heritage highlights - western washington university winter_newsletter.pdf · and “the elwha: a...
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W E S T E R N L I B R A R I E S H E R I T A G E R E S O U R C E S
Heritage Highlights Winter 2015 Volume 3, Issue 1
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Fishtown Collection 1
Speaker Series 1
Director’s Letter 2
Acknowledgments 2
Rev. Hughes Papers 3
Pickford Partnerships 3
Featured Photo 4
Newsletter content contributed by Elizabeth Joffrion, Ruth Steele, and Paul Piper. Edited by Rozlind Koester.
Contact: [email protected]; (360) 650-7534; http://library.wwu.edu/hr .
T h e “ T a i l ” o f F i s h t o w n :
A R i v e r f r o n t A r t i s t s ’ C o m m u n i t y
Not many people outside the Skagit Valley know
about Fishtown but, at Heritage Resources, we’re
hoping to change that. Fishtown was an artists’
community on the lower Skagit River, several miles
upstream from where it empties into the Salish Sea.
In 1968, an artist named Charles Kraft—a disciple
of Anacortes-based painter Morris Graves—rented a
deserted fisherman’s shack on the North Fork of the
river. Over the next few years, friends and fellow
artists gradually reclaimed adjacent shacks, using
materials scavenged from the surrounding wilder-
ness to create living and studio spaces.
At its apex, Fishtown had around forty residents who
taught and
co l laborated
through vari-
ous creative
e n d e a v o r s .
Fishtown resi-
dents were
described as
Renaissance
artists who delight-
ed in creating See “Fishtown,” continued on p. 4
Poster for the Morris Graves Centennial Art
Show and Séance, Seattle, WA, 2010
Fishtown Collection, Special Collections
April 7th: “The Genuine Article:
Reading Artists’ Books.” Sandra
Kroupa, Book Arts and Rare Books
Curator at the University of Washing-
ton’s Special Collections, will exam-
ine how artists' books are received
when viewed in person versus
through exhibition. Long known for
her refusal to define “books,” Krou-
pa will discuss limited editions, one-
of-a-kinds, and all manner of books
presented by artists as physical
forms.
~ 4:00-5:30pm in Special Collec-
tions (6th floor, Wilson Library).
May 5th: “The Liberal Arts on Trial in
Bellingham: The Inside Story of the
‘Red Scare’ Firing of College Presi-
dent Charles H. Fisher.” Ron Judd,
veteran Seattle Times reporter and
Western Washington University Jour-
nalism Instructor, will explore the
history behind a mid-1930s "Red
Scare" in Bellingham, and the suc-
cessful campaign to remove West-
ern Washington College of Educa-
tion President Charles H. Fisher
from office.
~ 4:00-5:30pm in the Wilson 4 Cen-
tral Reading Room.
H e r i t a g e R e s o u r c e s
S p e a k e r S e r i e s
P a g e 2 H e r i t a g e H i g h l i g h t s
Our staff also regularly partner with the Washing-
ton State Archives and other external partners to
offer community-based workshops and trainings
covering the basics of archival research
(including genealogical studies and house histo-
ries), personal digital archiving and preservation
techniques, and specialized instruction for K-12
teachers to support curriculum development and
History Day projects on local topics.
We also maintain a robust exhibition schedule
that has included two traveling exhibits from the
Burke Museum—“The Owl & the Woodpecker”
and “The Elwha: A River Reborn”. We are cur-
rently featuring local artist Steve Mayo’s mari-
time paintings which depict scenes from the ear-
ly exploration of the Northwest Coast, and during
spring quarter we will host an exhibit commemo-
rating the bicentennial of the War of 1812, on
loan to us from the Canadian Consulate.
By engaging our audiences with exciting pro-
grammatic opportunities, we build awareness
and interest in the amazing collections housed
at Heritage Resources. Community assistance is
vital to the fulfillment of our mission and we al-
ways welcome inquiries about how community
members can contribute to these efforts. Thank
you, as always, for your ongoing support and we
look forward to seeing you at a future event.
With my best regards,
Elizabeth Joffrion, Director
Collaborative partnerships are fundamental to
the development of Heritage Resources’ collec-
tions, and building relationships with the local
and regional community is one of our primary
strategic goals. As Director of Heritage Re-
sources, I especially enjoy promoting our unique
collections for purposes of research, instruction,
and public programming. Over the past several
years we have sponsored exhibits, lectures,
workshops and special events designed to reach
new and diverse audiences, highlight staff exper-
tise, and showcase themes documented in our
holdings.
For example, last fall we launched our Heritage
Resources Speaker Series which features schol-
ars who have used our collections significantly in
their research. We also hosted a recent presen-
tation by Dr. Paul Englesberg on the 1907 “anti-
Hindu riots” and subsequent expulsion of the
Punjabi population from the Bellingham commu-
nity. In addition, we invited Professor Gregory
Fields to discuss his book, A Totem Pole History,
which documents the life of noted Coast Salish
artist Joseph Hillaire. We were honored that
members of the Hillaire family, along with Lummi
Master Carver Felix Solomon and the dance
troupe Children of the Setting Sun, were able to
participate in the event. These programs have all
been very popular with students, faculty, and the
broader community, and have tended to culmi-
nate in lively and engaged discussion.
D i r e c t o r ’ s L e t t e r
A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s
We would like to thank our devoted volunteers and student employees for all they do in support of Heritage
Resources. We would also like to thank the many individuals, families, and organizations who have made gen-
erous contributions of materials and/or monetary gifts. To donate records or make a financial contribution,
please email [email protected] or phone 360-650-3283. Donations can also be made online or by
mail to the Western Foundation, MS-9034, Western Washington University, 516 High St, Bellingham, WA
98225-9034. Please designate your contribution to Western Libraries and identify “Heritage Resources” as the
program you wish to support.
P a g e 3 V o l u m e 3 , I s s u e 1
C i v i l R i g h t s L e a d e r R e v e r e n d R o b e r t
H u g h e s ’ P a p e r s D o n a t e d t o C P N W S
The Center for Pacific Northwest Studies (CPNWS) is
delighted to announce the recent transfer of a col-
lection of archival papers documenting the life and
career of late civil rights activist Reverend Robert
(Bob) Epperson Hughes. Bob Hughes’ remarkable
career encompassed service with the Alabama
Council on Human Relations (1954-1961), terms as
a missionary in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and work on
civil rights issues in the Pacific Northwest for the
Department of Justice’s Community Relations Ser-
vice program (circa 1968-1994).
Records of Reverend Hughes’ work in the Pacific
Northwest include rich documentation of human
rights issues and social
activism in the region,
including Native Ameri-
can fishing rights, and
efforts to combat white
supremacism and the
m i l i t i a m o v e -
ment. These materials
will be a fine comple-
ment to existing
CPNWS collections cov-
ering related subject
matter such as the Whatcom Human Rights Task
Force Records, Northwest Ethnohistory Collection,
and Al Swift Congressional Papers.
The Hughes papers were formally donated to
CPNWS in early-2015 by Bob Hughes’ wife Dorothy
Hughes, following a connection established by West-
ern Washington University History Professor Dr. Ran-
dall Jimerson (who is also Director of Western’s
graduate program in Archives & Records Manage-
ment). Jimerson, who authored the recently pub-
lished work, Shattered Glass in Birmingham: My
F a m i l y ’ s
Fight For Civ-
il Rights
1961-1964,
is presently
conduct ing
research for
a biography
of Reverend
Hughes.
W h i l e t h e
Hughes papers
have still to be formally organized and processed,
we look forward to making these materials available
in support of teaching and research in the near fu-
ture. We extend our thanks to Mrs. Hughes and her
family for their generosity and support in transfer-
ring this fine collection to Western. Questions about
the Hughes Papers may be referred to CPNWS Ar-
chivist Ruth Steele.
Poster from the Whatcom Human
Rights Task Force Records, CPNWS
CPNWS employee Sarah Bollard at work with
the Reverend Hughes papers at CPNWS
Over the past several years, Heritage Re-
sources has enjoyed collaborating with Belling-
ham’s Pickford Film Center and other regional
partners to co-sponsor screenings of documen-
tary films related to fly fishing and the environ-
ment in the Pacific Northwest. Films have in-
cluded “Kiss the Water,” “Wild Rever-
ence” (with the Native Fish Society), and
“Return of the River” (with Huxley’s College of
the Environment). These “sold out” events al-
lowed us to feature Heritage Resources’ collec-
tions through exhibitions of books, artifacts, and
streaming images on the main screen prior to
the start of the films. We look forward to future
opportunities to work with this treasured com-
munity resource in the very near future.
P a r t n e r i n g w i t h t h e P i c k f o r d
Portion of Jimmie Pickett’s drawing of a birds-eye view of Bellingham Bay
published in the Daily Reveille in 1899, Galen Biery Photograph #2812, CPNWS
sculpture, poetry, collage, and varied assemblages
of form. Robert Sund, the unofficial Washington
State poet for much of his Fishtown life, often
adorned his poetry with paintings or calligraphy. An-
other peripheral resident was the letterpress guru
Clifford Burke, who came to the Skagit from the Bay
Area and taught community members how to run a
letterpress. Fishtown books, magazines, and broad-
sides were printed on his press which resided in the
basement of the Anacortes Library.
Special Collections began collecting Fishtown mate-
rials about a year ago after learning about the com-
munity from local artisan presses, artists, and liter-
ary publishers. Thanks to generous donations from
Skagit locals Bob Rose and Bo Miller, we’ve accu-
mulated twenty-three books by or about Fishtown
artists and writers, and assembled a collection of
“ephemera” including postcards and clippings from
the community. Many of these items were printed
on handmade paper, include original letterpress text
and artwork, and/or were published in small, limited
editions. They are remarkably unique and in many
cases quite rare. We are also actively conducting
oral history interviews with core Fishtown residents.
Special Collections staff and student employees are
currently working to digitize these resources to make
them more readily available through our online digi-
tal collections. If you are aware of Fishtown and
have stories to tell or materials to donate, we would
be very interested in hearing from you.
Image from an invitation to a showing of paintings by Skagit Valley
artist Paul Hansen, Fishtown Collection, Special Collections
“Fishtown,” continued from p. 1