Tag: Hopi Kachinas

There has been a tendency on the internet, specifically in FaceBook group pages, of American Indian art dealers and collectors referring to the late author and anthropologist Barton Wright as “Barton Wrong.” We can only assume this in reference to mistakes in his publications that have surfaced over the decades. Ironically, Barton would have been the first to admit there were errors in his books; even frankly acknowledging them in the introduction to Hallmarks of the Southwest:

Foremost among the points that must be kept in mind is the fact that this is not an exhaustive work but one, it is hoped, to which additional information may be added. Secondly the fact that there are errors in the data is fully recognized. However the impossibility of removing such errata is apparent when it may require a year to check out a single mark. The elimination of these mistakes requires the cooperation of craftsmen and those who work with them.

He not only understood, but recognized, that the research he conducted in the 1970s and 1980s would be built upon and corrected in the future. Yet, he continues to be criticized for those very errors.

The limitations in the scope and methodology of study available to Barton at the time of his research should be taken into consideration when judging the accuracy of his publications. Barton, and Margaret Wright in her own jewelry book Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing, did their research the hard way, before computers, the Internet or digital cameras. The work was long and painstaking back then.

It’s difficult for contemporary readers to comprehend the enormous task of constructing the original hallmark database in a pre-digital age. It’s also hard to think back to the time before the publication of any book containing hallmarks of Indian jewelry—as more than forty years have passed since the first printing of Hopi Silver—and how it would be nearly impossible today to reconstruct that data if it had not been recorded when it was. Where would the knowledge of southwestern Indian jewelry be now if it weren’t for the record of hallmarks that Barton compiled and published more than twenty-five years ago in Hallmarks of the Southwest? His work laid a foundation for further research and started dialogs that we all—collectors, dealers and academics—continue to this day.

It’s easy for people to criticize publications when they haven’t been through the rigors and sacrifices required to publish a book. We often think of a note that Barton sent us shortly before the publication of Hopi & Pueblo Tiles, where he stated, “I’m so pleased you are nearing your goal of a published book. I still think people who write books are masochists! And I suspect you will agree.” We are only now gaining a full appreciation for his use of the term masochist as we feel the occasional jab of criticism and controversy over our own hallmark book.

And it’s just not in the jewelry groups where people tend to disrespect Barton, it’s in the kachina groups as well. Why do kachina collectors feel the need to criticize his books? He only spent a lifetime studying, writing about and befriending the Hopi people. Some Hopis, such as Ross Josyesva, Jimmy Kewanwytewa’s stepson, believe that, “Barton knew more about Kachinas than most Hopis.” Barton’s Hopi Kachinas: The Complete Guide to Collecting Kachina Dolls, published in 1977, was the first book to focus on identifying and collecting kachina carvings. What reference would collectors and dealers use if it weren’t for this book and the others that Barton published in his lifetime?

It is not merely disrespectful, but arrogant and rude to refer to a scholar who was considered the foremost authority on Hopi culture and kachinas in his lifetime as “Barton Wrong,” especially now that he isn’t here to defend his work.

A Tribute

Barton Allen Wright was born in Bisbee, Arizona in 1920 to Roy and Anna Wright; Roy was a miner and the family moved often while Barton was young. They eventually settled in Mohave County where he graduated from Kingman High School. Barton acquired a vast knowledge of northwestern Arizona, and held a pilot’s license for the Colorado River; from 1940 to 1942 he and a friend ran the ferry at the site that would become Davis Dam.

During World War II Barton served in the Army, seeing combat on New Guinea and in the Philippines. After returning home he married Margaret Nickelson and they raised two children. Also after the war, he graduated from the University of Arizona, trained in archaeology and anthropology. His Masters Thesis was on Catclaw Cave on the Colorado River, a site he dug in 1949 with his new wife Margaret and two friends. He then began his career as an artist for Arizona State Museum.

In the early 1950s Barton worked as the archaeologist at Town Creek Indian Mound State Park in Mt. Gilead, North Carolina, and later for the Amerind Foundation at an excavation near Tumacacori. The Wrights moved to Flagstaff in 1955 when Barton became curator of the Museum of Northern Arizona. In 1977 the Museum of Man, in San Diego’s Balboa Park, recruited him as the Director of Scientific Research. Retirement beckoned and six years later Barton and Margaret moved to Phoenix where he continued to research and write about the southwest.

Among his many accomplishments was a body of published work of over twenty books and numerous articles that he wrote or contributed to, as well as serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of American Indian Art magazine from it’s inception in 1974 until his death in 2011.

Barton was a long time student of southwestern Indian history, especially interested in the Hopi people and their religion. He was a talented painter and graphic artist who illustrated many of his own publications as well as those of other authors. He was a patient and kind mentor, never once doubting that Pat and I would contribute to the field of American Indian art, lack of academic degrees notwithstanding.

*Thanks to Alan Ferg for much of the biographical info above, some of which was published in Catclaw Cave.

See previous blog post for a listing of published works by Barton Wright.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog December 27, 2015.