Bancroft Fellows research images of the American West, history of Mexico’s Cora Indians
Each year, Bancroft selects two Ph.D. candidates to be Bancroft Fellows. They receive $9,500 plus fees and insurance to pursue research at Bancroft crucial to completing their dissertations. This year’s fellows are Elizabeth Beckenbach Leavy, art history, and Richard R. Warner, Jr., ethnohistory. The working title for Leavy’s dissertation is “The Best Possible Representation: Illustrating the West in John Muir’s Picturesque California,” which refers to the 1888 book edited by John Muir and illustrated by both Eastern and Western artists. It includes 35 essays by 16 authors, including Muir, and more than 600 illustrations.
Elizabeth Beckenbach Leavy with a copy of the 1888 book “Picturesque California,” edited by John Muir. |
In the preface, Muir describes the collection as the “best possible representation of the Marvelous Scenery and Sublime Natural Wonders of this unique region.” This—his sole project in which word and image are given equal standing —has until now been studied only for its text, says Leavy. She hopes to answer the question, “what image or images of the West was he trying to present to a national public?” “I’m interested in how the West was visually created,” says Leavy, a native of Los Angeles. “Eastern artists tended to have very romantic notions of what the West was like. The increasingly industrialized East wanted the West to remain rugged, individualistic, and non-industrialized.” Leavy also plans to find out just how involved Muir was in Picturesque California. “Muir was fighting to protect California’s environment at the time, and I’m intrigued by how these romanticized images of the West figured in that project,” she says. |
Leavy started using Bancroft as soon as she arrived on campus in 1992 as a graduate student. Her M.A. was on a 12th-century bronze bust of German Emperor Frederick Barbarosa, which was later used as a reliquary for the hair of John the Evangelist. Then she became fascinated by Buffalo Bill’s notebook and the letters of Charles Christian Nahl, a German artist painting the Gold Rush. “Bancroft has an abundance of resources, both primary and secondary” she says. “There are huge amounts for an art historian studying the American West to pore over, images to look at.”
Rick Warner is working towards his Ph.D. in history at UC Santa Cruz. His dissertation topic is “An Ethnohistory of the Coras of the Sierra del Nayar (Mexico), 1600-1830.”
The Cora Indians, still very much in existence just north of Puerto Vallarta, were one of the last Indian tribes conquered by the Spanish—if they ever were conquered. No scholarly history of the Cora has been written, and Warner is finding a wealth of information at Bancroft to flesh out his studies, especially in the Bolton Papers.
Herbert Bolton, director of The Bancroft Library 1920-40 and professor of history 1911-40, supervised more than 100 Ph.D. dissertations. He and his students were the first historians systematically to research the Mexican-American borderlands. Warner is working his way through these papers, including the writings of missionaries, political and military men, and even some dictations by the Indians themselves. “In my more romantic moments, I feel like I’m one of Bolton’s students, a few generations removed,” he says.
Rick Warner with a 1785 map made by a Spanish policeman of Nayarit Province—home of the Cora Indians. |
The Coras weren’t conquered until 1722. “They were a fiercely independent tribe, and it was very hard to reach them,” explains Warner. “It’s still hard to reach the Coras, and they’re still suspicious of outsiders. They have a long, mysterious history.” After receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont, Warner came West, ending up as executive chef at the upscale Casa Blanca restaurant in Santa Cruz. It was there, thanks to a largely Mexican kitchen crew, that he became interested in Mexico and its cultures. “Bancroft has incredible collections— people have no idea what’s here,” he marvels. “It’s a huge resource for northwest Mexico and western America. The amount of microfilm is astounding. There are thousands of pages here I need to read, thanks largely to the commitment of UC Berkeley historians at the beginning of the century.” |
—by Julia Sommer
Volume 112
Spring 1998
Table of Contents
DeFeo, Conner papers add to Bancroft’s Beat collection
From the Director: What does Bancroft collect?
The Digital Scriptorium
Towards a Renaissance in medieval manuscript studies
Robert Frost Collection includes photos inscribed by the poet
Bancroft Fellows research images of the American West, history of Mexico’s Cora Indians
Freshmen discover the wonders of Bancroft
Bancroft staffer in the spotlight
An Oral History of Jack Stauffacher From letterpress to computer-designed fine printing
Where is the last portrait of Mark Twain?
