him. The house was hnished in August. From Loma Alta Drive, a sweep of broad flagstone steps rose between the square posts of a 16

concrete wall. From there, a walk led between the flowers and shrubs and stately royal palms to the house itself. The great planked and studded front door was set in a recess between two Egyptian columns, and over the door, in an arch, a Della Robbia Madonna smiled down. There was an old Spanish knocker on the door and an antique Spanish grille through it.

Inside, the house was lilled with paintings, French and Spanish illumi nated manuscripts on parchment and vellum, pewter, etchings, engravings and prints, including some Rembrandts, Goyas and Diirers. There w’ere scarabs and Egyptian amulets, strands of glass beads from Egyptian tombs, coins and signets, medieval crucifixes, chests and cabinets, armor, lacquer and Chinese embroidery, I'here were rings, Ancient and Indian, old carved tables and chairs, old silver and china, wooden grilles, tiles, photographs and textiles.

Steps led to the little gallery above, where Borg kept his anthropological col lection.

Carl’s house on the mesa was the fulfillment of one of his dearest and most treasured dreams. Me had collected about him all of the things, the kind of objects, he wanted and which he thought were worthwhile. As far as his collections and books w'ere concerned, it was to be the first time in his life that he was to have them all around him. He had the sensitive appreciation of things of beauty, whether antiques, pictures, poems or ideas or jewelry.

The Stutlio took up a large part of the house. He painted a great deal and sold much.

He went back to the Southwest for painting trips, and to Grand Canyon.

Borg sold j)ictures to the Santa Fe Railroad and part of the payment consisted of free accommodations at El Tovar.

Borg rarely spoke about art, but when he did, he expressed his admiration for Rembrandt and the early Dutch painters, for Zorn, Diirer and most of all for Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo always held a special place in Borg’s pantheon—and it was an exceedingly small pantheon—of great men. One of the things he admired most about Leonardo was the universality of his genius, the fact that he could do anything, w'bether it be painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, mechanics, science or music. In his own way, Carl could do almost anything and was proud of his varied abilities. He enlarged the scope of his own art during this period and did several woodcuts with great suc cess. They received acclaim in the American Magazine of Art. In May of 1919, Borg had a show of Indian paintings at Exhibition Park, in Los Angeles, w’hich was very well received by the critics. Two months later he had an exhibition at the Fine Art Building in San Diego, after which the critics proudly hailed him as one of the greatest of the California artists. It is remarkable that Borg, who had had practically no education when he left Sweden, never rested in his thirst for knowledge.

Mrs. Gibson came to visit at the house on the Mesa, and with her she brought John Collier, later to become Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Department of the Interior. On that occasion Carl read some of his own Indian poems to the group and later sent Collier one of his drypoints. Two years later. Collier wrote to Carl: “The recollection of the time spent in your studio has been very vivid and always will remain so—it was my first con vincing contact with that Indian spirit which since has come to mean more than anything else in life.” He asked Borg to accompany him to the Indian country “for a visit at least, so you can speak with fresh authority about pres17

ent conditions and needs, We do not know that Borg ever took that trip with Collier.

At home, the relations between Carl and Madeline had become more strained. Madeleine did not like Santa Barbara, she was tired of the little town, she was used to San Francisco and Los Angeles, where her friends were living. They therefore left Santa Barbara in 1934 for Los Angeles. Borg bought a house on North Hobart Boulevard. In the garden, in back of the main house, he built a studio, a large, fine, high-ceilinged, skylighted structure.

He opened a school in Los Angeles and began to teach again. He held classes both in outdoor painting and in his studio. Among his students was an art director from one of the Hollywood studios. This man wanted Borg to come to work in Holywood, but Borg refused. He wanted to show some of Carl’s paintings to Douglas Fairbanks, who, at that time, was starting re search for his picture, “The Black Pirate” and had been searching for an art director. Finally, Borg agreed. Fairbanks saw the paintings and knew at once that he had found his man. He asked Borg to be the art director for "The Black Pirate,” and Fairbanks, a man of great charm, energy and per suasiveness, won him over. Borg had a great love for research into historical material, customs and architectural details. He knew historical styles in fur nishings and furniture, and he had the ability for easy and rapid visuaUzaThe Two tion of ideas. He worked in “The Gaucho,” The Iron Mask, Lovers The Flower of Spain, “The VikinO’” “The Winning of Barbara Worth.” and many others and for other companies, too.

The film work took all of Borg’s time, so he could not paint. After four years, he gave up Hollywood. Borg had enjoyed working with Fairbanks, but now he had left for England. Borg considered Fairbanks not only a man with a deep and fine feeling for art, but a great artist.

Carl was deeply disturbed by the way the critics w'ere being carried away by the craze for modernism. He writes: “1 try to be liberal and openminded, but when one sees things that look like they were made by infants get ])rizes and notices one cannot help but feel the uselessness of the ‘art game’. Looking at some of the so-called modern work from every standpoint, one one is absolutely overwhelmed by the absolute bad taste that prevails. Not redeeming feature. The w'orse a thing is made, the surer it is of recognition . . . the public should be the judges, not the juries. The juries feel ‘the public be damned’.” Everett C. Maxwell put Carl’s work on the opposite pole from that of modern art. Maxwell, in an article in Progressive Arizona, December 1931, noted: A same mental attitude coupled with a profound poetic vision is readable on the surface of any canvas he produces.”

In May, 1934, Carl left for Gothenburg, Sweden. He was met at the dock of that city by Maria Nilman. Her husband was dead. He had during all the years been in correspondence with Carl and had given him good ad vice. For Maria Nilman Carl had maintained a filial devotion that W'as to last until she, too, passed away in 19-16.

In September, Carl was back in New York again after having had a wonderful time in Sweden, travelling all around and seeing the beautiful Sw'edish eclisti landscape in m a■ new ■ light and he was greatly impressed by what he saw’. He always had had with him his little portfolio and his tiny paint box, sketching everything worthw'hile he saw. He had visited all historical places within his reach.

18

The Goat Herd

His (IrypoiiU show at the Smithsonian in November was well-received.

Leila Machlin wrote, in the Washin^ton Sunday Star: “From first to last this collection is fine ... His work shows command of medium and knowledge of the fundamentals, what is more it is modern in spirit without casting away the best of tradition. It is strong, interesting in pattern, vital, but not extra vagant or self-assertive.”

Carl often visited Santa Barbara, mostly staying with the Vaughans. He wrote in his diary: “There is something about all places in Santa Barbara that is different from most places I have known. Everything still has the ‘dolce far niente’ of old California—I mean Spanish California, of course.

We had a luncheon engagement with Margaret and Katherine Burke. Ed had been invited, too, so it was a jolly party at El Paseo, and it was late in the afternoon before it broke up . . . We had dinner at the house and after that Lucia Vaughan, Sam’s wife, read aloud to us from some of Longfellow'’s poems, “Skeleton in Armour”, and some Norse poems. She reads very well and with feeling, and has a remarkably rich voice, slow and unhurried.”

On April 11, 1936, he had an exhibition at the Biltmore Salon. Many people came in and among them Carl’s old friend, William Wendt, with whom he had in former days been on sketching tours. Carl had learned much in painting from Wendt. In spite of the difference in age, they always were good friends and liked to see each other. Arthur Millier came to the show and after wrote in Los Angeles Times: “There is something about Carl Oscar Borg that evokes the well-worn cliche: ‘sound as a nut’. His personality is rounded, and contains a solid and full-flavored kernel. He’s a good painter, and I mean ‘good’ in the way painters say it of other painters they respect ... the question is—can he paint? Borg can and does. For the proof, visit the 19

Biltmore Salon where, until May 4, his exhibition is on view ... ‘‘Borg is good in all mediums. Who in the West has got more drama with the drypoint, who has put the tragedy of life so poignantly into the wrinkled face an old Hopi cut into wood and printed? He sticks to luminous tones in watercolors, gets a softness into monotype which direct painting cannot give . .

Carl came back from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara in 1935 to live, after having definitely left Madeline; he rented his former house from Falvy, who previously, had bought it from Carl.

Carl wrote: “This afternoon I found a book that had been sent to me

by Irvin S. Cobb, “Back Home.” It was inscribed as follows: “This one of the lirst ten copies printed of the first edition of this I)ook goes with cordial regards to my friend, Carl Oscar Borg, from his friend, Irvin S. Cobb. Au gust 4, 1935.”

In the beginning of 1936 Borg writes: “At seven in the evening twentyfive of the local artists met in the rooms of the Rancheros Visitadores and had dinner and discussions about art. Borein. the McLennans, the Coopers, the Ottes, and others. I had with me some of my Swedish sketches, Mrs. McLennan also brought some of hers. After I had explained a little about Sweden and conditions there, we had stories by everybody.”

Borg had made up his mind to go to Sweden again and was preparing for that. Before he left, “The Great Southwest”, a collection of Borg’s drypoints, with a handful of his poems, was pul)lished. The second book was “Cross, Sword and Gold Pan”, a collection of covers Borg had done for the magazine ^‘Touring Topics”. There were included interpretive essays by Herbert E. Bolton, a noted historian, a ballad by John R. McCarthy, and a center page spread by Millard Sheets. These pictures are the only ones that we know of that are frankly “illustrations”.

The “Great Southwest” includes thirty-eight drypoints, of which eleven are figures primarily, six are portraits, and the vemaineder landscapes. There are eight poems, six of which correspond in the title to the prints on the pages they face. The prints have a consistently high level. In them, Borg put all his love and feeling for the country and the people. The etchings are tight, dramatic, drawn with great care and sureness of draughtsmanship.

The reception given “The Great Southwest” by the critics was enthusistic. It was called “ . . . a worthwhile book . . .” by one reviewer and “ .. . an important addition to Southwest history as well as a revelation of Borg’s art . . . ” by another. The critic for the Times wrote: Borg’s “The Great Southwest” is a splendid presentation of the work this great painter and etcher has done in and for the southwest, accompanied by poems in which Borg pays tribute to the Indians and their land. The Drypoint etchings have a power comparable to that achieved in woodblocks . . . a beautiful book.”

Borg had a show at the Grand Central Galleries in New York on his way to Sweden in 1936 to visit his father and to see old friends. On the train to New York he read the review of the critic of this show. “Neither good nor bad” he wrote in his diary. “Could have been worse”.

When he left for Sweden he had an exhibition of drypoints at the Vose Galleries, in Boston. There the critics received him enthusiastically. As usual Borg did not mention his successes in his diaries In Grinstad. he went to see his father. After dinner the old man got 20

Gamblers

out his accordian and played all the old melodies. “The summer evening was wonderful. 1 sat in the pale night until near one o’clock. It was light as day.”

When Carl returned to Gothenburg from Grinstad he had an exhibition of his paintings and etchings, which brought a large crowd of spectators, among them Miss Lilly Lindstrand.* Carl wrote in his diary: “This afternoon Inez Byland came iip with a friend of hers, Miss Lilly Lindstrand, who bought two etchings. Seems very intelligent, and I thought an interesting person, at least she knew what she wanted, and did not take long to decide.” They were introduced by a friend and in the fall 1938 they were married in the Swedish Church in Copenhagen. Before that he had to go over to the USA to straighten out his business there. It took longer time than he expected because, when he came to New York, he was asked to paint two pictures 45 X 60 for the Santa Fe Railw'ay, which he did. In Los Angeles, Cecil B. de Mille again offered Borg a good position. He decided to go back to Hollywood for a month. When he was through, Borg’s sight was in a bad shape. He had to spend a w-eek in a dark room to rest his eyes. One day a package was delivered to the door. As soon as it was accepted, the person who brought it disappeared. The package was brought in to Borg, w'ho opened it and found that it contained a piece of Hopi jewelry, a pair of eyes fashioned out of silver. Borg recognized the object as a Hopi charm intended to aid and hasten the recovery of his eyes. He never found out the identity of the solicitous individual who had sent it, although he kept the amulet for the rest of his life. ●Now Lilly Borg Elmberg, 1723 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara.

21

In June, 1938, Carl again left for Sweden. He belonged to the National Academy of Design and later he received a distinguished honor, the Linne Medal, presented to him by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

In October. 1938, Carl and Lilly were married. Carl had before that gone to Grinstad to stay with his father, who was very sick. Soon he died.

After the death of his father Carl for solace turned to Nature, for which he had always had a passionate love. “Daisies and cornflowers are the most beautiful flowers I know. I have seen most of the vegetable kingdom’s splendor, the blue lotus-flowers on the Nile and many others, but my youth’s red clover fields with daisies and the rye fields with cornflower are the sweetest I have ever seen. I admire these simple flowers just as much as I admire sirnplicity in human beings.’”

In Svv(!(l(!n, Carl and Lilly had the family life Carl always had wanted, and they were very happy together, but he haled the cold and rainy weather in Sweden. In the Spring of 1910 Carl made uj) his mind to get out of Europe before it was too late. They sold their house and on tlie morning of May 8 went to the American Consulate to get their passports. On that morning, the German army occupied Denmark and Norway. Unable to leave, and having sold their house, they were forced to take one of the largest flats in tlieir apartment house in johannesberg, Gothenburg. A smaller apartment under their flat Carl look as his studio.

Carl had an exhibition in 1939 in Stockholm. Among critics Dr. Magnus Wester writes: “Borg e.xhibits oils, water colors and prints, all so welldeveloped that it is difficult to decide which form of art the exhibitor masters best . . . Borg’s watercolors show how rich in scale is his use of colors. He can i)aint in a softly jmelic maner as when he depicts a group of wild horses against a lead-heavy sky in the Nevada desert — and can get the sun to shine with exccjifional force over the centuries-old housetops of Mishigonovi . . . ” On September 12, 1945, Carl with Lilly left Sweden for America for the last time. It was the final, the ultimate, departure from his native land — he was never to return to Sweden again. They arrived in Portland, Maine, on a freighter after a violent and stormy passage. When they finally came to New York, it was ini|)osil>le to find a room: but Carl’s club, Salmagandi Clul). foutui a Iiotel room. They stayed in New York for a week and then left for Santa Barbara to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Reginald Vaughan.

Carl bought a house at 226 East Padre Street. From there he wrote a letter to his old friend Dr. C. H. Cresmer: “ . . . Many honors have come to me in late years, I)ut the greatest of all is to be back in California and to find that my friends have not forgotten me . . . ” By coincidence, the house at East Padre Street was purchased from George McGuire, who had taken Carl on seal-hunting trips in 1907-1908.

McGuire, now well over 90 years old, w-as as sharj) and vigorous as ever.

By the spring 1916 Carl was painting again. He had recovered his health after a heart attack and was in fine form. Later he was struck by a car as he stepped off a traffic island on State Street. In November of that year, lie had a bad attack of pleurisy. He was saddened again when on the last day of December, 1946, he had word that his old friend, William Wendt, had died at Laguna Beach. Borg had known him since 1905. His paintings had been in many exhibitions in Santa Barbara. They had been on many sketehing trips together.

22

Stanley Lawson, American Consul in Copenliagen, and his wife Inga came here to visit the Borgs, their old friends from their times in Gothenburg.

The four planned a trip to San Francisco for a few days, to leave at night on May 6. The day before, Carl had decided not to go. Every one he knew there he said, w'as dead. Lilly wanted to stay with him, but Carl wanted her to go. “You will never have such good company—when you return I will show you Grand Canyon, my country.

On May 8 as the Lawson’s and Lilly were getting on the train in San Francisco to return to Santa Barbara, Carl Oscar Borg had died of a heart attack. He had written in 1918: “When the battle is won.

When the body is dead, Pray take me out to the hills, Give my ashes99to the wind, And the dust.

And it was done. He came to Grand Canyon, his country, once more.

Editor's Note: Several books have been written about Borg and his work. One, ‘‘The Great Southwest Etchings”, publisiied in 1936, contains, besides some three dozen reproductions of his etchings and woodcuts, most of his poems. A second and much fuller book, “Carl Oscar Borg”, was published in Sweden in 1953. This carefully done book contains some 235 pages of pictures (two in full color), poems, and the story of Mr. Borg’s life. This one is a handsome volume.

Other honors that came to Mr. Borg were many: His pictures were hung in galleries in the cities of Europe from Paris and London to St. Petersburg, and in the United States from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco. He received many awards and prizes, among which were eight medals—a gold medal at the Panama.California Inter national Exposition in San Diego, 1916; The Linne Medal in 1945 from the Royal Swedish Academy of Science; and so on.

RESOLUTION UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED AT REGULAR MEETING OF THE MUNICIPAL ART COMMISSION HELD WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1947 Whereas, the Municipal Art Commission of the City of Los Angeles has learned, with sincere sorrow, of the passing of CARL OSCAR BORG internationally famous artist, native of Sweden and for many years a resident of Southern California; and Whereas, Mr. Borg was especially noted for liis studies of the desert and of Indian subjects, having sketched in Central and South America, Spain, Morocco, Valley of the Nile, and Italy, as well as in the United Slates; and Whereas. Mr. Borg has won high honors for the excellence of his works, which are represented in many public and private collections both here and abroad, and remain as a monument to his life; and Whereas, his passing is a distinct loss to Southern California as well as to the world at large; Therefore be it resolved: That the Municipal Art Commission, in regular session assembled, does hereby order that this resolution he inscribed across its Minutes and copy forwarded to Mrs. Borg, with expressions of deep sympathy.

Hakold W. Tutti.f., President

Director's Report Santa Barbara’s leadership and influence in historic preservation in the State is becoming more and more in evidence. On March 29, 1965, a dele gation from San Juan Capistrano, interested in creating a historic area of 200 acres surrounding their Old Mission, attended a conference arranged by the Santa Barbara Historical Society to discuss El Pueblo Viejo historic area and its ordinance. On their return to Capistrano, the group decided that a larger group should hear about Santa Barbara’s success in preser vation. They arranged a luncheon conference and discussion on May 19th, held at the Adobe Restaurant in San Juan Capistrano.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bliss Nelson, he a member of the Santa Barbara Architectural Board of Review and Advisory Landmark Committee, Mrs. Gledhill and I drove south to this luncheon expecting a small attendance.

To our surprise, we discovered a large group of interested people. We were informed that the people there comprised the majority of Orange County owners and developers of the county’s thousands of acres of undeveloped land. The Mayor, City Council, County Planning, Bank officials, together with Ted Parker of the First American Title Company of Santa Ana ar ranged the meeting. Mr. Nelson and I talked before this interested group about the j)Ossihilities of the City and County Enabling Acts, enacted by the State, which had made El Pueblo Viejo Ordinance a reality, and pointed to their value as an architectural control in an unique urban redevelopment, using private ownership and capital instead of Federal funds. We outlined the workings of the Santa Barbara Architectural Board of Review and Ad visory Landmark Committee in relation to El Pueblo Viejo.

Early in the month of April, acting as regional vice president of area 13 of the Conference of California Historical Societies, I had written Senator Weingand of the grave danger that existed to the site of the Santa Barbara 24

Presidio Chapel. In this crisis, I asked him to use his influence with the Division of Beaches and Parks to have the site bought by them for $145,000 from funds of the State bond issue, reminding him that this site w'as the beginning of Santa Barbara’s history as a community, and that presidios were as important in California’s history as the missions. This site, I under stand, has just been sold to Mr. Nixon, a native of Australia.

However, the State has under consideration the purchase of this site and a later restoration of the chapel. Father Maynard Geiger has stated that before 1808 most of the important Spanish families of the Presidio were, and still are, buried beneath the site of the chapel and nearby cemetery. The following are 21 names from a list of 88 Spanish persons w'ho were buried in the Chapel or cemetery of the Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara: Donna Antonia Carrillo de Ortega, widow of Capt. Francisco Ortega, buried May 8, 1803: Don Gabriel Morega, June 15, 1823; Victoriano Feliz, July 4, 1783; Maria Antonia Campos, ancestor of the Branch family, January 26, 1791; Efigenio Ruiz, June 13, 1795; Dona Rosa de Lugo, wife of Don Pablo Cota, January 10, 1797; Jose Gregorio Romero, August 19, 1797; Don Pablo Cota, widower of Dona Rosa de Lugo, December 31, 1800; Francisco Lugo, father of Tomasa Lugo who married Raymundo Carrillo, May 27, 1805; Don Domingo Carrillo, who built the Covarrubias adobe, March, 1837; Jose Ayala, July 23, 1839; Maria Antonia Carrillo, wife of Luis Burton, October 25, 1843; Joaquin de la Guerra, June 26, 1844; Jose Frederico Den, son of Guillermo Den and Josefa Carrillo, October 8, 1844'; Jose Antonio Ortega, January 29, 1845; Benjamin Jones, son of John Jones and Manuela Carrillo, August 27, 1845; Alberto Den, son of Guillermo Den and Josefa Carrillo, November 15, 1845: Michaela Ortega, January 31, 1846.

A similar situation exists as a threat to the Hunt-Stambach home owned by the Assistance League. Needing more room for their organization, they wish to sell this historic house, and have offered it through the Historical Society, to an organization or dedicated person who will permanently preserve the landmark, for $35,000 to be paid over a period of fifteen years. Although to many the preservation of the site of the Presidio Chapel and the HuntStambach home is of little consequence, I personally believe that their de struction would be a loss of prestige to the State and to Santa Barbara as a leader in historic preservation. A city that allow's the very core of its ex istence to be destroyed certainly invites an uncertain future.

Two years ago, your Museum Director was asked by Father Aubrey J. O’Reilly of the Ventura Mission to talk before a group of city officials and planners of Ventura about the creation and beautifying of a historical area that would surround the Mission, and make this old part of town more at tractive to visitors. The city planners were not interested at that time. Now, a project is being planned to include a civic center near the Mission, in which all buildings will be of Spanish Colonial architecture. A new home for the Ventura Pioneer Historical Society will be part of the plan for this his toric area.

The Santa Barbara Historical Society is fortunate to have Mr. and Mrs. Russell Ruiz as active members, researching Presidio records and making drawings and paintings of the Presidio. By this work, Mr. Ruiz has brought 25

to life a realization of the value of the Presidio Chapel to Santa Barbara and the Stale. Mr. Ruiz has dedicated his life to research of the Spanish and Mexican period in California history, and to the genealogy of its people.

The Society wishes to express our appreciation to the National Charity League for their once-a-week volunteer staffing of the Museum exhibition rooms, and for a recent gift of a 1924- moonlight painting of the Ortega adobe on Sheffield Drive by Charles Rollo Peters, a noted San Francisco artist.

Some recent gifts of note include Mrs. Edgar Adams’ donation of a Spanish California belt of great beauty w'hich belonged to the Ortega family of Arroyo Honda. The belt was given to Mr. Adams by Mr. Ortega. Also, Mr. Walter G. Cordero’s gift of a pair of iron gates of fine craftsmanship for a special library room.

The followin n roups were among those which have been personally conducted through the Museum: Cathedral Oaks School, Room 27; Girl Scouts Troop 323; students from Mount Carmel School; Brownie Troop -153; Pioneer Girls from Calvary Baptist Church; Foothill Elementary School, Room 9; Goleta Union School, -llh grade; Browmie Troop 241; students from Devereux School; and fifteen different Cub Scout dens.

Activity . Report - Women's Projects Board Members of the Women’s Projects Board have been busy during the past Spring months, making plans for their sixth annual Casa Tour which will be held on Sunday, August 1, from 1 to 5 p.m. This year’s tour will revolve around the few historical adobes remaining in Santa Barbara, all located near, or within the confines of the Pueblo Viejo area—the site of the Royal Presidio founded by Sjjanish colonists in April, 1782.

Designed as a “walking tour,” with nearby parking for visitors, it will include the newly-opened Santa Barbara Historical Museum at 136 East De la Guerra Street; also the Covarrubias and Historic Adobes, adjacent to the Museum — both recent acquisitions of the Santa Barbara Historical Society —the former built in 1817, the latter about 1825. As the Historic Adobe is still in use by Los Rancheros Visiladores for their offices, it will not be open for public inspection, but visitors can enjoy the charming exterior.

A s|)ecial exhibit of early Spanish wearing apparel is to be shown in the Covarrubias Adobe. Refreshments will be served in the garden where strolling musicians will entertain with melodies from Old Mexico, under the direction of Mrs. Dale Hernlund.

Also to be opened for visitors is El Presidio Adobe, better known as El Cuartel (A Guard’s House), which was built about 1788 under the super vision of Commandante Goycoechea (1784-1802). Because of its historic value, a committee of public spirited citizens was formed in 1940, to preserve El Cuartel. Through their efforts its purchase by the Santa Barbara Mission Council. Boy Scouts of America was effected in November of that year. In 1964 El Cuartel w'as purchased by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, formed in January, 1963, for the purpose of preserving it and offering it to the State of California as a nucleus for the proposed restoration of the Royal Presidio as a State Monument.

An exhibit of early manuscripts, maps of the Presidio and other in26

formative materials is being arranged by this organization for special display in El Presidio Adobe during the tour, under the direction of Miss Pearl Chase, chairman of Plans and Planting Committee. Hosts and hostesses will be Mr. and Mrs. Isaac A. Bonilla, Mr. and Mrs. Russell Ruiz, and Mrs. Melville Sayhun, descendants of many of the founding colonists of Santa Barbara.

Two jirivately owned homes are also on the tour, one an original adobe, the other a reconstruction upon the foundations of the former casa.

The Rochin-Birabent Adobe, 820 Santa Barbara Street, is now lived in

by Mr. and Mrs. Robert V. Phelan; he was, during the early years of motion j)icture making, connected with the old “Flying A Studios” in this city. Mrs. i^helan is the former Leontine Birabent, a descendant of Jose Maria Rochin and his wife Lorenza Ordaz de Rochin, who built the adobe in 1856. This adobe was erected on the first piece of land to be sold within the walls of the presidio. Mr. and Mrs. Phelan will be present to welcome visitors, and to tell about the interesting family heirlooms, and his collection of Indian artifacts.

The second home is that of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer H. Whittaker. Located at 123 E. Canon Perdido Street, opposite El Presidio Adobe (El Cuartel), it too had been at one time, a part of the Presidio quadrangle which was constructed in 1788. It had i)een one of 18 soldiers’ family-houses, each measuring 15 x 24 feet, which had flanked the Chapel on its w'est side. Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker and other members of their family will be at the door to welcome visitors and escort them into their old-w^orld garden.

Mrs. John H. Locklin, general chairman of the Casa Tour, has selected her committee chairmen. These are: Mmes. Gene Harris and Lloyd Wheeler, co-chairmen; Howard G. Smith, tickets; Milo Maier and James Smith, refreshments; Stephan White, Timothy McMahon and Edward 'roj>oreck, press; John C. Vesey and Francis Manchester, radio, television: Wilson Forbes, public relations; James T. Lindsey and Edward Toporeck, historical research; George H. Finley, posters; Vincent H. Grocott, mailing, cards; Hamilton Greenough, flowers; Leo McMahan and Arnott J. Nall, costumes: Edward Bouton and Eldon Haskell, hostesses for adobes: Mary M. Chrisman, treasurer.

Assisting as hostesses in the Museum and in the Covarrubias garden, will be senior and junior members of the Ticktockers, daughters of members of the Santa Barbara Chapter of the National Charitv League. Boy Scouts will aid in directing visitors to the proper addresses, and members of the Women’s Projects Board w'ill serve as hostesses at each place.

Information concerning tickets for this event may be obtained by calling the Historical Museum, ‘J66-1601; the Fernald House, 966-66.39; Mrs. John Locklin. 967-1430 or Mrs. Lloyd Wheeler, 962-2709.

Other Spring activities have included the 183rd celebration of the found ing of Santa Barbara Presidio, beginning with a special Open House on Aj)ril 18, an<l assisting as hostesses at the annual birthday dinner held in Restaurante del Paseo, April 21, sponsored by Miss Pearl Chase, Plans and Planting, and the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.

On the evening of April 29, under the direction of. Mrs. Lloyd Wheeler, Ways and Means chairman, the first soiree of the new year was given at the home of member Mrs. Paul Jones, in Montecito. Guest speakers were Dr. 27

and Mrs. Earnest C. Watson, of Monlecito, who showed colored slides of their recent tour through the countries of Southeast Asia. Mrs. Watson (Jane Warner) is a noted author, having written many of the Golden Book series. Mrs. James T. Lindsey, tea chairman, assisted by her committee served refreshments following the interesting slide lecture.

Mrs. Wheeler also arranged for the Santa Barbara Doll Club to exhibit the members’ collection of rare and unusual dolls on Thursday, June 24, from 1 to 7 p.m., at the Fernald House. Exhibitors were the Mmes. Thomas Rees, president; Willis Fruit, Leon Bartholomew, Allen Daily, James Jensen, George Pack, Raymond Haley, William Azbell, and Ruben Tysell.

Others, not members of the Doll Club who entered dolls, were Mrs. Beverly Jackson, with 18-inch English-made dolls, representing the two Royal Princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, as they were when around 9 and 7 years of age. Mrs. William Milne, with a 1920 “Kewpie” doll; also Mrs. George Finley, with a walnut doll cradle, made in 1876, for her mother.

Members of the Women’s Projects Board were assisted by Ticklockers, as hostesses for the show. Mrs. John Rathbone was co-ordinator for the girls. Mrs. James Lindsey and her committee, served refreshments to those attending.

Mrs. Jay Chilton became a member of the regular board, early in June.

Mrs. and Mrs. Chilton will assist Mr. and Mrs. Edward Bouton and Mr. and Mrs. Gene Harris, as hosts and hostesses at the Rochin Adobe during the Casa Tour.

Mrs. L. E. Woods, librarian for the W.P.B.. has catalogued all of the books in the Fernald House and the Adobe, and has initiated a loan system covering certain specified books, for members only.

Mrs. Leo McMahan has received many choice treasures as acquisitions chairman, which she has catalogued and prepared for display, assisted by Mrs. James Boyce. An old fashioned pantry is presently being readied, show ing many long-forgotten pieces of kitchen equipment which w’ere recently donated to the House. Paint, wallpaper, and linoleum for the floor are still to come, before the pantry is completed, Flowers from the gardens of new' members Mrs. Cedric Boeseke and Mrs. Eldon Haskell have been provided for the Sunday Open Houses, and have been arranged either by these ladies, or Mrs. Ralph Young, flower chairman.

Mrs. John Locklin, garden chairman, w'ith six willing members, spent a day in the garden recently, hoeing, weeding, watering, and planting a ground cover in an otherwise bare area of the grounds.

It was with deep regret that w'e learned of the death on April 10 of Mr. John Hartfeld, the landscape designer who was largely responsible for the existence of our pioneer Memorial Garden honoring the friends and associates of Judge Charles Fernald, and the Winchester family. Without his Master Plan, his research, his time and interest, we w'ould have had no gar den. When completed it wdll stand as a living memorial to him.

WiLBERTA M. Finley

28

SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS .Dr. Hilmar 0. Koefod

President First Vice President Second Vice President.

Hugh J. Weldon Mrs. Wilson Forbes Paul G. Sweetser

Secretary Treasurer Past President

Mrs. Henry Griffiths .Thomas J. McDermott

DIRECTORS Mrs. Charles H. Cannon Rev. Virgil Cordano John D. Gill Mrs. W. Edwin Gledhill Yale B. Griffith

Elmer H. Whittaker Dr. Irving N. Wills John Galvin* Thomas M. Slorke*

John Jordano, Jr. Mrs. Godwin Pelissero Edward S. Spaulding Lockwood Tower Garrett Van Horne

* Honorary Directors Museum Director Curator Editor-in-Chief

W. Edwin Gledhill Mrs. W. Edwin Gledhill Edward Selden Spaulding.

NEW MEMBERS STUDENT Miss Lynne Heaton ACTIVE Mrs. Edwin H. Bertuch Dr. Ruth Bourne Mrs. Dennie C. Cogan

Mrs. Catherine Griffin Forbes .Miss Mary Hanley Mr. and Mrs. Eldon Haskell Mrs. A. M. Kruger Mr. H. P. Van Horn Mr. and Mrs. Hubert F. Laugharn,Jr. Mr. A. Dibblee Poett

Mrs. Stephen A. White SUSTAINING Mr. and Mrs. William R. Scott PATRON Mrs. Julius Bergen

GIFTS Miss Herminia Elizalde Mrs. Edgar Adams .Mrs. William Forbes Mrs. Mary Serreil Armstrong Mrs. Wilson Forbes Mrs. Maude Armstrong Mr. Paul G. Hamilton Mrs. H. J. Bender Miss Susan Bacon Keith for Mr. 0. N, Stultz Mr. D. Gordon Bromfield Mr. Floyd D. Kenney Mrs. Gladys Budde (Mrs. Herman) Mr. Paul E. Landell Mrs. John J. Lawrence Mr. W. H. Coleman Cmdr. J. W. de Compte Mr. Walter Cordero Mr. Maurice Moore Miss Helen Cossett Mr. Anton Money Mrs. Helen Davidson Mrs. Leila Mund Mr. Lloyd Defenbaugh

Mr. H. N. Nicholson Mrs. William Otte Ramsey Reed Agency Mrs. Paul M. Rea Mr. Victor Rohrbach Mrs. Decil I. Smith Mr. and Mrs. Horace Thorne West Coast School of Professional Photography of California, Inc. (Mr. Vince Mandese) Mrs. Roy Wilcox

HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP Classes of membership: Benefactor, $100; Patron, $25; Contributing, $15; Sustaining, $10; Active, $7.50; Student, $5. Dues are tax deductible.

MAILING address: 136 E. DE LA GUERRA STREET, SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA

Non-Profit Org. QUARTERLY BULLETIN OF THE SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 136 EAST DE LA GUERRA STREET SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA

U. S. Postage PAID Santa Barbara, Calif.

Permit No. 534