75th Anniversary: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

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Quarterly Magazine Of The Santa Barbara Historical Society Vol. XXXVII, No. 4

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75TH ANNIVERSARY:

Santa Barbara Museum OF Natural History

Wincer 1991

iggz will mark the Both anniversary ofthe Santa Barbara Historical Society. In honor ofthis benchmark,the Society announces the establishment ofa major endowment campa^,the Sixtieth Anniversary Fund. Thisjund and other programs will enable the Society to continue its traditions ofhistoricalpreservation,education and community service through the iggos and into the next century.

Santa Barbara Historical Society both Anniversary Fund Donors as ofNovember iggi Mr.&Mrs.B. Cedric Boesek^ Mr.CrMrs.Qordon Fish Mr.CrMrs. Calvin Qoodrich The Mericos Foundation Mr.David F. Myrick Mr.OrMrs.Paul Pjdlery-Tree Mr.GrMrs. QilhertM. W.Smith

All photos arefrom the collection ofthe Santa Barbara Museum ofNatural History unless otherwise noted.

Michael Redmon, Editor Judy Sutcliffe, Designer © 1991 The Santa Barbara Historical Society 136 E. De la Guerra Street, Santa Barbara, California 93101 Single copies $8.00

7^TH ANNIVERSARY:

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural TORY

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Richard Oglesb Professor ofHistory at the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara, Pickard Oglesby ^ecializfis in the nistory ofthe American West and the history ofCalifornia. Local history interests him as well, and he is apastpresia^nt ofthe board oftrustees ofthe Santa Barbara Trustfor Historic Preservation and was thefirst sher ofthe Santa Barbara Corral ofthe Westerners.

Preface

k is fleeing chae on ehe occasion of ies 75eh anniversary, ehe seory of ehis region’s longese-eseablished museum be cold. I was very pleased chae Dr. Richard Oglesby accepced my invieaeion eo pre pare ehae hiseory. Having had scieneific eraining, I ehoughe I would feel mose comforeable wieh faces and figures, expeceing a hiseory eo be full of names, evenes, daees. and endless deeail. Inseead, Richard Oglesby breaehes life ineo ehe characeers who bulk ehe Sanca Barbara Museum of Nacural Hiseory—who were ehe Museum of Nacural Hiseory.

The auchor has also chosen eo anchor his recouncing of ehe developmenc of ehe museum by using ies direccors. While chere are some incereseing characeers in ehis loc, any direccor will cell you chae eheir success depends heavily on ehe capabilicies and dedicacion of eheir scaff. k is eheir accomplishmencs chae are the real success story of the museum. We also depend in a major way on the support of

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the trustees of out governing boards, especially the president’s, and the key players on our development committees (read, "fundraising”). In my term of 19 years I have had the pleasure of working with a number of capable presidents, including T. Preston Webster (1969-1974), J. Raymond Kiedtng(1974-1975), Arent H. Schuyler (1975-1979 and 1988-1989), F. Brian Rapp (1979-1988), John B. Hundley(1989-1990), and Arthur W. Carlson (1990-present).

This history comes at a special time, for in our 75th year we also have a number of accomplishments to boast about. We have just completed the Collec tions and Research Center, 21,300 square feet of climate-controlled collection space and modern research laboratories. It is amazing to compare this with the outdoor work table on which David Banks Rogers conducted his anthropological studies in the 1920s. We have also just opened phase I of Cartwright Hall, our new exhibits on interactions of insects and plants of the Santa Barbara region.

How delightful to compare the concerns about waxes and latex of Egmont Rett’s eta with an exhibit hall project today that uses video microscopes a usercontrolled video camera coupled to a computerized database, and ant colonies, termites, bees, tarantulas and other live animals as part of the dioramas. How quaint seems Irma Cooke’s first classes under the oaks, compared to the large staff, active docents, classes, programs, and variety of events and services de signed to "promote science literacy.” Also, today we would not escape criticism if we had the Boys Natural Science Club of Nelson Baker and Waldo Abbott’s time—some of out best naturalists are female.

I came away from reading Richard’s manuscript wishing I had known Max are carFleischmann, Arthur Coggeshall, and the others. I hope they know we tying their flag high, with respect, with admiration, and with gratitude. Of course^. few would come to know the history of our museum of natural history without that other fine institution, the one that keeps our history alive—the Santa Barbara Historical Society.

Dennis M.Poioer Executive Director Santa Barbara Museum ofNatural History

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Tucked beyond the Old Mission in its own private corner o:: jVIission Canyon stands the Santa .Barbara Museum of Natural History, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the country. Each year tens of thousands of visitors and thousands of school students pass through its gates to marvel at the wonders of the natural world. Over its 75 years of continuing achievement, the museum has remained dedicated to its three guiding principles of research, education and public service. During this period the museum was nurtured by a dedicated, talented staff, countless volunteers and tremendous community support. The museum can look back

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over three-quarters of a century of accomplishment, feel confident in a present alive with oppor /"4 tunity and look forward to 4 a future filled with stimu

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lation and challenge.

The museum came into >● being at a time when ^ science was beginning to organize itself along modern lines. The scientific advances and discoveries of the 19th century had revolutionized the human

In the early 18905, the museum ofthe Santa Barbara Natural History Society was located at 1226 State Street. Photo: Santa Barbara Historical Society

world view. At the begin ning of the 20th century, humans, with typical modesty, assumed themselves the pinnacle of the evolutionary pyramid and tended to look upon the past as a great struggle to reach the enlightenment of the present. With an optimism that always marked Americans, our scientists were busy ordering their disci plines and creating sub-disciplines for mote detailed study, confident that finally the darkness of ignorance was being cast off, and that we could ultimately un derstand the universe and our place in it. Physics, chemistry, biology, anthro pology, geology and the rest were undergoing this transition, one in which the general public had a great interest.

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Henry Chapman Fore Lorenzo Yales

William Dawson

JodFiihian Clinton B. Hale William N. Campbell Edward P.

Rpley Qeorge S. Edwards

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In Santa Barbara, an affluent, educated and articulate population not only kept up with such developments, but participated in them in numerous ways.

For example, the Santa Barbara Society of Natural History, a large group of professional and amateur students of nature, maintained its own museum for more than 25 years in the last part of the 19th century and early 20th century.

Among those active in the society was the painter, Henry Chapman Ford, and naturalist, Dr. Lorenz;o Yates. Though their organization had become dormant, the precedent had been set for public involvement in scientific study at the local level and the ground laid for a more formal, professional, scientific organization.

The catalyst which focussed the forces and people which ultimately created the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History was William Leon Dawson, a scholarly ex-preacher from Ohio. Born in Iowa and educated at Washington University, St. Louis, and Oberlin College, Ohio, Dawson received his B.D. from the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1899 and was ordained a Congregationalist minister. He was then pastor of the Notch Church in Columbus, Ohio, for two years, all the while being drawn to his first love, the study of birds and their eggs. He published The Birds of Ohio while in Columbus and then moved on to Seattle. There he produced a two-volume work, The Birds ofWashington, in 1909, shortly before moving to Santa Barbara. He came to Southern California with a substantial reputation as an ornithologist, and with a burning desire to establish oology, the study of eggs, as a legitimate science.

Dawson was convinced chat through an intensive study of eggs, of udiich he was a compulsive and competitive collector, the secrets of life would be discov ered. Undaunted by the skepticism of orthodox science and the sneers and snick ers of some of his scientific colleagues, Dawson was determined to build the world’s best egg collection, and to create alongside it an institution to facilitate necessary study. In addition, he wanted to produce a new book, The Birds ofCali fornia, a massive undertaking which eventually was published in four volumes.

Dawson recognized the magnitude of what he envisioned and sought help.

So when he called upon a small group of people to meet at his home to discuss his plans, his motives were clear: establish a museum to house his egg collection and the eggs he proposed to acquire and elicit funding for the completion of The Birds of California. The motivations of those who joined in his enterprise are less clear, although all of them were actively interested in scientific inquiry and wanted Santa Barbara to be a center of such activity. In any case, at a meeting on January 3i, 1916, and one can almost see the preacher exhorting his already half-converted audience, the Museum of Comparative Oology was created. The newly elected Board of Directors contained the names of many prominent Santa Barbarans: Joel Fithian, President; Clinton B. Hale, William N. Campbell and Edward Payson Ripley, Vice Presidents; and George S. Edwards, Treasurer.

Dawson acted as Secretary to the group. Nine others filled out the board, all of whom would make lasting contributions to the organization. The museum was to be housed in two outbuildings on Dawson’s property on Puesta del Sol Road

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and he was authorized to raise $10,000, most of which would be donated by chose in attendance. Dawson optimistically felt this would cover the operating costs of the museum and cover the cost of publishing The Bints oj Califomial He plunged into his new work with enormous energy, and his writings in The Journal of Comparative Oology, which he began publishing under the aegis of the museum, fairly glows with his excitement. Although his views went well beyond the old notions of a mu- ^ ^ seum as a "safe deposit vault for curious, rare and

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beautiful things," and of a museum curator as "a keeper, not a teacher,” he still was not in accord with his Board of Direc tors regarding future di rections. Dawson could write, "Modern museum practice rests on service,” and "There is the func tion of display or enter tainment. There is the function of research or scientific contemplation.

And there is the function of instruction or explana tion all very modern ideas. At the same time he could say, "Display collections. . . are not to be thought of, unless one is prepared to sacrifice the material itself in a ' brief time,” and "An oo-

WiLUam Leon Dawson,founder ofthe Museum ofCompar-

logical museum is not the alive Oology. HismassiveThe Birds of California was place where crowds can eventually published in 1923 infour volumes. surge through and amuse themselves.” Since his was an oological museum and he was immovably opposed to expanding it to other areas, there was an inherent problem of policy for the new organization.

The board became restive regarding Dawson’s unwillingness to expand beyond oology, his inability to produce his book in reasonable time and the ever-growing expenses, which quickly exceeded the original estimate. In 1917, Rowland G. Hazard, Jr., joined the board and was named an honorary curator, a title the

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Rowland G. Hazard,jr.

Caroline Hazard

board lavished on chose of its members who cook on full-cime posicions wichouc pay. Hazard was an avid egg colleccor, and in face his colleccion surpassed Daw son’s. Perhaps chese cwo mighc have kepc che Museum of Comparacive Oology funccional, buc unforcunacely Hazard died wichin a year.

His place was caken on che board by his siscer, Dr. Caroline Hazard. Origi nally from Rhode Island, Dr. Hazard had, in a world dominaced by men, achieved a universicy educacion and advanced co che presidency of Wellesley College, Massachuseccs. She broughc co che board a commanding presence, an incimace knowledge of effeccive adminiscracion, an abiding inceresc in nacural hiscory and a desire co concribuce co che communicy. Ic was a propicious appoincmenc, and one which would permanencly affecc che museum’s course.

The dispuce beeween che board and Dawson finally came co a head in che laccer pare of 1922. Dawson asked che board for a leave of absence co work on his manuscripc, although he wished co recain active control of che museum, apparently to ensure its dedication co oology. This was unacceptable co che board, and in January 1923, Dawson submitted his resignation. The parting was not amicable, and Dawson never again had anything co do with che mu seum he had created, buc he had broughc together che elements out of which che Santa Barbara Museum of Nacural Hiscory would grow.

The museum now entered a period of rapid expansion. Perhaps anticipat ing the rupture with Dawson, Dr. Car oline Hazard had donated a piece of her estate in Mission Canyon to che board as a sice for a museum structure,

Mrs. Row land Hazard

and Mrs. Rowland Hazard then pro vided che funds co erect che first build

One ofthe early benefactors ofthe museum was Caroline rlazard, shown here seated on c the porch ofher Mission Canyon home, "Dial House,"ca. 1943. St. Anthony's Seminary is in the background. Photo:Santa Barbara HistoricalSociety.

ing of what would become che museum complex. The egg collections were moved into the new edifice, ocher interested citizens made contributions co che establishment of an endowment fund, and the new museum opened its doors in April 1923.

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The board now turned to board member Ralph Hoffmann to guide the new enterprise. It was a perceptive, if not prescient, choice. Although Hoffmann had been a local resident for less than four years, his reputation as a natural history scholar, with a particular interest in birds, his insightful contributions as a board vol unteer, and his almost charismatic person ality had impressed everyone associated with the museum. Hoffmann was a career educator, and he saw little difference be tween the functions of museums and

Ralph Hoffmann

schools. The purpose of both was to edu cate the population, only the means were different.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1870, Hoffmann developed his interest in birds at an early age. When the English poet, Matthew Arnold, passed through Stockbridge, Massachusetts, he was re ferred to ten-year-old Ralph as the local expert on birds. Hoffmann received an ex cellent education—Williston Academy and then Harvard, where he received an A.B.

The museum experienced itsfirst period ofrapid growth under the directorship of Ralph Hoffmann, 1923-1932.

degree in 1890. He plunged into a teaching career in private schools and had been headmaster of Country Day School in St. Louis immediately prior to coming to the Santa Barbara School for Boys (now Cate School) in 1920. Hearing about the fledgling museum in Mission Canyon, Hoffmann became involved on the side of those who wanted expansion of the museum concept beyond oology. His task as Honorary Director was to develop a philosophy and program for the museum, set out its goals and accomplish them as best he could. The board was nothing if not ambitious.

Another board member, Harold Gladwin, found himself as honorary curator” charged with the task of sorting, cataloging and displaying the egg collections and preparing the ocher collections the museum was gathering, particularly Hoffmann's bird specimens. Realizing that volunteer labor would not be adequate to the task, the board hired three experienced individuals to aid in the work of building the foundations of the new exhibits; Harry Sheldon, late of the U.S. Bi ological Service; Egmonc Z. Rett, a noted taxidermist and six-year veteran at the Museum of Natural History in Denver, and Albert Singer, another Colorad an, hired to construct research, storage and display cabinets. This proved an endless cask as the museum’s collections burgeoned. Not only did the work of Gladwin, Hoffmann and other volunteers swell the collections, but it appeared that almost weekly Hoffmann was deluged with gifts and loans of private col lections encompassing everything from flowers to butterflies. The new museum

Harold Gladwin Harry Sheldon Egmonc Z. Recc Albert Singer

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had certainly struck a responsive chord in the community and truly was ex panding its horizons.

The arrival of Rett and the others signalled the professionalization of the museum staff. The board, composed principally of businessmen who knew how David Banks to seize opportunity, now took a major step toward expanding and solidifying Ro^rs their institution by hiring David Banks Rogers to head a newly created Depart ment of Anthropology. The opportunity to obtain Rogers’ services, and not inci dentally take advantage of the excellent public relations accompanying him, came as a result of the completion in 1923 of an extensive archeological dig on Burton Mound, off of Santa Barbara’s West John Peabody Harrington

Beach. This excavation, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and headed by the noted John Peabody Harrington, with the assistance of Rogers, had generated much local interest concerning Santa The museum’s expansion into new re searchfields in the lozos was perhaps Barbara’s Chumash predecessors. The best exemplified by ike Department of board asked Rogers to continue that work Anthropology under the leadership of for them, and a fruitful 15-year partner David Banks Rogers. ship was sealed.

The Anthropology Department was the first in the post-1922 museum to complete a major project under the aegis of the institution. Rogers set high stan dards, and his successors have not only maintained them but added dimensions of their own.

Rogers recognized the unusual opportunities offered by the Santa Barbara re gion for the study of all phases of natural history, but particularly with refer ence to Native Americans. He became a familiar figure around the county, stalk ing construction sites, racing ahead of roadbuilders’ shovels and graders to do salvage archeology and pawing over midden sites seeking the clues that would let him begin to comprehend our predecessors. Often he was accompanied by enthu siastic local amateurs. For lack of interior space, his first office/laboratory was located outside, under the trees. With an old door mounted on two sawhorses for a table and with a tarp strung overhead for protection from the elements, Rogers sorted, cataloged, contemplated. Finally, he was given a small, windowless closet and under these less than ideal conditions emerged his classic. Prehistoric Man of the Santa Barbara Coast.

Rogers’ visibility and the quality of his work attracted several gifts of note worthy collections of Native American artifacts, of great value to Rogers’ stud ies and the museum’s general collection. Unfortunately, acceptance was often re-

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fused or ac lease held in abeyance, as the museum had no place co put them. Ap palled an Rogers’ working conditions, and the inabilicy of the museum co provide proper display space for his work, Mrs. Frederic S. Gould, in honor of her hus band, followed Caroline Hazard’s example by providing the funds for a new mu seum wing. The Gould Indian Hall was completed in 1926 and proved co be an excellent setting for the museum’s collections. Apparently, Santa Barbarans were determined chat "their” museum was going co survive and grow.

Clearly. David Rogers had co work under difficult conditions, but they were almost good compared co chose under which Egmonc Rett worked. Rett plunged into the preparation of the bird exhibits, quickly consuming the bit of space alloced co him. With hundreds of skins co prepare, and more coming in all the time, Rett simply moved his laboratory to his home. From there he produced some of the exquisite mountings that still grace the museum. A collector himself, Rett often accompanied Hoffmann in his quest for birds and spent countless hours observing all of nature’s creatures, noting their attitudes and postures so that when he mounted a specimen it was absolutely correct in every detail. Such dedication complemented the work of Rogers and others and demonstrated co ob servers chat while the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Oology

Mrs. Frederic S.

Gould

Egmonc Recc

might be a fledgling organization, its staff was growing completely professional.

Such heady chaos as the museum experienced in its first years of operation was enough co tax the talents of even the most experienced administrator. For the honorary director, who had a full-time teaching assignment outside the museum, the situation was almost untenable. Most frustrating for Hoffmann was his lack of time co do what the board had originally asked of him; develop a vi able plan for the evolution of the museum. It was clear co Hoffmann chat the museum should both entertain and educate, reach out to the public with a variety of programs and services, but it was quite another thing co create a specific plan CO accomplish these goals within the limits sec by a still-growing insicucion. The board, ac the urging of Dr. Hazard, now cook the next logical step by voting to hire a museum expert co assess the situation and advise them regarding possible directions.

The man they chose was Paul Marshall Rea. An imposing figure, both physi cally and intellectually. Rea was a former president of the American Association of Museums and was in 1924 Director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural His tory and consultant co the Carnegie Foundation’s advisory group in museum edu cation. Rea had also been in the forefront of chose trying co integrate museums with their local constituents, and chat certainly fit in with the thinking of the Board. Rea spent a week with Hoffmann in Santa Barbara and was clearly im pressed by what he saw.

After visiting with Hoffmann and assessing his obvious ability and calking co Rett and Rogers, two respected professionals so devoted to the ideals of the mu seum chat they did not complain about poor working conditions or lace paychecks, Rea could only conclude that the museum was destined co become a suc-

Paul Marshall Rea

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cess. He suggested that the museum branch out into all phases of natural history and “make the principal objects the scientific investigation, collection, exhibi tion and educational interpretation of the natural history of the Santa Barbara region.” He further suggested the expansion of Native American investigations to perhaps include the entire Southwest, and he urged continuation and expan sion of the museum’s early efforts to reach out to the community, particularly in the area of education, Rea hardly had to suggest a permanent, paid, full-time director. The board was delighted with Rea’s report and immediately named Hoffmann Acting Di rector paying him on a part-time basis until he could gracefully sever his con nection with Cate School. This he did the following year, 1926, and the board re sponded by tendering him a five-year contract. The board also quietly dropped oology from the name of the museum, calling it simply, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. That small but symbolic step marked the end of ado lescence and the attainment of maturity, with great implications for the future.

The maturation of the museum now brought support from interested individ uals who heretofore had watched from the sidelines. When the Carnegie Founda tion offered to establish a seismic station on the West Coast, the museum re E. Palmer Gavit Jeanne Hollister Hale

sponded by offering a building, made possible through the generosity of three supporters; E. Palmer Gavit, Jeanne Hollister Hale and Ellen P. Chamberlain. To alleviate the growing space problem, Mrs. Hale, whose late husband Clinton B. Hale had been an original board member, serving until his death in 1925, offered to fund the construction of what came to be known as the Hale Hall of Botany.

Chamberlain

This type of commitment convinced one newcomer to Santa Barbara to also get involved. When Mrs. Hale made her proposal. Major Max C. Fleischmann

MaxC. Fleischmann

stepped in from the sidelines with an offer to fund a Hall of Mammalogy and in cluded with it an endowment to support a Department of Mammalogy.

Max Fleischmann was a most unusual man. He looked upon his philanthrop

Ellen P.

ic work as an investment, and his mark upon the entire city of Santa Barbara is as indelible as it is upon the Museum of Natural History. Wrote a Santa Barbara NewS'Press editorialist in 1951, "He invested in the future development and en richment of this community...He invested not only in the tangible things...He invested in the spirit of adventure and search for scientific truth and enlightenment exemplified by the expeditions and progressive program of the Museum of Natural History.” Further, and this is perhaps the key to the man, "the money he gave was only a part of the whole; he gave of his wisdom and experience in planning, in following through with administrative problems and details; his specialized knowledge in many fields and his ability to see with a broad vision and work with practical efficiency oftentime was even more valuable than the actual money. His sponsorship gave assurance to other public-spirited citizens that the projects or programs he was associated with were soundly based and would be productive of lasting benefit.” The museum was truly blessed to acquire him as a friend.

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Born Maximilian Charles Fleischmann in Riverside, Ohio, in 1877, he came CO Santa Barbara by a circuitous route, but one which well prepared him for his work with the Museum of Natural History. One of three children born to Charles L. and Henrietta Robertson Fleischmann, young Max found himself in a family on the rise. His father was partner in a rapidly expanding yeast manufacturing com pany, which would soon generate for the Fleischmanns a large fortune.

Charles Fleischmann, an Austrian by birch, was a yeast grower in Hungary in 1866 when he vis ited the United

M.ajor7Aax. C. Fleischmann’sgenerosity henefitted not only the Santa Barbara Museum ofNatural History, but the entire Santa Barbara area. Photo:Santa Barbara Historical Society.

States. Noting chat there was no yeast manufactory in the country, he went back CO Hungary and, with his broth er, returned to the United States two years later. He settled in Cincinnati and in terested a local distil

ler, James Gaff, in his plans. An agreement was struck, and for an investment of $40,000 the partners were in business. While Americans did not readily take to the uses of yeast, the large foreign-born population did and the the enterprise flourished. In 1881, the Fleischmanns bought out the Gaff interests and by 1890, Charles Fleischmann was a wealthy man. Unlike many of the business magnates of chat day, Charles Fleischmann believed in giving back to the country which had afforded him opportunity. Active in local charities of all kinds, he found time to serve his state as senator and to inculcate into his children the notion of contributing to society.

Max went to work in the Cincinnati yeast factory in 1895, learning the busi-

Charles Fleischmann

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Sarah Hamilton Sherlock

ness from the ground up. In che Spanish-American War, Max became a 2nd Lieutenant in the First Ohio Volunteer Regiment and emerged as an acting Cap tain. His father had died in 1897 and his brother Julius took over the presidency of the company while Max was installed as Vice President. Max married Sarah Hamilton Sherlock in 1905 and she became his co-adventurer.

Only a few months after his marriage, Max and his bride set off on a gruel ing expedition to the Greenland Sea. Like all of his enterprises, the expedition was well planned and had as two of its objects to "collect specimens of bird life and study their food and habits,” and "to attempt to secure live specimens of musk-ox and polar bear.”

Anticipating U S. entry into World War I, Max applied for a commission as a captain in the Balloon Branch of the Aviation Section, Signal Corps Offi-

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The museum’s library was meant to be reminiscent ofFleischmann’s trophy room at Edgewood. Althoughfinished in 1929, it was used as a laboratory and storage area until ig;^6. cers’ Reserve Corps. He was promoted to major and stationed in France. Caught in a gas attack, Fleischmann was temporarily disabled and reassigned to the United States as commander of the U.S. Army Balloon School in Arcadia, Cali fornia. From Arcadia one day, the Fleischmanns drove to Santa Barbara, where they had vacationed on a previous occasion. Like so many, they were over whelmed by the beauty of the setting, and in 1921, they purchased property and began to develop what they called Edgcwood in Summerland.

The Fleischmanns immediately became involved in local affairs, and Max

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was drawn as iron co a magnet to the nascent museum in Mission Canyon. In volved only peripherally at first, Fleischmann’s interest in natural history made his connection with the museum a natural one. Once his incredible energy was focused, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, "occupied more of his time than any one of his other projects." Elected to the board in 1927, he became its vice president in 1929, the year he commissioned the building of Trophy Hall, the room destined to become the museum library.

A supporter of Dr. George F. Weld, the energetic and farsighted president of the board, Fleischmaim contented himself with providing for staff needs and his small, unrecorded donations of time, equipment and funds did much to maintain the morale of the institution as well as further the work. He and Weld liked to attend the weekly staff meetings. Upon George Weld’s death in 1934, Fleischmann became President of the Board. In that same year, a magnificent new building complex was added to the museum. According to the annual report for 1934, the construction was made possible, "by the generous gift of a trustee, who prefers to remain anonymous.”

Adding a new building to an existing complex without destroying the archi tectural integrity of the original takes considerable planning and this the donor had done. The addition was the "new exhibition hall of local birds . . . 30 by 60 feet, with a low barrel vault painted to suggest the sky for better display of the condor and other large birds in flight. The adoption of neon lighting is an inter esting experiment which promises advantages in rendering color values, diffusing shadows, and lower operating expense." Clearly this describes the Sarah Hamil ton Bird Hall, and the "anonymous” donor was the new president of the board.

The gift also included a complex of offices and laboratory space and the usual endowment for maintenance.

With the Bird Hall, Fleischmann attempted, in his own way, to complement the work of the museum staff by offering an innovative building designed to show off to best advantage the accomplishments of the museum. Unfortunately, not all the experimentation worked. The neon lighting system, initially so promising, proved unsatisfactory, and without special lighting, the new cases were disappointing. The hall’s acoustics were poor and noise proved a major dis traction to visitors. Within two years the hall had to be closed for renovation.

More conventional lighting, indirect and softly diffused, fulfilled the promise of the neon it replaced. Acoustical problems were neatly solved by the simple, but at the time highly innovative practice of installing wall-to-wall carpeting. The cases were redesigned and the panels made smaller, each window framing a par ticular bird group.

As the museum reported to its members, the redesigned hall made "the inspec tion of our birds a simpler and more enjoyable adventure." Indeed, Fleischmann’s bird hall epitomized one museum advantage—"the ability to make birds and mammals stay still while we look at them.” But it was more than that, as thou sands of Santa Barbarans and visitors to the city could attest. The exhibited

George F.

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birds were presented not as "dead,” rather as “having suddenly paused in the dra ma of their lives to let us view a single stage of some interesting act.” The Bird Hall provided the pageant that made observers stop, look and learn.

Certainly there was nothing that gave visitors more pause than the sight of the great condor, with its nine-foot wingspan, silhouetted against the vaulted blue ceiling. This magnificent creature, already recognized as endangered, repre sented the museum's connection to its own toots, as the specimen had come from the original Santa Barbara Society of Natural History.

With visitors by then numbering in the thousands each year, extraordinary demands were placed on facilities and staff. Fleischmann again provided. Work ing closely with the director and staff, he helped design and financed the con struction of the Fleischmann Auditorium, a lecture room large enough to house major public programs, provide space for travelling exhibits and be easily trans formed for galas and other social events. As was his wont, Fleischmann provided for maintenance and workspace. The building had a deep basement for work rooms, a cabinet shop and darkroom. Decorated in Indian themes, and hung with artifacts from Fleischmann’s collections gathered principally on his trips to the Northwest coast and the collections of other community members, the auditori um was a magnificent showcase for the museum and the city.

Fleischmann’s association with the museum attracted others to the museum cause, and large donations to the endowment fund proliferated while he was in volved with the board. Individuals were encouraged to donate collections, sponsor projects and volunteer time and expertise. The impact on the staff was great.

Freed of some of the fiscal responsibilities of his position, Hoffmann was able to complete Birds ofthe Pacific States, continue his quest for a complete herbarium of the Santa Barbara region and "organize natural history classes, bird walks, trips to the mountains and the desert. . . arrange special exhibits, special classes for school children.”

Dorothy Irma Cooke

Mrs. D. CroftonAtkins

Moreover, Hoffmann could begin to plan for an Education Department which would place on a permanent footing the work being done on a catch-ascatch-can basis by the director, staff members and volunteers. Early on, Hoff mann had been approached by an eager young woman by the name of Dorothy Irma Cooke, who proposed to offer classes in natural history to younger children.

"My dear young lady,” Hoffmann is reputed to have said, " you don’t know, how can you teach?” Unable to counter this argument, Mrs. Cooke had a problem.

She neatly solved it by becoming Hoffmann’s disciple. She followed him on his rambles, learning all the time, and she became one of the first to discover the re mains of the dwarf mammoth on Santa Rosa Island.

Cooke’s dream came true in January 1932, as the first formal class in natural history was announced, open to children between the ages eight and ten, to be of fered by Mrs. Leonard A. Cooke and Mrs. D. Crofton-Atkins, the latter an ex perienced teacher. The class was a great success, despite some problems which arose because of the unacceptable mix of children and the various museum rooms

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in which classes were held (they ulcimacely ended up under the oaks) and a sec ond class was offered in June. By the next year, the program was permanent, and Irma Cooke was Curator of Junior Education, a position she held until her re tirement in 1969,

Education has long been at the core ofthe museum s purpose. Irma Coo/te, shown here, was the movingforce behind the establishment ofa Department ofEducation.

Egmonc Rett was invited to Santa Barbara in 1923 “to see what could be done about making a first-rate museum.” Glimpsing the promise of the young mu seum. he never used the return half of his round trip ticket. Yet those early years, "when I would have to wait for my pay,” were both difficult and lonely. Rett al ways felt he was on unstable ground until the advent of the yeast man from Ohio. Rett now proceeded to send for his mother and brother. Fieischmann’s in terest in large mammals caused Rett to obtain a rifle and accompany Fleischmann on his quests for large game specimens. He also had to confront the chal lenges inherent in mounting and displaying them. Rett and his brother, Arthur, contracted with the museum for that work, and the dramatic results certainly pleased the donor of the Mammal Hall.

Egmonc Rett

Arthur Rett

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Frcdfrick Webscer

arl Akeley

NOTICIAS

Recc was a man after Fleischmann’s heart. Largely self-educated, Rett’s for mal schooling ceased at age 13, at which time he was apprenticed to the Museum of Natural History in Denver. Rett brought to the Denver museum an artistic sensitivity that had been well-honed at home. His father was a sculptor, so art was part of family life, and Rett early on gained a sense of artistic proportion.

He also demonstrated a natural ability to mold plastic materials into recogniza ble forms. Both Egmont and Arthur Rett spent their formative years in the house, learning the rudiments of drawing, of perspective, of balance — indeed, learning to see the world through an artist’s eyes. Early on, Rett took as his he roes Frederick Webster, the Carnegie Museum curator who had taken “natural life out of bottles on shelves and displayed them in their natural habitats for eve ryone to see and recognize,” and Carl Akeley, the noted naturalist and hunter, udio originated the practice of utilizing sculpture in taxidermy.

Having learned sculpture at home, Rett also developed skill in photography, an inestimable aid to establishing verisimilitude in presentation. Skilled as he be came as a collector-taxidermist-mounter-displayer, Rett constantly sought and created new methods and materials. For birds and small animals, clay sculpture was perfect. The correct muscles could be emphasized for the positions of the birds, and the resultant figure was light enough to be mounted without difficulty.

For large animals, however, the creature first had to be modelled in clay, then a plaster cast taken. The cast was then filled with a lining of papier-mache, about one-half inch thick, and then the skin applied. That permitted the finished ani mals to be moved without the use of heavy equipment.

Always alert to new possibilities in preparation and preservation, Rett was one of first in the nation to experiment with latex in molding and casting, a sig nal contribution to museum science. Beeswax had been in widespread use, but beeswax was not appropriate to hot temperatures. Repotted the Museum Leaflet, "during September’s heat wave the only wax models in the museum to suffer were two in the Loggia; a flying fish which fell from its support, and an oriole which assumed the shape of a penguin.” Rett’s process, reported to the National Museum Association in a paper delivered in June 1938, and later published by the Association, eliminated the "penguin syndrome,” much to the relief of curators all across Southern California and the desert Southwest, many of whom came to Santa Barbara to learn the technique.

Rett and his associates were pushed to the limits of their creative powers to find new and appropriate materials in the development of the museum’s marine exhibit. Designed "to be the only marine display of [such] completeness in the world,” it placed the viewer at the bottom of the sea looking up into a set of wharf pilings. To achieve the look of live creatures underwater, special skin coatings and paints were necessary, and extreme patience and skill required to apply them. Each of approximately 500 sea anenomes in the display, for exam ple, had to be fabricated individually, each one requiting about fifteen hours la bor. Special plastics were created for the jellyfish and to manufacture artificial

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kelp, Rect devised a plastic press fabricated "out of an old tire pump, parts of a coffee pot and other miscellaneous pieces from an old drill press.” Using polyeth elene plastic, the press worked, and Egmont Rett had added another innovation to museology.

By the end of his career, Rett had helped push the museum’s name to the forefront of small museums around the world. Recipient of a Carnegie Founda tion Travel Grant to Europe in 1939, he was unable to utilize it completely be cause of the outbreak of World War II, but it still was one of the signal honors accorded his work. He was in demand throughout his career as a consultant to other museums, and went "on loan” to such places as Yosemite National Park, the Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, Oregon, and to Fort Worth, Texas and Sacramento, California, to help design and establish new museums.

He was further sought out as a collector for museums at home and abroad, and Mierever he went he spread the fame and increased the respect for his home base.

Little wonder Fleischmann liked him.

Fernand Lungren

The museum was also the beneficiary of the skills of local artists, who paint John Gambk Belmote ed the backdrops to a number of the exhibits. Among these artists were Fernand Browne Lungren, John Gamble, Belmore Browne and Carl Oscar Borg. Sculptress Eliza Carl Oscar beth Mason contributed a number of dioramas. This was just another example of Borg the community support the museum enjoyed, and visitors can still enjoy a num ber of these works today.

Elizabeth Mason

The museum henefiuedfrom the talents ofa number oflocal artists over the years. Here Egmont E^tt, left, and artist I(a.y Strong prepare the Sandy Beach exhibit in the Chase-Coggeshall Bird Habitat HaU. This hall opened in 196$.

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Lionel A. Walford

Fleischmann provided unparalleled opporcunicies for museum exposure. On one occasion, he met Dr. Lionel A, Walford, a noted marine biologist with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Fleischmann immediately planned a

i

Fleischmann made his yacht, Haida, availablefor a number ofscientific exbedi' tions. The Major contributed over $^^o,ooo toward the construction ofthe break water in Santa Barbara inpart to create a safe anchoragefor this yacht. Photo: Santa Barbara Historical Society.

major cruise on his yacht, the Haida, for the purpose of researching marine game fishes of the Pacific Coast. His ultimate aim was a scientific book on the subject, to be written by Walford. The Haida was outfitted with a complete marine la boratory, an aquarium, photography equipment and facilities, including a dark room. Walford and two other scientists accompanied Fleischmann and four other fishermen on a two-month cruise off the Mexican coast. The fishermen kept the scientists busy studying, photographing, and drawing fish, and, in the process. several new species were discovered and described for the first time. Wal

Arthur Sterry Coggeshall

ford produced the required text for the lavishly illustrated volume. Marine Qame Fishes ofthe Pacific Coastfrom Alasktt to the Equator, published in 1937 by the Uni versity of California Press, under the auspices of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

In June 1940, Fleischmann organized an expedition to Alaska for members of the museum staff, at which time so much of the Northwest Coast Indian mate rial was gathered. Museum Director Arthur Sterry Coggeshall, Curator of An-

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chropology and Paleontology. Phil C. Orr and his wife, and Special Librarian Margaret Irwin, went aboard the Haida in Seattle, after being flown from Santa Barbara, by way of Reno, in Major Fleischmann’s private airplane, Silver Falcon.

For two weeks the Haida cruised the inland passage, stopping at remote villages where the museum staff interviewed headmen, tribal elders, and craftspersons, saw demonstrations of ancient techniques of carving, weaving, and materials preparation, examined ancient sites, and purchased choice artifacts for the mu seum’s permanent collections. As Margaret Irwin later put it, "To Major Fleischmann the members of the party are indebted for an unforgettable experience as guests of a very gracious host who provided an interesting and beautiful introduc tion to a country new to all of us.” So Fleischmann brought much to his adopted museum, and since much of this work was done while the nation struggled through a catastrophic depression, the accomplishment was even more remarkable.

This first period of development, the era during which the basic principles of the museum were laid down, ended in tragedy. Ralph Hoffmann in his unending quest for plant samples, had built the herbarium to more than 19,000 sheets by the summer of 1932. The best of collectors, Hoffmann was always willing to venture vdiere others would not. Trying to complete his survey of the offshore is lands, an area of great importance because of its isolation, Hoffmann fell from a cliff to his death on San Miguel Island. The museum was stunned. The founda tions of the museum had been firmly planted, however, and not even the loss of its director could stop its progress, Hoffmann had continually pressed for three cardinal principles, research, education, and public service, and established them as basic assumptions of the institution. At one point he wrote, "The modem mu seum is no longer content to be merely a repository of dead life. It is not enough to display the skins of dead birds and mammals, or the remains of ancient peo ples. The exhibits must be as fat as possible arranged to tell something of the re lations between living things, their adaptations to their surroundings, the purpose of their structures, their development from lower to higher forms. Our museum is trying as best it can to fulfill this part of its duty, not only in the arrangement of its exhibits but also in activities which are not perhaps evident to the casual observer.” As an example, he noted that the museum had acquired the skeleton of a porpoise, which was ’strikingly exhibited against a black panel It shows to any intelligent visitor how the bony structure of the animal has been adapted for life in the ocean.” How Ralph Hoffmann would have delighted in the 72-footlong blue whale skeleton now dramatically mounted as if in a dive near the mu seum entrance!

Phil C. Orr

Board member Dr. Harold Sidebotham stepped in as Acting Director, as the board turned to the one man who understood the goals and purposes of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and who had the requisite leadership quali ties to sustain the organization through its loss, Paul Marshall Rea. Perhaps no greater tribute could have been paid to the museum at that juncture than Dr. Rea’s willingness to leave his post at the Carnegie Foundation in Washington,

Harold Sidebotham

Margaret Irwin

Ralph Hoffmann

Paul Marshall Rea

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D.C., to assume the directorship of this small regional establishment in Califor nia. He arrived in October 1933, and immediately got to work.

Rea, of course, had consulted with Ralph Hoffmann and the board eight years before, and was both pleased and amazed at the progress since. In his first annual report to the membership, he noted that, in his view, the museum Paul Marshall Rea

had undergone a two-stage develop ment: the first exploratory, in which "a community ambition was aroused;” the second, "vigorously creative,” which "opened a future of brilliant opportunity.” Further, the museum’s success resulted from "the

f f 4.-^. ; f-

interest, vision, and generosity of a community group” and the "wisdom, clarity of purpose, and devotion and skill in execution,” of its staff. Rea recognized that creativity often breeds chaos, and that the museum now required a new organization and ^ a businesslike approach to operations CO sustain creativity and excitement Paul Marshall Rea successfully steered and fulfill the functions of a modern the museum through the shoals ofthe Qreat museum.

Depression, with attendance jumping z6% in one year.

In his very straightforward man ner, Rea laid out his objectives, some of which must have made board members cringe at the responsibility being laid upon them. First, he wished to improve "the form and content of the record sys tems,” which included not only the financial accounts but the cataloguing of collections as well. Rea also called for the acquisition of adequate space. He re marked that many important collections were simply scored, and chat there were few work areas "for the many activities necesary to increase the usefulness of the Museum.’ Rea then got to the real problem as he saw it, lack of sufficient and appropriate staff. He noted that of the ten people listed as staff, "only the director, the curator of anthropology, the secretary to the director, and the cus todian are on full time. The others are all on part time and responsible for only limited activities.” Rea called for full-time curators for the three ocher major de partments, Mammalogy, Ornithology, and Botany.

In order chat the museum be able to "contribute increasingly to the enrich ment of life in Santa Barbara,” Rea called for concentration upon interpretive exhibits, and the frequent changing of exhibits. Beyond that, he requested more informal and formal lectures and mote publications. He thus asked for the crea tion of a Department of Education with its own curator. Rea then proposed that

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che museum extend itself "to include the divisions of natural history that have not yet been developed,” particularly marine life. These objectives were not pre sented as a wish list or a set of goals to be accomplished at some future date, but as a clear statement of what the museum needed at the moment, not only to function properly, but to ward off the deterioration which would surely set in if the collections were not maintained and utilized for research and education.

Max C. In his annual report for 1934, Rea recognized Fleischmann's accomplishFleischmann ments. A third period of evolution [of the Museum] began in January, 1934, with the election of Major Max C. Reischmann as President.” Rea was also excited about, and a little intimidated by, the rapid increase in visitors to the museum, due in part to the emphasis on new and changing exhibits. Attendance during 1934 was 26,918, an increase of 26% over the previous year in a city whose popu lation totalled 33,613. The museum was becoming a busy place indeed, and space

would increasingly be a problem. Rea also described gratifying increases in en dowment funds, general funds, equipment and gift acquisitions. He could not but have pride in his institution: "it exceeds many small museums in the amount of serious scientific work done.”

By the time Rea resigned in 1936 to return to his own research in mycology(a branch of botany dealing with fungi), much of his long agenda had been accomOne ofthe most popular and dramatic exhibits is the yz'foot blue whale skeleton in front ofthe museum. Steve Baldwin photo.

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plished. Egmonc Rett became Curator of Ornithology and Mammalogy, the edu cation program was solidified and extended, the administration organized and streamlined with the appointment of an assistant to the director, and the fiscal system was put in order, Paul Rea left behind a healthy and growing establish ment, and a staff inspired as a result of his leadership. He departed, confident the museum could and would function quite well without him.

Major Fleischmann, however, was not so sanguine. Cognizant of the forces Fle^chmann unleashed by the great economic depression, he had observed with alarm the pro liferation of movements - Technocracy, the Townsend Plan, Upton Sinclair’s "End Poverty In California” campaign. "Ham and Eggs,” "Thirty Dollars Every Thursday,” and the like - all apparently designed to redistribute the wealth of the state and nation, and realized that the era of the generous individual philanthro

Egmonc R£CC

Julius Fleischmann

pist. of the type that had created and sustained the museum, was over. Califor nia, although lagging far behind in terms of the New Deal legislation that was sweeping the country in the 1930s, nonetheless responded to the situation by changing its tax laws. Included in the legislation was an income tax, which seemed to place severe limitations on the wealthy members of society. Fleischmann, who had not only maintained his residence at Bdgewood on Lambert Road, but had operated the Fleischmann enterprises from Santa Barbara after the death of his brother Julius in 1925, transferred both home and business to the mote generous state of Nevada, establishing a new home at Lake Tahoe. While the Major continued to spend many months a year in Santa Barbara, and cer tainly the new address did not diminish his activities as President of the Board, the fact chat he had had to make such a move was, to him, significant in terms of the museum's future. In ocher words, a new basis of support would have to be sought in order to solidify the museum’s foundations. Fleischmann wanted the museum to continue to enjoy the kind of national visibility it had under Rea’s di rectorship. He wanted to attract a new director of national standing, one who would be able to develop the kind of support the museum needed. In a major coup he did just chat.

Arthur Sterry Coggeshall

The suggestions and recommendations of the American Association of Mu seums in Washington, D.C. was solicited. The Association telegraphed the Di rector of the Illinois State Library and asked him to get in couch with Fleisch mann. Thus Arthur Sterry Coggeshall made contact with the President of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. According CO tradition, Fleischmann tempted Coggeshall by challenging him, "I want you CO cake this museum out of a little society group and sell it to the people of Santa Barbara.” Coggeshall was intrigued, but had not spent a lifetime in the museum business without learning to negotiate. He responded, "I could do it, but we would have CO have a lecture hall seating seven hundred.” “You’re crazy,” retorted the Major, but before the business was completed. Coggeshall had his lecture hall.

Fleischmann Auditorium would seat a compromise figure of five hundred. Thus the museum acquired a new director in 1937 and a new lecture hall the following

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year. With the announcement of the new director, the Museum Leaflet boasted: “With the coming of Mr. Coggeshall, the museum once more will enjoy the privilege of being guided in its progress by a director whose work in the field of museum problems has won international recognition.”

For all concerned, the choice could not have been a better one. Arthur Cogge shall fit perfectly into the museum’s tradition of self-taught individuals who had come up through the ranks of museum hierarchy, who knew the business from

.i

Arthur Coggeshall held the post ofDirector longer than anyone. Could the dino sauron his desk.be areminder ofhis dinosaur-hunting days in Wyoming?

the bottom up. An internationally renowned scientist and museologist, he was devoted to education and museum outreach, and his gregarious personality made him a favorite at the museum and throughout the city. Coggeshall had been Vice President of the American Association of Museums. He had many excellent na tional contacts and there was no area of museum work with which he was not familiar. Aware, in the Rea tradition, that museums were always evolving, ever changing institutions. Coggeshall had little doubt that he could meet the Major’s challenge.

Arthur Coggeshall brought to Santa Barbara a pedigree, both personal and professional, that was difficult to match. Descended from a long line of rebels, one of his forebears, John Coggeshall, had been evicted from colonial Boston along with Roger Williams, and eventually became first Governor of Providence Plantations. Coggeshall was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1873, the son of

John Coggeshall

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Eemont Rett

Adam Herman

NOTICIAS

Scerry Israel Coggeshall and Harrier Jeffries Coggeshall. Arthur received his for mal education through the eighth grade in New Haven public schools. Then, like his new Curator of Ornithology and Mammalogy. Egmont Rett. "Coggy," as he quickly became known in Santa Barbara, left school to begin an informal ap prenticeship to museum studies.

One of his playmates during those early years was the son of the Preparator at the Peabody Museum at Yale. Adam Herman. Introduced to his laboratory at an early age. Coggeshall was fascinated and began to "peck away at bones with a hammer and chisel.” A nine-year-old at Yale was a novelty, especially one inter ested in old bones and other ancient artifacts, so he was allowed the freedom of the place. He continued to "hang around” the campus for several years, haunting laboratories, attending lectures, gaining experience, storing up knowledge, and exercising his unending curiosity. When Adam Herman moved on to the Ameri can Museum of Natural History in New York in 1890, he invited his young friend to take a job with him as preparator of fossils. Coggeshall jumped at the chance, even though it was not much of a job. The pay was fifty dollars a month, and to survive he walked four miles to work each day and regularly bor rowed money to get through to payday, but he was learning inside the walls of

Jennie Louise Smith

W.J. Wortman

Arthur Coggeshall

the greatest institution of its kind in America. In 1895, Arthur Coggeshall mar ried Jennie Louise Smith, with whom he eventually had three children.

Chance intervened in 1898. Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie happened to read an article in a New York newspaper announcing the find of the "Most Colossal Animal Ever on Earth” out in Wyoming. He immediately dispatched a check for $10,000 to the director of the just-opened Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, with the order to "buy this for Pittsburgh.” The "Most Colossal Animal” turned out to be a single bone, but the find set off a massive search of the area. Dr. Wil liam J. Holland, Director of the Carnegie, went to the American Museum of Natural History for the talent he would need to follow up on Carnegie’s order. He made a offer to Assistant Curator of Paleontology, W. J. Wortman, who ac cepted on the condition that Arthur Coggeshall be included in the deal.

So it was that "Coggy” found himself in the barren hills outside Medicine Bow, Wyoming. On July 4, 1899, after two months of fruitless searching.

Coggeshall unearthed the toe bone of the hind foot of a diplodocus. After more digging, it was clear that the crew had a real find, which they christened "di plodocus carnegiei,” and eventually an almost complete skeleton of the creature was unearthed. A rare discovery indeed, and with it Arthur Coggeshall achieved instant fame. A second similar find was made nearby and the combination of the bones of both skeletons made the final complete diplodocus.

Dippy as the skeleton was known to its discoverers, was shipped back to Pittsburgh, but two problems confronted the museum. The Carnegie Museum was neither large enough to accommodate the skeleton, which measured 84 feet when assembled, nor structurally strong enough to support the several tons of wei .. -ight represented by the petrified bones. Mr. Carnegie solved that situation by

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commissioning a new museum building which would house the dinosaur. The more troublesome problem had to do with mounting the skeleton. Again it was Arthur Coggeshall, perhaps recalling the bit of metallurgy he learned from his father, who devised the cast steel backbone system of supporting the tons of bones, a new innovation which is still, nearly a century later, the preferred method of mounting dinosaurs.

That 120,000,000'-year'Old skeleton launched Coggeshall on a thirty-year ca reer as Preparator in Chief of Paleontology with the Carnegie Museum, though he had to take much time off in order to install dinosaur exhibits throughout Eu rope and Latin America; his services were in constant demand. How "Coggy" would have loved the 1987 and 1989 "Discover Dinosaurs!” exhibits in Fleischmann Auditorium.

At the Carnegie, Coggeshall also took charge, as Curator of Public Education, of the museum’s outreach program. While museums of the best kind had always been research institutions, Coggeshall, knowing how much his own fortuitous as sociation with the Peabody Museum had influenced his young life, wanted to extend the educational concept even to children. He faced strong opposition from the scientists, who did not want youngsters cluttering up their space, asking foolish questions, and getting in the way. But Coggeshall realized that only by

The sky-blue vaulted ceiling ofthe Sarah Hamilton Fleischmann Bird Hall makes it one ofthe most unique exhibit spaces in the museum.

'a

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stimulating and educating youth could the next generation of scientific explorers be nurtured. Coggeshall also created and extended lecture programs for the general public. Waiting until his superiors were out of town, he even violated Pennsyl vania's blue laws by holding a lecture at the museum on Sunday. Demonstrating diplomatic talent, Coggeshall had invited Pittsburgh ministers to attend, and soon the Sunday lectures were a huge success. Coggeshall was invited to church es, schools, clubs, everywhere, to speak. He even purchased a new motion picture projector to supplement his talks. Through his activities, the Carnegie Museum more than fulfilled the hopes of its donor.

In 1929, Coggeshall left the Carnegie to take over the directorship of the St. Paul Institute in Minnesota. In 1931, aware of his reputation as a museum build er, educator and innovator. Dr. Fay Cooper-Cole of the University of Chicago convinced Coggeshall to take the position of Director of the Illinois State Mu seum in Springfield. It was a "truly awful" museum in organization, although its collections were strong, and he took the challenge. He was completing a total and successful restructuring of that museum when the call from California came.

And so, at age 64, when most men would be looking towards retirement, Arthur Coggeshall came to Santa Barbara, full of energy and ideas, and launched a new career that was to last for 21 years.

Major Fleischmann had charged him to "sell [the museum] to the people of Santa Barbara," and this he set out to do. The first order of business was to make the museum complex an even mote inviting place. Having created exhibits for the crowned heads of Europe, Coggeshall was certainly cognizant of what served best to attract and inform visitors. He surveyed the problems of the Sarah Ha milton Fleischmann Bird Hall and plunged into reworking the place. Not con tent merely to order the exchange of the lighting system and the rebuilding of the display cases, Coggeshall climbed upon a ladder and repainted the vaulted ceiling a lovely shade of blue. His enthusiasm was contagious, and Egmont Rett followed him, carefully painting in billowy white clouds.

Noting that visitors were not spending much time in the Hall of Mammalogy, even though the exhibits were most impressive, he had the glass pane fronts of the display cases tilted to eliminate annoying glare. Coggeshall saw the im portance of comfort and convenience. Wherever possible steps were replaced with tamps, making walking easier for everyone, but also providing access for wheelchairs, baby carriages, wheeled vehicles of all sorts. Little things, perhaps, but such touches made the museum experience more pleasant and encouraged return visits.

A believer in popularization as a means of building an audience, Coggeshall had the mechanical rattlesnake exhibit recased, and had Rett do the background.

That small, button-activated box became the museum’s most popular exhibit, and generations of parents have taken their children to the museum simply to have them share the twinge of fear and excitement they experienced when the snake's rattle sprang to life.

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Alert CO the face that the public’s inceresc in minerals was increasing in direct proportion to the proximity of war in the lace 1930s, Coggeshall had a mineralo gy exhibit mounted. It included a dark alcove in which flourescenc specimens could be shown in both normal and ultraviolet light. This, coo, proved a great success.

The museum had always provided such things as wildflower displays in sea son, but Coggeshall carried chat concept a step further by instituting temporary displays. When the region experienced an earthquake, for example, the Fleischmann Auditorium would display a large exhibit on earthquakes. Ralph Hoff mann, with his insistence on the public service side of the museum, would cer tainly have approved. All of these things increased the museum’s position as a vital part of the community, Arthur Coggeshall was also establishing himself as a well-known and popular member of the community. In the spirit of his predecessors and colleagues, he spoke everywhere and often and his lectures and addresses contained the same ex uberance and excitement chat had energized his staff. They had the same effect on his audiences. Looking for new ways to reach more people, Coggeshall turned to radio, inaugurating a regular program on station KTMS. His topics were inevitably timely, and he often had guests who discussed with him important issues. Staff members took their turns on the program as well, each bringing a specialized interest to pique the curiosi ty of Santa Barbarans. It certainly was effective, for even during depression and war, museum attendance rose.

Coggeshall, who had al ways been near the center of museum activity while in Pittsburgh and the MidAlthough over « years old, the Southern Pacific fiattUsnake exhibit still fascinates young

and old.

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west, fek keenl/ che isolation of the West Coast. He therefore pressed for the or ganization of a West Coast branch of the American Association of Museums, which would not only provide the necessary forum for che exchange of ideas, but would emphasize to Santa Barbarans che importance of the work of their mu seum. As a result of his efforts, the California Museum Association held its inau gural meeting in 1940 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Within a year, a change in name indicated che breadth of the new group, Western Mu seums Association, and che Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History remained

Charles Douglas Woodhouse, Sr.

Elmer

Nobk

a moving force within it.

Santa Barbara State College, which sac up on Mission Ridge was also approached by Coggeshall. He recruited Charles Douglas Woodhouse. Professor of Geology at che school, to become a member of che Board of Trustees in 1940.

Woodhouse had come to Santa Barbara from a position with Champion Silimanice, Inc., a mining corporation with properties in Mono County. An expert mineralogist, he began informally teaching for che college in 1938 and became a regular member of che faculty a year later. In addition to long and excellent ser vice on the board, Mr. Woodhouse provided the museum with many of its im portant mineral specimens.

Shortly thereafter, a young Professor of Zoology, Dr. Elmer Noble, became involved in che museum. Noble and Egmonc Rett would occasionally teach a joint course, with Noble's students gaining access to Rett’s laboratory and in turn furthering his research. Coggeshall also engineered a consortium consisting of the Santa Barbara Museum of Arc, Santa Barbara State College, and his own organization. The members pooled their interests to form "A Cooperative Center Combining Activities in che Related Fields of Arc, Science, and Education.” The title might have been cumbersome, but che notion of bringing together three ma jor educational and research entities was a good one, for city and museum.

As che population and road network of Santa Barbara County continued to expand, the museum developed a special relationship with county officials. It be came commonplace for county employees to notify the museum whenever road builders came across any strange object. Work would be halted until museum

Caroline Hazard

personnel got to che sice and carefully removed che artifact or artifacts uncov ered. In 1942, a major discovery, che so-called "whale burial,” was excavated intact and eventually exhibited in che museum. That led Caroline Hazard, who noted che fact in an article she wrote in che -Museum Leaflet, commemorating che 20th anniversary of che Museum's founding, to comment chat the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History "has truly become a public institution.” In

Phil Orr

Coggeshall, Max Fleischmann had chosen his salesman very well.

The advent of World War II brought a new sec of challenges. When the Fed eral Government announced its intention to build an air base for the Marines in if Goleta, Curator of Anthropology and Paleontology, Phil Orr, did a major rehasty, dig in the area, centering on Mescalican Island in Goleta Slough. He covered many artifacts and ocher remains, enough to hazard some incerpreca-

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cions regarding early Chumash life. Buc warcime crave! rescriccions, including gasoline racioning, limited che movement of the museum staff and cut down on museum visitation. Supplies, particularly rubber, were difficult to obtain, ham pering development.

In che face of such limitations, Coggeshall chose to again emphasize che pub lic service side of che museum. Special programs were developed and aimed at military personnel, as he wanted che museum to be a recreational scop for ser vicemen and women. Exhibits were even prepared and taken to nearby military posts such as Camp Cooke and che Marine air base in order to develop interest in the museum and its work. Displays on nutrition were mounted, aimed at soften ing che effects of racioning on local consumers. Since schools were unable to transport classes to che museum, members of che staff went to che schools.

Evening activities, however, had to be curtailed due to brov/nout regulations and che scheduled meeting of che Western Museum Association in Santa Barbara in 1943 had to be cancelled.

Yet che warcime program was highly successful, and che personnel from a number of ocher museums came to Santa Barbara to see how it was done. When che Army established a relocation center in Santa Barbara near the close of hos tilities, commandeering che Bilcmore, Mar Monte, and Miramar hotels for the purpose. Special Services made che museum a regular scop, bussing members of che military and their families to Mission Canyon for tours and lectures, pro moting science education as part of its postwar rehabilitation program.

As che war ended, Fleischmann's foresight in integrating che museum with che community to give it a larger, more stable base of support, a program so suc cessfully carried out by Director Coggeshall, became apparent. The "little socie ty group” he had described to Coggeshall. which consisted primarily of the origi nal founders, was being broken up by the passage of time. Shortly after making che last of her many donations of property to che museum, and providing the funding for che construction of a bridge over Mission Creek to complete a nature walk. Dr. Caroline Hazard, whose generosity had helped sustain che museum through good times and bad, died in che spring of 1945. That same year claimed Dr. Harold Sidebocham, William Varick, and others whose involvement went back CO che beginnings. Mrs. Clara Hinton Gould, donor of Gould Indian Hall, che first building erected after che original Hazard quadrangle, died in 1948. In 1950, Major Fleischmann himself severed his official connection with che mu seum by resigning from che board. His published reason for che move was chat he did not want to serve beyond che age of seventy, but it is apparent that he al ready knew he was in che throes of a serious illness and wished to concentrate che remainder of his energy on completing his Nevada projects.

In fact, he "borrowed” Phil Orr from che museum in 1950 and cook him along CO complete a mining exhibit for the Nevada State Museum. In Reno, Orr gained a new insight into che man who had done so much for Santa Barbara. As he completed the figure of an old miner featured in che exhibit, Orr mentioned

Caroline Hazard Harold Sidebocham William Varick Mrs. Clara Hincon

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chac he needed an old and well worn pair of suspenders to complete the costume.

Fleischmann immediately went out and purchased a new sec. With the mint pair in hand, Fleischmann confronted "a shabbily dressed man on the street and proposed a trade of new suspenders for old.” The exchange was made and the Major returned to the museum with the appropriately "used” suspenders. Later it was learned that the incident had been observed by a group of New Jersey tour ists, who reported it to the police as a holdup in progress. No doubt all concerned had a good laugh, and the tourists had a tale of the "wild west” to cake back home with them.

Sarah Fleischmann oversaw the operations ofthe Fleischmann Foun' dation[or eight years after her husoand’s death in 1951. The museum received some $i.^ millionfrom thefoundation in a period spanning over 25 years. Photo:Santa Barbara Historical Society.

Max Fleischmann could leave the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History confident of its future. Arthur Coggeshall, despite his 77 years, was still one of the most capable museum directors in the country. While the era of the great donors might be gone, the new base of community support chac had so carefully been nurtured, would sustain the organization. The Board of Trustees had already made provision for such change by recruiting "representatives of the active, suc cessful, business interests of the city." Museum membership stood at an all time high, and no new members were being accepted due to limited space for lectures.

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The postwar recession seemed to be over, and staff activities were accelerating at a fever pitch. Salvage archaeology rush jobs were done at Rincon Creek, where a realignment of Highway 101 threatened an Indian burial ground, and at the site of Bradbury Dam, where grading for construction had unearthed a whale skele ton. Further, the director could note in his annual report, "More and mote the museum is taking its place as an important part of the educational system of the community,” And, of course, the Major, although leaving the board, was not abandoning his committment to support the museum.

Early in 1951, diagnosed with incurable cancer. Fleischmann made a trust agreement, with himself as grantor, and his wife and two others as trustees - the beginning of the Max C. Fleischmann Foundation. That agreement, further am plified by provisions in his will, created an organization designed to provide for Sarah Sarah Hamilton Fleischmann throughout her lifetime and to continue his phil Hamilton anthropic activities. Upon the death of Mrs. Fleischmann. the Board of Trustees Fleischmann of the Foundation was then to have 20 years to dispose of all the assets of the trust and terminate its existence. There were few limitations on what the board could do. except that funds could be given only to entities "organized and operat ed exclusively for religious, educational, charitable or scientific purposes, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, and no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on Max C. propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation." All of the requisite Fleischmann documents were in place, and his affairs were in excellent order when Major Max Fleischmann died in his Edgewood home on October 16, 1951.

Sarah Fleischmann and her board operated the foundation together for the eight years remaining in her life, and she was able to educate the trustees regard ing her husbands keenest interests, among them the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The foundation received assets totalling almost $64,000,000 upon Fleischmann s death, and, by dint of careful management, were able to grant over $192,000,000 to the kinds of organizations favored by the founder. Of that sum, about $8,800,000 was given to organizations in the loo.sely named cate gory of "historic preservation,” and of that the Santa Barbara Museum of Natu ral History eventually received $1,400,000, the last portion granted in 1980, as the trust was being terminated. Thus this remarkable man’s legacy to the mu seum continued for nearly a generation after his death and it would have been gratifying to him to know, helped sustain it through a difficult period of transi tion.

Museum members, however, had little time to mourn Fleischmann's passing.

Crowds pressed exhibit halls to capacity, causing annoying traffic jams in front of the gates. Ultimately, Puesta del Sol had to be made a one-way street, and a new traffic flow and parking system devised. Excessive use was a pleasant prob lem, but raised again the perennial issue of needed space, and plans were made for a new building, the first in years. Designed to stand three stories high above a full basement, it would increase exhibition area by one third, add a desperately

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Egmont Rect

InaT. Campbell

Fred H. Schauer

Harold S. Chase

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needed lecture room, and provide three study rooms for the use of visiting scien tists, who were beginning to make extensive use of the collections. The top floor was to contain a complete taxidermy laboratory, something Rett had been seek ing for years, and storage space for the study collections of birds and eggs. Some of the exhibit space was committed to the marine life display, which would be mounted as soon as Rett perfected the plastics with which he was working.

Completed in 1953, with the help of the Fleischmann Foundation, the building also housed the gift of Ina T. Campbell, Butterfly Hall, destined to become an other of the museum’s major drawing cards.

Just a year after Fleischmann’s death, Fred H. Schauer, his close friend and supporter, and the last of the original board members of the Museum of Compar ative Oology still active with the museum, retired as President and was succeed ed by Harold S. Chase, Schauer, whose involvement with natural history organi zations dated back to the Santa Barbara Society of Natural History, and who remained as Honorary President, could look back with considerable pride and satisfaction upon \\diat he and the others had so painstakingly built. Two years later, all of that effort seemed validated when the American Association of Mu

Hilmar Koefod

Mrs. Harold Gladwin

seums held its national meeting in Santa Barbara, hosted by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. The encomiums heaped upon Arthur Coggeshall and his museum at that meeting were meant for all those whose contributions, large and small, made it possible.

The beginnings of the space age in the 1950s rekindled the latent desire in many museum members for a planetarium. Chief among them was Dr. Hilmar Koefod, who had become a member of the Board in 1953. He took the initiative by discussing the need for expanding the limits of the museum as far as the stars with a good friend, Mrs. Harold Gladwin. Mrs. Gladwin, whose husband had served on the board, was immediately interested. She conferred with Director Coggeshall and made arrangements not only to provide the planetarium itself, but to build a building in which to house it. Coggeshall visited planetariums from California to Florida in the fall of 1956, talking with directors and others in or

Cyril Young Vance Phillips

der to avoid any potential problems. Mrs. Gladwin worked closely with the in ventor of the particular machine that the museum was going to install and with the building architect, while Cyril Young of the museum’s staff supervised the construction. Mr. Vance Phillips joined the effort by building and donating the Foucault Pendulum, which became the main feature of the planetariums outer foyer.

The Gladwin Planetarium formally opened on July 10, 1957, and the museum

Harold Gladwin

had its eye on the heavens, or at least on the 24-foot dome that represented them. The planetarium was immediately popular. Even museum members had to make reservations for the limited seating, and schools clamored for access.

Harold Glad\vin donated to the museum a fine, small Zeiss telescope to supple ment the planetarium, just in time to catch a glimpse of Sputnik, the first arti-

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ficial earth satellite, put into orbit by the Soviet Union in October of that year.

Dr. Koefod was also vitally interested in children’s education, and carried through a plan for the creation of a children’s nature library as an addition to the Education Center. Built in 1956, the Koefod junior Library was filled with an abundance of literature for children and teachers, and its charming reading room became a second home to budding natural scientists. As an adjunct to the public schools, it further solidified a place for the museum in the educational system of the community.

The extended career of Arthur Sterry Coggeshall came to a close upon his death August 13, 1958. His life had been filled with honors. He had received medCabinet makfir Cyril Young,Museum Director Arthur Coggeshall and Research Assistant Vance Phillips view the newly installed Foucault Pendulum at the Qladwin Planetarium.

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Arthur Sterry Coggeshall

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als from European royalty and gained die respect of his colleagues and peers, made evident by his positions as Vice President of the American Association of Museums, Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and Honorary President of the Western Museum Association, and his honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Occidental College, Yet perhaps his most im portant monument was the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Nelson Baker

During his tenure as the director, the longest in the museum’s history, Coggeshall had maintained the basic principles which had guided the museum from the beginning; research, education, and public service. At the same time, he had completely transformed it from the private province of that elite "little society group," which had so troubled Max Fleischmann, into a truly public institution, interwoven into the fabric of the city and responsive to its needs. Yet he was able to accomplish it without fanfare, without uproar, and even without much difficulty.

Coggeshall did not actually “sell" the museum to the city, rather he graphi cally demonstrated how valuable and essential an asset it was and invited the community to come to the museum. It came. He did not reconstitute the board to meet any preconceived ideas, but simply reminded its members of the changes taking place in society, and let them determine their own modifications. They did. And he let his staff members, whom he recognized as accomplished leaders in their respective fields, continue to do their own work, pursue their own goals.

They did, producing publications, lectures, exhibits. How did he accomplish all that? In the words of one of his successors, Arthur Coggeshall, “loved the mu seum, he loved the city, and he loved his staff.” That love was returned in kind, and perhaps that is his greatest bequest.

Over the 21-year span of his directorship, the museum had undergone tre mendous growth. It had expanded well beyond the family-like place Ralph Hoff mann had headed, where everyone did a little bit of everything and specialists were rare: where immediate needs were often met by a check from a donor or friend, often someone on the board. The changes wrought under Coggeshall may be best exemplified by the career of Nelson Baker.

Entomologist Baker began his long association with the museum in 1953, when Director Coggeshall, on the recommendation of a friend, invited him to do some part-time work preparing exhibits for the Campbell Hall of Butterflies. He quickly established himself as a character in the Hoffmann tradition. Interested in bugs as a boy in Ohio, he continued that pursuit when the family moved to Alhambra, California, and became a voracious collector after joining the Lorquin Entomological Society at the Southwest Museum. After his marriage. Baker supported his new family by writing adventure stories, usually tales with a natu ral history background, for journals ranging from Argosy to Scientific Ameri can. He even wrote westerns, though it is hard to imagine the combination of cowboys and insects. In addition, he had a talent for music, and played guitar for a jazz orchestra in the bistros of Santa Barbara. On his way home from a musi-

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cal “gig," Baker could ofcen be spocced with his colleccing gear in hand, hoping to bag a prize specimen.

After his success with the butterfly exhibit, Baker set to work on an insect display. At the same time he joined Egmont Rett in experimenting with plas tics, in his case to simulate leaves and plants for a proposed jungle group. By 1956, he was working full-time as a zoologist, hurrying Campbell Hall toward completion, and, in 1961, Nelson Baker was named Curator of Invertebrate Zo ology. Twenty-eight years before, Paul Marshall Rea had recommended to the board that curatorships be established for the various divisions in the museum.

The museum had now reached the point where this could be done.

Remembering his own passion for insects as a young man, Baker made sure Santa Barbara’s young people had a place to learn about them. With Waldo Ab bott. he founded the Lepidopterists’ Society, and cook charge of the Boys’ Natu ral Science Club, whose members ranged from seventh grade through high school. In the wake of a fire in 1962 which devastated the insect collections.

Baker cook charge of the deluge of donations, cataloging, sorting, and scoring, while gathering new specimens himself. By the time of his retirement in 1973, Baker had seen to the expansion of library holdings in his field as well as the im-

During his zo-year association with the museum,Nelson Bak^r took special interest in educating the puilic about the wonders ofthe insect world.

OtPAfiJMENT OF

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NELSON W.BAKE[^,ENTOMOIOG1ST

Waldo Abbott

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The devastating fire of 2962 set the tone for the difficult decade of the 1960s.

The laboratory (above) was rebuilt, but some ofthe collections (above right) were damaged beyond salvage.

provemenc in laboratory equipment, making the museum an excellent research facility. Nelson Baker was one of those staff members who not only participat ed in the enormous growth of the Coggeshall years, but who managed to focus it, at least in his area, to the advantage of science and the community.

This tradition of marrying scientific research with public service was everF.G. Hochberg Charles Douglas Woodhouse,

Jr.

developing. Zoology was eventually separated into vertebrate and invertebrate divisions, and, in contrast to Baker’s one man operation, the present curators.

Dr. F.G. Hochberg in Invertebrate Zoology and Dr. Charles D. Woodhouse, Jr. in Vertebrate Zoology, supervise staffs of their own. The increase in personnel has permitted much more research, resulting in, among other things, the discov ery of a new species of land snail in Santa Barbara County, and an outpouring of important scientific publications by Dr. Hochberg and his staff. In addition, the curator and his staff provided leadership in national and international zoological organizations, while continuing to expand local educational and other services.

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For example, Dr. Hochberg, who enjoys an incernacional repucacfon as a re searcher of squid and octopus, has established close relations with scholars from the Smithsonian Institution.

Dr. Woodhouse’s connection with the museum goes back to childhood, when his father, Charles Douglas Woodhouse, Sr., was a museum associate and long time member of the Board of Trustees. Responsible for much of the expanding marine segment of the museum. Dr. Woodhouse has also been instrumental in extending the contacts with local, state and national entities, working closely with, for example, the California Department of Fish and Game, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Natural History Museum of Los An geles County. From humble beginnings, zoology is now one of the most respected departments in the museum.

Upon Coggeshall’s death, “Lady,” as the museum’s former leader always re ferred to his assistant and good right hand, Nora Morres, took over as Acting Director, while the board decided upon a permanent replacement. Starting as a volunteer under Hoffmann, Morres eventually became a full-time secretary,

Charles Douglas Woodhouse,

Sr.

Nora Morres

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vSSS^oof

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which in this case meant more chan simply taking dictation and typing letters; she became involved in virtually all aspects of museum operation. This experi ence served her in good stead upon caking the position of Acting Director.

The board’s choice fell upon Dr. Vertress L. VanderHoof, a research geologist associate of the museum for several years. A Ph.D. in vertebrate paleontology from the University of California at Berkeley, VanderHoof had participated in the Manhattan Project during World War II as a physicist in the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. After a five-year stint as Professor of

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Geology at Stanford, he had become a research geologist for the Intex Oil Com pany of Bakersfield, and worked out of its Santa Barbara office. Dr. VanderHoof's tenure as director was short, however, due to a serious illness, which even tually required him to take a leave of absence several months before he ultimately took retirement in July of 1963. Certainly his health was not improved by the fact that he had to contend with the first major disaster to hit the museum, the great fire of 1962.

Egmont Rett was just getting used to his new, wonderful third floor laborato ry. with its extensive workspace and storage, even an office. Even a touch of heart trouble could not dampen his enthusiasm, as he filled the space with newly prepared mountings for the proposed Bird Hall. Equally happy was Nelson Bak er, whose new invertebrate zoology lab shared the same floor.

In the early morning hours of April 12, 1962, fire broke out in Rett’s laborato ry. The cause remains obscure. Perhaps an old refrigerator shorted out or a heat lamp warming a cage holding a pet snake started the conflagration, but whatev er ignited the flames, the consequences were devastating. The third floor was decimated, Rett's lab burned out completely, Baker’s badly damaged. The only survivor was a heavily smoked, and obviously tough, tarantula. The rest of the building suffered extensive smoke and water damage, and the basement paleon tology rooms were awash with water before the fire was extinguished. The de struction was appalling. Rett’s entire collection, his taxidermy tools, much of his life’s work had been lost, wiped out in a few brief moments. Irreplaceable specimens were reduced to white ash, exhibits ruined, artifacts turned to powder by heat.

Salvage began even before the embers cooled, as staff members, aided by many volunteers, picked through the rubble and saved what they could. Offers of help flooded the office, and private collectors came forward with donations to replace some of the losses. The outpouring of community support buoyed the spirit of museum members, and within ten days the building was partially reopened, while the work of reconstructing and refurbishing the structure went on.

The real casualty of the fire may have been Egmont Rett, whose spirit seemed broken by the tragedy. As his wife, Mabel, recalled it. "It took a year to get him, but I could see him going downhill and a year later he had another heart attack.” One of the original staff members, a pillar of professionalism around whom the museum had been built, was gone. Yet his spirit lived on in the person of his good friend and protege, Waldo Abbott.

Abbott’s involvement with the museum actually began before there was a mu seum. As a young boy, he had "hung around” William Leon Dawson’s residence, looking at the eggs and asking all the L^t:W/aldo Abbott, at right, stepped into questions of a curious eight-year-old.

Egmont Rett’s shoes upon the Latter's re Later, Abbott could again always be tirement in the aftermath ofthe 1^62.fire. found “hanging around” in the down 'Here the two examine a snafie preparato ry to casting a model. town taxidermy shop of Egmont and

Egmont Rctc Nelson Baker

Mabel Rett Waldo Abbott

William Leon Dawson

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Dennis Power

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Arthur Rett, learning the arc, and helping ouc when needed. He then began to help the Reccs at the museum. Abbott had two passions as a young man, natural history and motorcycles, and he worked at a variety of odd jobs to support those passions. Finally, a career choice had to be made, and Abbott seriously considered joining the California Highway Patrol. Ac chat critical juncture, a note arrived from Arthur Coggeshall offering him "some janitorial work” at the museum.

Jumping at this chance, Abbott gave up thoughts of the Highway Patrol, chough not his motorcycles, and as maintenance man learned the operations of the institution literally from the ground up. Tracing plumbing lines, electrical con nections and water pipes, he became indispensable, all the while continuing to as sist Rett with bird and mammal preparation and exhibition. Travelling the Southwest with Rett, collecting specimens, attending conferences and workshops, and exercising his own natural talent, Waldo Abbott became a self-trained expert in natural history, one of the last of a kind in an era when academically trained people were becoming the norm. He participated in Irma Cooke’s educational pro gram and devoted much time to the various clubs and meeting groups sponsored by the museum. Eventually promoted to Assistant Curator of Ornithology and Mammalogy. Abbott was the logical choice to replace Rett.

As the Curator of Ornithology and Mammalogy, Abbott devoted himself to the task of recreating the collections Rett had so lovingly put together, while continuing on other projects. In 1970, with Nora Morres in retirement and the director’s position open again, the board turned to "Mr. Museum” and asked him to become Acting Director. Although he had no wish to become an administra tor, Abbott took the position, to everyone’s relief, holding it until the advent of Dennis Power. When he retired in 1976, Abbott left the museum content that it was in good hands. Dennis Power, he said, "made the museum an exceptional di rector.”

Vertress VanderHoof Nora Morres Irma Cooke Caroline Hazard

Upon Vertress VanderHoof’s retirement, Nora Morres had again stepped in as Acting Director. Morres enjoyed the help of a number of staff members as the museum progressed through somewhat troubled times. One of those individuals was Irma Cooke, doyen of the educational program. "Cookie,” too, had been a disciple of Ralph Hoffmann and after his death. Caroline Hazard and she got to gether to plan a fitting memorial to the late director. Dr. Hazard provided the funds for the building of the Hoffmann Loggia, and Irma Cooke utilized it for the teaching of classes. Under Coggeshall, Cooke took her museum classes out to the was atschools, helping to cement the museum-community relationship he tempting to build. As funding tightened in the 1960s, education was the first area to feel cutbacks, and with a series of directors unsympathetic to the museum’s

educational function, "Cookie” simply held on, keeping the educational torch lit until such time as the program could be rejuvenated. Her lifelong dedication to Catherine education has been vindicated by the programs in place today under the direction Woolsey of Catherine Woolsey.

Frederick H. On January 1, 1965. Dr. Frederick H. Pough became Director of the Santa Pough Barbara Museum of Natural History. A vulcanologist and mineralogist from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was highly re-

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garded as a scholar, Pough brought to the museum a new hall of mineralogy and little else. In the words of one staff member, "He didn’t know much about museums,” and apparently he was not interested in learning, j I I I I I

as his stay in Santa Barbara was short.

The Pough period coincided with the retirement of Harold S. Chase from the board.

I Although the search I for an appropriate di-

Harold S. Chase

I rector was vexing, I Chase could reflect on . V* ^

I his fourteen-year ten. ure as President with real satisfaction. The

TTie short tenure ofDr. Frederick.Pough as Director illustrated one ofthe problerns plaguing the museum in the ip6os—lack oflong-term stability in administration.

museum had undergone extensive physical ex pansion during his reign. The Koefod Li brary, Farrand Lecture Hall, the Hale-Retc Laboratories, and the ChaseCoggeshall Hall of Birds now graced the museum grounds and the damage wrought by the fire had been repaired. The museum had continued to move for ward under Chase and a pattern set for the future.

Pough's departure restored Nora Morres to the Acting Directorship, and the board was content to search, without particular haste, for a new director.

Among those who contributed much to the museum's progress in this period was Clifton F. Smith, who had begun as a volunteer in the late 1940’s with a particu lar interest in botany. Eventually he became a part-time assistant, employed to do a bit of everything - taking tickets at programs, keeping the office open dur ing events and the like, while he continued to watch and learn, and contribute his collecting skills to the curators. His expertise became such that finally he was hired full-time as Librarian.

As Librarian, he saw to the expansion and improvement of the library’s hold ings, managing to get many of the rare books, documents and ephemera as gifts, for the library often went without a budget. The position of Curator of Botany was then added to his library duties. Although hampered by a mysterious physi-

Nora Morres Clifcon F. Smith

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During much ofa tenure that Lasted over 30 years, Clifton F.Smith served the museum as botk.Librarian and Curator(^Botany. William B. Deiveyphoto.

cal disabiliny he contracted as a young man, even so active a collector as Waldo Abbott had to admit he could not keep up with Clif Smith in the field.

His collecting skills bore fruit with the publication of his 1976 book, A Flora of the Santa Barbara B,egion, California, a greatly expanded version of a study he pub lished in 1952. Smith was another staff member that saw the museum through the rough waters of the 1960s and into the 70s.

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No new director appeared until the appointment of Lawrence John Pinter in October of 1969. A young and energetic individual, Pinter had come highly rec ommended to the board, and had, at least on the surface, an imposing education al background. Born in New Jersey, he had obtained most of his education in Southern California: an A.A. degree in zoology from Pasadena City College, an A.B. in zoology at UCLA, and a M.A. in biology at California State College, Los Angeles. According to reports, he was just about to complete a Ph.D. at Har vard. With just this scanty information on the man, the board hired him.

Pinter hit the museum like a winter southeaster. Demanding all sorts of ap parently groundless changes, Pinter proceeded to alienate almost everyone in the museum family. He so infuriated Nora Morres that she ended her forty-year as sociation with the museum with a premature departure, and it began to be ru mored that Pinter had actually caused the Curator of Anthropology, Phil Orr, to retire. He certainly treated Irma Cooke and her educational programs badly, causing a further erosion in that department. He cote down old buildings, dis carded what he considered unneeded records. The distress in the museum under his heavy hand became so great that the President of the Board, Preston Web ster, began to look into the situation.

Lawrence John Pinter

Nora Morres

Phil Orr Irma Cooke Preston Webster

Webster had been the one to bring Pinter to the board's attention, but when he began to dig into the man’s background, he found it was not all it appeared to be. Pinter was not, for instance, about to receive a degree from Harvard. That news caused an immediate uproar, and suddenly Lawrence John Pinter was gone.

With the museum in an administrative shambles, the board asked Waldo Ab bott to step in temporarily, while it proceeded to look for a new director, albeit with more care. The position was advertised and all applicants were carefully screened, with selected interviews then arranged. Out of this careful process came the selection of Dennis Power as Director.

With yet another new director taking office in 1972, there was little to indi cate that the period of difficulties was about to end, or that the museum was about to undergo a renaissance. Dr. Dennis M.Power was of that group of young academics that were moving into the museum field across the country. His field was evolutionary biology, his special interest the evolution and biogeography of island birds, using the tools of statistical analysis and computers. Santa Barbara was an ideal locale for his research.

Born in Pasadena, California, in 1941. Dennis Power grew up in Eagle Rock, hard against the hills fronting the San Gabriel Mountains. Hiking through the nearby canyons as a youth developed his interest in the natural world, but this took second place during his high school years to his fascination for art. He ini tially enrolled at nearby Occidental College as an art major, but soon switched to biology. An opportunity to study ornithology with Dr. John W. Hardy and work with the Robert T. Moore collection of neo-tropical birds his senior year confirmed Power's career choice.

He remained at Occidental after graduation in 1962, to work as curatorial as-

Waldo Abbott

Dennis Pov^r

106

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siscanc co Professor Hardy, and earn an M.A. in biology. Ar che suggestion of his mentor, and the recommendation of a classmate who had gone on ahead, Power chose to pursue the Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. The Kansas program benefitted from the presence on the campus of a fine natural history museum.

With their offices in the museum, Power and the other graduate students were exposed to the museum world, even though museology was not a formal part of

Dennis Power became Executive Director in 1972. and has ushered the museum into the computer age.

the curriculum. As a result, a substantial number of Kansas graduates are num bered among the leading museum directors throughout the country. Certainly the Board of Trustees took that as a good sign.

Obtaining his degree in 1967, Power then moved to Toronto, Canada, and a joint appointment as Assistant Curator of Ornithology at the Royal Ontario Museum and Assistant Professor of Zoology in the University of Toronto. He remained there for five years and developed his interest in the evolution of off shore island birds. But Californians, particularly those in cold climates, have a strong homing instinct. The Powers had made several family visits to Santa Barbara over the years, and Dennis had gained a research interest in the offshore islands here. Indeed, the National Research Council of Canada supported some of

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chat California research. On one of his sojourns, he heard chat the Sanca Barba ra Museum of Natural History was seeking a director and he applied.

One incident may have been crucial during that period. All the members of the board participated in the interview process. One member, Dr. Carey Stan ton, lived out on Santa Cruz Island and was unable to come to the mainland, but very much wanted to meet Dr. Power. Two other members, Peter Edwards and Arent J. "Barry" Schuyler, loaded Power aboard Edwards’ power boat and took him across to the island. The channel was rough, and, in Edwards’ words, "Den nis was green the whole time.” "He held up gamely,” remarked Schuyler. The in terview with Stanton went extremely well, even though Power faced the inevita ble return trip to the mainland, and he also had earned the respect of the two seamen. When the board met, there was one objection to Power’s "long hair,” but that argument was dismissed. Anyone who could fight through seasickness to get the job certainly had the fortitude to do what had to be done with the museum.

Power received the position.

Power immediately began to make a difference. He obtained a National Science Foundation grant that allowed him to install a computer terminal in his office and to connect it to the mainfame computer at the University of Califor nia, Santa Barbara. Power soon found the demands of management caused him to use the computer as much for accounting as for research.

To all outward appearances everything was functioning normally. Waldo Abbott had filled in quite capably, caking care of business after the retirement of Nora Morres, but his real love was in curatorial and teaching work, not adminis tration. All departments were operating and visitors continued to pour through the gates and yet there seemed to be a sense of stagnation; the museum did not seem to be moving forward.

One problem was the size of the administrative staff, which consisted only of the director and his secretary, with the latter responsible for a number of du ties including bookkeeping, reception and membership. Clearly a new manage ment structure would have to be built. Security was another problem, as priceless collections were poorly protected, reminiscent of quieter days in Mission Canyon when David Banks Rogers could have his entire laboratory out under the trees.

Clearly something had to be done about that.

But whatever else it cakes to operate a museum, money is essential and Power quickly found this was perhaps the most serious problem of all. Not that the museum was in dire straits, its accounts were in balance, but some 90% of the an nual operating budget came from earnings on the Endowment Fund. That meant that the slightest deviation from the status quo would require new money. Indeed, with inflation, new money would have to be acquired just to maintain present levels of activity. But a fund raising program was a long-term exercise. Power first turned his attention to one of the oldest departments in the museum. An thropology.

David Banks Rogers, the first Curator of Anthropology, had brought to the

Carey Stanton Peter Edwards Arent J. Schuyler

Waldo Abbott

David Banks Rogprs

108

Phil C. Orr

Phil C. Orr published heavily during his 30year stay at the museum,focusing his research on Santa Ppsa Island.

NOTICIAS

fledgling museum ics inicial discinccion with the publication of Prehistor ic JAan of the Santa Barbara Coast.

When Rogers retired in 1937, Arthur Coggeshall brought in as his replace ment a hard bitten, cigar chomping, no nonsense digger by the name of Phil C. Orr. Like many in his field during that period, Orr did not have an academic background, something that troubled him in later years, but his experience and training in institu tions like the Natural History Mu seum of Los Angeles County and the Field Museum in Chicago, where he served as an assistant curator, fully qualified him for the position and provided a solid foundation for a noteworthy career.

Coming to Santa Barbara in 1938, Orr was immediately drawn to the offshore islands, and eventually cen tered much of his work on Santa Rosa Island, where dwarf mammoth remains abounded. World War II held back his research across the channel,

but in the postwar period, Orr concentrated on what turned out to be the ex tremely rich archaeological remains on Santa Rosa. Orr was among the first to use the radiocarbon method of dating remains. Controversy erupted when Orr postulated that the ancestors of humans had inhabited the islands some 40,000 years ago, far earlier than anyone thought.

This controversy over Orr’s theory, which is now considered to be incorrect, tended to obscure many of his other contributions. Orr, for example, was among the first to suggest that the earth’s climate altered significantly during the Holo cene Era, with a great impact on humankind. Only recently have more and more investigators come to the same conclusion. Philip Orr’s long series of publi cations culminated in The Prehistory ofSanta Rosa Island, published by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in 1968. It was a fitting climax to a distin guished career.

For financial reasons, the position of Curator of Anthropology and Geology, which Orr held at retirement, was not refilled, and still stood vacant when Den nis Power became Director. He determined to remedy that situation, for anthro pology had always engendered great public interest and donor response. An-

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

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nouncemenc of the position brought a flood of applicants, and from a pool of more chan two hundred, the museum chose Dr. Dee Travis Hudson.

Travis Hudson's route to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History was a circuitous one. Born in Colorado, and raised in a series of foster families in Los Angeles. Hudson somehow became fascinated with American Indians, collected artifacts, and volunteered on archaeological digs wherever he could find them, at one point spending a few days on Santa Rosa Island with Phil Orr. He enrolled in junior college intending ultimately to work in geophysics, but after a few

Curator ofAndiropology Trams Hudson published voluminously on the Chumash Indians.

months dropped out and joined the Navy, where he became a flyer. Taking his discharge in 1964, Hudson worked in the computer industry to support his young family, but anthropology still attracted him. He enrolled in Santa Ana College, where he earned an A.A. degree, before moving on to California State Universi ty, Long Beach, for his B.A. Here he participated in archaeological excavations and published his first report. Under the auspices of the National Science Foun dation’s Trainee Program, Hudson attended Arizona State University, where he earned both a M.A. and Ph.D. in near record time.

Dee Travis Hudson

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Construction the year it made eleven voyages, iricluding a ten-day trip to ike Channel Islands Haworth photograph.

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

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As Curator and sole staff member of the Anthropology Department. Hudson, initially with only volunteer help, plunged into reorganizing and cataloging the museum’s huge collection of artifacts, while immersing himself in Chumash ethnohistory. Of particular interest to him were the voluminous notes of John P. Harrington, the ethnologist with wiiom David Banks Rogers had worked at Bur ton Mound. Armed with Harrington’s papers and his coincidental discovery of a shabby plank canoe, reputedly Chumash, in the basement of the Museum of Man in San Diego, Hudson conceived the notion of building a replica of that re markable watercraft. The project was timed to parallel the nation’s Bicentennial celebration, and generated a good deal of publicity for the museum. The Helek, as the canoe was named, also stimulated a revival of interest among local Chumash descendents and resulted in renewed efforts to preserve Chumash heritage.

Hudson published heavily during his career. In the aftermath of the chance discovery of the Condor Cave, Hudson and Ernest Underhay co-wrote. Crystals in the Sky: An Intellectual Odyssey Involving Chumash Astronomy, Cosmology, and IIpckArt{i978), recognized as "a milestone in a new field of research - archaeoas tronomy.” A growing fascination with material culture led Hudson to the task of cataloging all the artifact types noted by Harrington. That demanded a survey of the great museums of Europe, particularly the Soviet Union, many of which had collections containing Chumash materials. For three years, Hudson exam ined European collections, and had the good fortune, in those times before Glasnost, to spend several days at the Institute of Ethnography in Leningrad under the auspices of the American National Academy of Sciences and the Soviet Academy of Sciences, studying artifacts that existed nowhere else.

Hudson also published in fields outside anthropology. He did a series of histor ical articles on the 59th Georgia Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War, and a Hudson family history, among other things, but local Native American culture remained his primary interest. Often he worked with others in developing his ideas. Professor Thomas Blackburn, of Cal Poly, Pomona, was a close friend and collaborator. Dr. Philip Walker of UCSB joined him for work on Chumash medicine and he also worked with museum colleague Janice Timbrook. Clearly.

Hudson had invigorated the Department of Anthropology, indeed the entire mu seum.

Hudson’s untimely death in July 1985 came as a tremendous shock, but the progress the department enjoyed under him was not to slow. Director Power took immediate steps to recruit a replacement, and the museum was fortunate to ac quire Dr. John Johnson, the present Curator of Anthropology. While Johnson did not face the somewhat chaotic conditions his predecessor met upon arrival, he would inherit the monumental task of moving the entire Anthropology Depart ment and its collections into new quarters in the Collections and Research Cen ter, completed in 1991. This facility permitted, for the first time, proper storage and protection of the artifacts and allowed researchers to work more easily with the collections.

John P. Harrington

Ernest Undcrhay

Thomas Blackburn

Philip Walker anice Timbrook

John Johnson

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Present Curator ofAnthropology,John Johnson,makes extensive use ofike Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library in his research ofthe Chumash.

Michael Glassow

Johnson, coo, studies Chumash echnohiscory. Making extensive use of histori cal documents to determine demographic trends, Johnson spends much research time at the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library. He has worked closely with Chumash descendants in studying their culture.

Johnson grew up in Corona del Mar, where his parents were both high school teachers. In 1966, Johnson was one of a group of Orange County Explorer Scouts sponsored by the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society to spend part of the sum mer in New Mexico to work with archaeologists. There he met Michael Glassow, then a graduate student finishing his dissertation, who encouraged him in his archaeological pursuits. Johnson spent three more summers of field work in New Mexico, developing his skills and gaining experience. He attended Occi dental College for a year and then transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1969, the same year that Professor Michael Glassow joined the faculty.

Graduating with a B.A. in 1972, Johnson entered the shaky job market, ulti mately joining the Forest Service. Among his assigned tasks were archaeological surveys of National Forest areas. After three years he decided to go back to grad uate school. At that point, Professor Glassow also hired him as a half-time cura tor, but even so, Johnson had to take some time out to return to the Forest Ser vice in order to keep body and soul together. Although his dissertation was uncompleted, Johnson applied to the museum for the curatorial position and was hired as Hudson's successor. Today the department maintains the high standards set in place from the beginning.

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In che mid-1970s, Power turned his attention to the Education Department, traditionally the museum's closest link to the community. The department had suffered during the drift of the 1960s. Now in the hands of Curator Catherine Woolsey, wdio carried on in the spirit of Irma Cooke, it too was ready to move forward. Money was again a key, and the department worked to develop sources of funding. New, innovative programs were introduced, and participation by school children and the community at large grew year by year.

The Board of Trustees was undergoing its own soul searching. The board had for some time been an unhappy combination of two generations and two differ ent schools of thought. Arthur Coggeshall had expanded the board and changed its character by inviting more community involvement, but the group really did not reflect that change. The older generation, some of whom had been personal friends of Major Fleischmann, were fond of intervening in the daily operations of the museum, and wdiile they professed to understand the long term financial difficulties faced by the museum, were content to rely upon the Fleischmann Foundation to solve chose problems.

The newer members, many of whom had been students of Irma Cooke or vol

Catherine Woolsey

unteers in che Waldo Abbott tradition, perhaps understood che museum’s situa tion a little better, but did not have che power or influence to effect change.

They longed for a board which would not meddle in operations, but which in stead would set overall policy in conjunction with che director and staff. It was an unhappy and frustrating situation.

Once he had familiarized himself with che museum and its problems, Dennis Power went to his board, to initiate che process of planning. Out of a series of discussions, workshops, and che like, came the first Long Range and Short Range Development Plans in 1976, che new basis for che museum’s future. Even more important was che precedent sec. A process had been put in place insuring chat planning in the broadest sense would be an integral part of museum and board operations. Hopefully change could be anticipated, forecasts made and problems headed off.

Clearly, finances had been a primary item in che planning discussions. Annu al budgets were running deficits and efforts to secure grant funds for basic mu seum operations ran into serious difficulties, as granting institutions were more interested in funding specific programs or projects. Power convinced che board of che need for a professional fund raiser and Kenneth Saxon joined che staff. Thus, the museum cook its first, tentative step into che modern fundraising world with the beginning of che Development Department. Funds were almost immediately generated, but the real turning point would come in 1980.

Twenty years had passed since che death of Sarah Fleischmann. and, by law, che Fleischmann Foundation had to disperse all remaining assets. The older members of che museum’s board were confident that che Fleischmann distribu tion would secure che museum’s future. While che foundation gave che museum a substantial gift of $750,000, it was a small sum compared to che total given

Kenneth Saxon

IH

NOTICIAS

away and cercainly nothing in terms of what board members had expected. The museum was undeniably on its own, and would have to make its way by its own devices.

Also in 1980, the museum was awarded a National Endowment for the Hu manities Challenge Grant, which would give the museum one dollar for every three dollars raised. The museum pledged and successfully raised $450,000 over

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The Collections and F^esearch Center, thefirst major building added to the museum complex in over 2,0 years, opened in iggi. All science departments are now housed here.

Charles Slosser Drue McCormick Ru)a

the three-year period of the agreement, and earned $150,000 from the Endow ment. The Development Department was now an essential ingredient in museum operations.

Five years later. Dr. Charles Slosser replaced Kenneth Saxton and the mu seum moved into a large Capital Campaign. Completed at the end of 1990, that effort earned the museum a total of $7,400,000, and included the largest single gift in the museum’s history, $1,000,000, from the estate of Drue McCormick Ruja. Such successes only underscore the necessity of constantly working to keep the museum’s finances secure. Inflation, maintenance, and such other re quirements as seismic upgrading of older buildings, increases in insurance rates, withholding taxes and the like, require that the Endowment Fund be increased each year. Development has become an essential fourth component to the mu seum’s basic functions of research, education, and public service.

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

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Recognizing che significance of 1980 in die museum’s progress, Dennis Power had prepared an extensive annual report, sharing with members some of che his tory of the museum, recent achievements, and hopes for the future. The Board of Trustees, freed from che shadow of Max Fleischmann, expanded in size, in viting even more community participation, and divided itself into working committees, in order to better determine general policy. The museum had recov ered from the doldrums of che 1960s.

With financial matters under control, and che museum operating smoothly, Power could turn his attention to ocher areas. He served on che board and later as President of Coggeshall’s brainchild, the Western Museums Association. He real ized that it had grown too large to serve all the needs of its members, so he helped engineer the creation of the California Association of Museums.

Pressing for more ties between community and museum, Power was involved in generating a cooperative agreement with Santa Barbara City College to joint ly fund and operate che Gladwin Planetarium. A grant to che college was ob tained from che National Science Foundation to refurbish che facility and ac quire new equipment. City College classes are held in che museum’s facilities and a variety of public programs have been developed by che two partners.

Power did not neglect che need for new facilities. The Collections and Re search Center has Just been completed and the innovative Cartwright Hall, fea turing interactions of plants and insects, recently opened. So although che direc tor's position is such now chat he cannot don a smock and mount a bird or climb a ladder to paint a ceiling, he can, and does, makes those essential con tacts with che scientific world and che local community which have been che hallmark of che Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Aware of che community's interest in che marine life and ecology of che Santa Barbara Channel, stimulated in part by che oil spill of 1969, and sustained by the growing conservation movements. Power conceived of the idea of che Sea Center, an oceanfronc museum devoted exclusively to sea life. The board, supportive of the basic concept, feared that the cost of building, operating and maintaining such a facility would draw necessary support away from the museum proper. If such a center could be self-funding, then the board would support it.

Power held on to che idea, and, in a year or so, approached che major oil com panies for funding. Those corporations, drilling in the channel and looking to put something back into che community, were interested. The ARCO Founda tion offered a $25,000 planning grant, and the project was under way. Ocher companies and friends of che museum also contributed, but che Sea Center did not become an actuality until che Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, a division of che National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, offered to be a partner with the museum in the enterprise. This unlikely set of bedfellows, the major oil companies, a federal agency, the city of Santa Barbara, and che mu seum, came together to produce che small museum on Stearns Wharf, just out side the Santa Barbara harbor.

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MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

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The concept generated a great deal of excitement throughout the community, but never more so than when the lifesize whale replicas, designed to be the cen terpiece of the museum, were delivered. With the television cameras of the major networks humming in the background, and a large crowd of onlookers craning their necks for a good view, a helicopter, with the whale slung beneath, gently deposited its cargo onto the wharf. The Sea Center opened to the public on June 21. 1986. In the first five days of operation almost 2,700 people passed through its portals, but then abruptly the Sea Center closed its doors.

For the second time in its history, the Museum of Natural History was dealt a blow by fire. Flames had started up in the wharf pilings under the Center dam aging the building and its contents. Under close inspection, the damage proved less serious than originally thought. The whales, for instance, were only singed and could be repaired. Amid an outpouring of community support, an improved Sea Center was reopened within a year and now caters to some 100,000 visitors annually.

The rebuilding of the Sea Center epitomizes the spirit which has always in fused the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The imperative of scientif ic investigation motivated William Leon Dawson to bring together the people to form the nucleus of the museum. Ralph Hoffmann and his successors expanded

Museum Director I^alph Hoffmann escorts Albert Einstein and his wife on a tour ofthe Santa Barbara Museum offdaturalHistory in 1931.

118

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Dawson’s vision co include, wich equal emphasis, education and public service.

Around chose three ideas the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History was built, and belief in them has remained a constant over three-quarters of a century of growth and change. The hard work and dedication of trustees, staff and countless volunteers during the last 75 years has resulted in an institution of which the community can be proud.

On a brief holiday in Santa Barbara in 1931, Albert Einstein and his wife were created co a tour of the museum’s buildings and grounds by Director Ralph Hoffmann. Einstein wandered among the exhibits, asking a few questions, nod ding his approval. As he left, Einstein remarked wich his noted acuity, “I can see chat this museum has been built by the work of love." That comment is as ap propriate today as it was in 1931, and, as the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History moves into its fourth quarter century, the love chat has sustained it from the beginning will carry it on into an unlimited future.

119

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

NOTES liesearchfor this articU wasfacilitated by the excellent investigational shills of Dr. Sean P. OT^eill, now a member ofthefaculty ofQrand Vadey State Univer sity in Michigan. He did a great deal of the digging in museum files and else where, and, udth a keen sense of the significant, pointed me to that which was most important.

The best sources ofMuseum history are contained in the publications ofthe museum itself. The Annual Reports generally offer a briefsummary ofeventsfor each year, and in total provide a basic chronology ofmuseum growth. Especially important are the Annual Reports of

^934> ^Paul Marshall E_ea, and

the 1980 report produced by Dennis Power, which not only sum up the Museum story to their respective dates, but expand upon plans and expectationsfor the future. Beginning ■unt/i The Journal of Comparative Oology, andcondnuingon through Museum Leaflet and Museum Talk, the institution itself has been very good about keeping the community informed of activities and affairs. The various editors have been careful to write up capsule descriptions of new employees, pro jects, publications, and the like, and through these articles one can obtain a real sense of progress, change, and accomplishment. On the occasion of the Mu seum’s fiftieth anniversary, Museum Talk, Volume XLl, No. 2. (Summer ip66), published a long article, "Qolden Anniversary,” which again punctuates mu seum history with a brief summary. The museum has recently embarked upon a program ofdeveloping a series oforal histories with longtime associates of the mu seum, including board and staff members, and others who have been connected urith the museum over a span of time. They are extremely valuable to the re searcher, not only for the information they contain, but for the personal insights they offer.

The Santa Barbara News-Press, especially from the 1930 s through the early 1^60's, was a strong supporter of the museum, and published, over time, a series of thoughtful articles particularly about the people of the museum and their con tributions to the community. Ofspecial significance is an issue o/Noticias, Vol ume XI, No. z, Santa Barbara Historical Society (Spring 1965J, which was de voted to the Museum of Natural History. In it, June W. Hopkins, herself a longtime museum associate and employee, presented The First Twenty Five Years of the Santa Barbara Museum ofNatural History, ” an excellent summa tion of that critical period in museum development. Her prose has a personal touch which makes many of the characters, now long gone, come alive as real people. Other sources are brief and rather widely scattered, and include Sessions S. Wheeler's, Gentleman in the Outdoors, A Portrait of Max C. Fleischmann (I^eno, Nevada, University ofNevada Press, 1985). While Wheeler provides per sonal insight into Max Fleischmann and his motivations, and admits that, "Probably the Santa Barbara Museum ofNatural History occupied more of the Major’s time than any one ofhis many other projects . . .” He, unfortunately, de votes less than a page to that activity.

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SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES Mrs. Jean Goodrich . , .

Mr. David W.GledhOl Mr. David F. Myrick .

Mrs. Susan B. Simpson

President . . First Vice President Second Vice President Secretary Treasurer

Mr. Michael Rodrigue Mrs. Helene Beaver

Mr. Michael Galvin

Mrs. Jean Callanan Mr. Leland Crawford

Mr. J. James Hollister, III

Mr. Oswald J. Da Ros

Dr. C. Seybert Kinsell Mrs. Delfina R. Mott

Mr. C. John Douglas. Ill

Mr. Donn Tognazzini

Mr.John C. Woodward Mr. William F. Luton, Jr., Executive Director LIFE MEMBERS Mr. Stephen A. Acronico Mr. and Mrs. William B. Azbell Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Beaver

Mr. Richard C Harpham Mrs. Natalie B. Clark-Harpham Mr. and Mrs. Glenn D. Hillebrand

Mr. and Mrs. Danily Bell Mr. Marvin J. Branch

Dr. C. Seybert Kinsell

Dr. and Mrs. Ashleigh Brilliant Mr. H. R. de la Cuesta Burkhart Mrs. Virginia Castagnola-Hunter Mr. and Mrs. Pierre P. Claeyssens Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cleek

Mr. Eric P. Hvolboii Mr. and Mrs. William F. Luton, Jr. Mrs. Jane Rich Mueller Mr. Spencer L. Murfey, Jr.

Mrs. M. C. Conkey Mrs. Florence Corder-Witter

Mr. William W. Murfey Mr. David F. Myrick Mr. and Mrs. Godwin J. Pelissero Miss Frederica D. Poett

Mr. J. V. Crawford

Mrs. Rena Redmon

Mr. Richard G. Croft, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Ridley-Tree Mrs. Alma R. Ritchie Mr. and Mrs. Wade Rubottom

Maria Daily Mrs. R. E. Danielson, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Oswald J. Da Ros Mrs. Albert de L’Arbre

Mrs. Russell A. Ruiz

Mr. Wilson Forbes

Mrs. Melville Sahyun Mr. Peter J. Samuelson Mrs. Nina Sandrich

Mrs. Helen W.Foyer Master John Galvin Mr. Michael Galvin

Mr. and Mrs. J. Terry Schwartz Mrs. David Shoudy Mr. Walter G. Silva

Miss Sally Gane Mr. and Mrs. Keith Gledhill

Mr. and Mrs. Burke H. Simpson Mr. Ivano Paolo Vit

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Fish

Mr. and Mrs. John C. Woodward BENEFACTORS; Santa Cruz Island Foundation, Northern Trust of California, Jon Douglas Company and Two Anonymous Categories of membership: Life/Benefactor, $5,000 or more; President’s Circle, Si.ooo; Patron, $500; Associate, S250; Sustaining, $ioo; Supporting, $50; Regular. $30.

Contributions to the Society are tax-exempt.

Museum 61 Library; 136 East De la Guerra St., Santa Barbara. CA 93101 ● Telephone; 805/966-1601

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M NOTICIAS Quarterly Magazine of the

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