I am doing research, per Dr. Castaneda's request, on Dr. John W. Hudson. I need to find the who, when, where, and how he relates to Native California. Dr. Hudson is mentioned in Joel S. Cotton's small notebook posted on smugmug. It states "Refer to Dr. Hudson of Ukiah for information regarding baskets and prices or Carl Purdy, Ukiah." At this point in my search, I am assuming they knew each other, and Dr. Hudson was regarded by Cotton as an expert in basketry. Also noted in Cotton's notebook, numerous items were purchased in the Ukiah area, where Hudson was from.
I did an initial search online and came up with The Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah. Grace Carpenter Hudson was the wife of John W. Hudson. She is a well-known artist of native peoples and coincidently one of her paintings is on the cover of our text, "Indian Baskets of Central California." Dr. Hudson practiced medicine but gave up his practice and spent the remainder of his life working as an ethnographer and collector, and conducting extensive research of California Indians and basketry. Some of his artifacts are found in the Smithsonian, the Field Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and of course the Grace Hudson Museum. The museum also has the original documents for much of his collection. Here is the link to the museum for those who are interested http://www.gracehudsonmuseum.org/ . Also, FYI, beginning Sunday, Feb. 28th-June 20th, there will be a Maynard Dixon exhibit at the museum.
I also spoke with a CSUS librarian and she said that reproductions of John Hudson's papers are in the North Bay Regional and Special Collections University Library at Sonoma State. I contacted special collections librarian Lynn Prime and she sent me a Finding Aid on the John Hudson Papers. It has a small bio on Hudson and gives a contents list of what is included in his papers. Also, Lynn was not sure, but said to check the State Archives to see if they shared the information with them. I have printed off the information I have found so far and will talk to Dr. Castaneda to see where to go from here. I spent 3 1/2 hours this week reading and blogging and doing research on Dr. Hudson, for a total of 6 1/2 hours.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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I don't think it's quite relevant, but a few years ago there was a photography exhibit at the Railroad Museum featuring the work of A.O. Carpenter who was the father of Grace Hudson, John's wife.
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting. I think Ukiah is where I had my archaeology field school w/ UCD (in 2002?).
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to get to the library this week, so I'll try to look into some of this stuff. :)
Great research Mary-you've given Team 2 quite a bit of material to work with. My own thought is that they should develop something in their area that speaks to the Purdy and Hudson references in Cotton's book (blowing that page up for foamcore mounting) and explaining to visitors (in an accompanying label) why he mentions these names.
ReplyDeleteGood, hope this helps them. I'll bring the folder I started, and give them the information I have next Wednesday.
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