Tumbleweed Found Booklist 1

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Phillip Sendker

A recent favorite of mine.

This is a passionate love story, a haunting fable, and an enchanting mystery set in Burma. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One of the most influential literary works of our time, One Hundred Years of Solitude remains a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women—brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul—this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.

Our Lady of the Lost and Found: A Novel of Mary, Faith, and Friendship by Diane Schoemperlen

Recommended by a current consigner. A perfect break to companion while researching a collection of retablos.

One Monday morning in April, a middle-aged writer walks into her living room to water the plants and finds a woman standing beside her potted fig tree. Dressed in a navy blue trench coat and white Nikes, the woman introduces herself as "Mary. Mother of God.... You know. Mary." Instead of a golden robe or a crown, she arrives bearing a practical wheeled suitcase. Weary after two thousand years of adoration and petition, Mary is looking for a little R & R. She's asked in for lunch, and decides to stay a week. As the story of their visit unfolds, so does the story of Mary-one of the most complex and powerful female figures of our time-and her changing image in culture, art, history, as well as the thousands of recorded sightings that have placed her everywhere from a privet hedge to the dented bumper of a Camaro.

As this Everywoman and Mary become friends, their conversations, both profound and intimate, touch upon Mary's significance and enduring relevance. Told with humor and grace, Our Lady of the Lost and Found is an absorbing tour through Mary's history and a thoughtful meditation on spirituality, our need for faith, and our desire to believe in something larger than ourselves.

Kintsugi: Finding Strength in Imperfection by Céline Santini

I have a love for petina and signs of age. Even the cracks carrying beauty and character. Kintsugi highlights these “wounds” and makes them even more valuable and beautiful. What does the symbolize for us when we heal our own wounds?

Embrace the adversity in your life, heal your wounds, and build a more resilient you in Céline Santini’s award-winning self-care book inspired by the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi. Winner of the 2019 Golden Nautilus Book Award. Japan is an inspiration in the personal growth and development field. Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with powdered gold. Day after day, week after week, stage by stage, the object is cleaned, groomed, treated, healed, and finally enhanced. Nowadays it has also become a well-known therapy metaphor to resilience. This practical book will help you overcome rough times, heal your deepest wounds, and become whole again through the numerous stages, writing exercises, and testimonies.

Always Room at the Top by Ganna Walska

Signed book available through Tumbleweed Found, $450. Please DM for more information and to place your order.

Published in 1943, this is the story of the life of an internationally known personality --a woman of beauty and wit, and a patroness of the arts whose activities have always been directed toward fostering truth and beauty. Her patience and perseverance in endeavoring to create beauty, both in the material world and in the soul of humanity, are fully set forth in this book. Through these pages pass the most famous personages of her time in the fields of music, art, politics, religion, statesmanship and philosophy. Her story will be an inspiration to those who have been discouraged and disheartened in life. It is an honest and revealing tale.

“For constant dropping of water wears away stones. By diligence and patience the mouse ate the cable in two. And little strokes fell great oaks. “ Benjamin Franklin

Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Clayton

Signed (with West Coast memorial brochure for Horace Roscoe Cayton, Jr.) book available through Tumbleweed Found, $250. Please DM for more information and to place your order.

This book originates from a personal library library of a renowned academic. We work closely with families to rehome these notable libraries.

Ground-breaking when first published in 1945, Black Metropolis remains a landmark study of race and urban life. Few studies since have been able to match its scope and magnitude, offering one of the most comprehensive looks at black life in America. Based on research conducted by Works Progress Administration field workers, it is a sweeping historical and sociological account of the people of Chicago’s South Side from the 1840s through the 1930s. Its findings offer a comprehensive analysis of black migration, settlement, community structure, and black-white race relations in the first half of the twentieth century.

John Gibbs St. Clair Drake (January 2, 1911 – June 15, 1990) was a pioneering black social anthropologist and activist, one of only nine black anthropologists before WWII. He dedicated his scholarship – ethnographic studies of race, class, and social structure – to the eradication of social inequalities and racial injustice.

Horace Roscoe Cayton Jr. (April 12, 1903 – January 21, 1970) was a prominent American sociologist, newspaper columnist, and writer who specialized in studies of working-class black Americans, particularly in mid-20th-century Chicago. Cayton is best remembered as the co-author of a seminal 1945 study of South Side, Chicago, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City.

Female Subjects in Black and White; Race, Psychoanalysis, FeminismEdited by Elizabeth Abel, Barbara Christian, Helene Moglen

3 copies available through Tumbleweed Found, $30 each. Please DM for more information and to place your order.

This book originates from a personal library of an eminent figure in women’s studies and the feminist movement. We work diligently to rehome these publications.

This landmark collaboration between African American and white feminists goes to the heart of problems that have troubled feminist thinking for decades. Putting the racial dynamics of feminist interpretation center stage, these essays question such issues as the primacy of sexual difference, the universal nature of psychoanalytic categories, and the role of race in the formation of identity. They offer new ways of approaching African American texts and reframe our thinking about the contexts, discourses, and traditions of the American cultural landscape. Calling for the racialization of whiteness and claiming that psychoanalytic theory should make room for competing discourses of spirituality and diasporic consciousness, these essays give shape to the many stubborn incompatibilities—as well as the transformative possibilities—between white feminist and African American cultural formations.

Bringing into conversation a range of psychoanalytic, feminist, and African-derived spiritual perspectives, these essays enact an inclusive politics of reading. Often explosive and always provocative, Female Subjects in Black and White models a new cross-racial feminism.

Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry

Recommended by a dear friend in the vintage/antique world.

Buffalo Girls is a 1990 novel written about Calamity Jane. It is written in the novel prose style mixed with a series of letters from Calamity Jane to her daughter. In her letters, Calamity describes herself as being a drunken hellraiser but never an outlaw. Her letters also describe her larger-than-life cohorts.[1]

McMurtry depicts gritty events and relationships in the life of fur trappers, cowboys, soldiers, prostitutes, and Indians as the Wild West fades away, changing their way of life. The characters struggle, and many fail, to adapt to the settling of the West. In an effort to adapt and relive the Wild West, many of the characters, along with Calamity Jane, resort to performing in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show. They exploit and are exploited by their frontier lifestyle, before being defeated by it in the end.

lsie De Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration by Penny Sparke

My tail wags for interior design! Checkout the historical Elsie de Wolfe.

Elsie de Wolfe is a twentieth-century legend and is the mother of modern interior decoration. Her name is familiar to many who practice the art of interior design or who are linked to the fashionable world of tastemaking. She provided appropriate settings for the new rich in the first half of the twentieth century and in the process helped to shape our understanding of what we have come to know as the modern domestic interior. Through the measured re-examination of known materials as well as the review of history-clarifying documents that have been overlooked or underused by previous de Wolfe enthusiasts, Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration provides the foundation of a renewed interest in her groundbreaking career, her philosophy of design, and her belief that an atmosphere of beauty could cure a world of ills. This large format, profusely illustrated book covers twenty-nine projects (including Villa Trianon, The Colony Club, Anne Vanderbilt, Anne Morgan, the Duchess of Windsor, and J. Ogden Armour, to name a few) and concludes with a timeline of her works. Written by English decorative arts scholar Penny Sparke and edited by New York Times contributor Mitchell Owens, Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration presents the most in-depth look ever into the design aesthetic of this early twentieth-century master decorator.

Join me in Gathering Family Stories—Part 2

(See Gathering Family Stories—Part 1 here)

About You/Your Childhood

When and where were you born?

Was there anything unusual about your birth?

Do you know why you were given your name? Does it have a special meaning?

What was the birth order among your siblings?

What stories have you been told about yourself as a baby?

What are your earliest memories of your childhood?

Do you consider your childhood happy? Why or why not?

What were you like as a child?

Describe the home(s) and neighborhood(s) in which you grew up.

Describe your family’s economic conditions and the factors that affected your lifestyle.

Tell about your brothers and sisters, as well as step-siblings, and your relationships with each of them.

Did you go to nursery school or kindergarten? What do you remember about it?

Describe your first elementary school. What was your first day like there?

What memories do you have about getting to and from school?

When you got home from school each day, who was there to greet you? What was the first thing you usually did after school?

Tell about your favorite elementary teachers.

What was your favorite subject? Why?

Did you ever receive an award or recognition for special achievement?

Do you remember the occurrence of any significant historic events during your elementary school years?

Which friends do you best remember and why?

What games and activities did you enjoy?

Tell about the first motion picture you saw.

What were your favorite radio and television shows?

Did you have any pets? What were they? What were their names? How important were they in your life?

Did you ever have a special place where you went to be alone?

What did you daydream about?

What were your favorite things to eat? Are there any smells, flavors, sounds, songs, etc..that take you back to childhood memories?

What birthday do you remember the most? Why?

How did you spend your summers?

Where did your family go on vacation? Which is your most memorable vacation?

Describe how important religion was to your family when you were little?

What part did religion play in your social activities?

Which religious holidays were celebrated in your home? Describe.

What do you remember about any health epidemics?

Were you ever seriously ill when you were little?

Did you have any serious accidents as a child?

Did you experience a family tragedy during childhood? How did it effect you?

Did you have any favorite relatives? How important were they to you?

Tell about the people who influenced you the most in your childhood?

What are the most memorable experiences you shared with your grandparents?

What is your saddest childhood memory?

Tell the story about something funny that happened during your childhood.

What is your happiest childhood memory?

What other memories would you like to share about your childhood?

Keep an eye out on our blog for the next set of questions, Gathering Family Stories—Part 3

Kintsugi means “golden joinery”, also known as Kintsukuroi or “golden repair” is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique. The Kintsugi technique treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

Japanese historical sources suggest that a favorite tea bowl of the 8th Ashikaga Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490), had been sent to China for repairs and was returned with metal staples that he found displeasing. It is reported that he ordered a substitute be found and kintsugi was born.

Collectors became so enamored with the new art that some were accused of deliberately smashing valuable pottery so it could be repaired with the gold seams of kintsugi.

In addition to serving as an aesthetic principle, kintsugi has long represented philosophical ideas. Namely, the practice is related to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which calls for seeing beauty in the flawed or imperfect. The repair method was also born from the Japanese feeling of mottainai, which expresses regret when something is wasted, as well as mushin, the acceptance of change.

I’m attracted to the symbolism of this beautiful art—taking something broken and highlighting it’s cracks/wounds, emphasizing the broken parts of ourselves and honoring it in gold. As if to say that by doing our “work” we are becoming stronger, more beautiful and whole again.

What does Kintsugi symbolize for you, personally?

I stumbled across a book called Kintsugi Wellness by Candice Kumai. Parts of her documentary are available online to watch, see attached link. Candice opens with, "We all come from broken places. We can take those broken pieces and turn them into something truly beautiful.”

I recently cleared out the library of an estate. This library was full with a lifetime of books. These books revealed so much about the owner’s interests and passions. The subjects varied from poetry, classic novels, political science, international relations, local history, race and social justice. The earliest book dating back to 1847. I love seeing what’s inside—the date, if it was signed or has a personal inscription and those tucked away notes or newspaper clippings… What an intimate process. In this situation, many books and papers were donated to organizations and colleagues that shared the same profession and work. We are selling the remainder of the books. Please inquire if you are interested in getting a preview.

It makes one think, does my library represent me and my interests? What will my family learn about me through my books, when I go.

When a family member or loved one passes, spend time with their books, if you can. Be with what interested them. Learn more about them through the variety of subjects, sitting on their shelves. You can preserve their library by typing a list of their books for you and generations after you to remember what interested them (you could even note personal inscriptions).

While it’s not practical to keep every book, consider keeping a few and passing along others-Are there any books that intrigue you?, that make you want to learn why it was important to your loved one? Do you know someone else in the family that would? (gift it with an inscription like, “from the library of your Grandma Clara Olson(1924-2016)”. Gift them to friends that share similar interests. Donate them to an organization, museum, historian, researcher, writer or your local library.

In your own home—type up a booklist of what’s on your child’s book shelf at different stages of their life—what are their favorite childhood books? What books were on their bookshelf before they left home? Were any books gifted from family (how were they inscribed)?

When you’re purging your personal library, type up a booklist of the books you’re letting go of so you remember them and can refer to them while making room for new book interests.

1. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein(1964)

2. The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti by Felix Frankfurter(1927)

3. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (1929)

4. Ex-Wife by Johnathan and Harrison Smith(1929)

5. She’s Tricky Like Coyote by Lionel Youst (1997, signed)

6. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyff Hall (1928)

7. The Occasional Speeches of Justice: Oliver Wendell Holmes by Mark DeWolfe Howe (1962)

8. Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley (1928)

9. Boss Ruef’s San Francisco by Walton Bean (1967)

10. Little Journeys by Elbert Hubbard (1897)

11. In Flander’s Fields by John McCrae (1919)

12. Black Metropolis by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton (1945, signed)

Send us a dm if you’re interested in any of the books above.

Finding Soul with Vintage & Antiques w/ Matt Humphrey @matthump

Featuring @matthump on the subject of adding vintage and antiques to your home for depth and meaning—

1. What does this mean to you?

Our house is filled with vintage art and objects, and the collection is always changing. Partly because the sheer amount of stuff is sometimes a problem. Okay, it’s always an issue, but moving on, for me it’s not about amassing as much as possible before time is up. It’s about pausing. Moments. I check in with objects or small groups of them as I move through our space, often. Through regular appreciation of craft, oddness, usefulness, and beauty, I receive comfort. I am at home.

2. What is a tip you have to share when it comes to buying or adding vintage and antiques to your home?

Well, I know that money vanishes and often without a trace. So does the best vintage. If you see an item that a) knocks your socks off and b) seems fairly priced, just get it. Seriously. I still wince when I remember items I should have bought years ago. Also, if you blow it, no one has to know except you and the seller. I’ve bought things I immediately regretted at a garage sale and left them on the curb before getting in my car.

3. If this topic were a song, what song would it be?

Many Mirrors by Alvvays

This photo is a soulful space in Matt’s home.

Matt Humphrey

El Cerrito, Bay Area, California

@matthump

@narrativeoak in Jack London Square and online etsy.com/shop/foundofyou

Often family heirlooms are passed down to loved ones but the family stories are lost.

Join me in Gathering Family Stories—Part 1

Here are questions to ask your parents. If your parents have passed, ask yourself (their siblings, your siblings…) these questions.

About Your Mother’s Side

If your ancestors emigrated from another country, from where did they come from? When? How did they come? Where did they settle and why?

What do you remember about your oldest relative(s) you knew personally?

When and where were your mother’s mother and father born? What was her mother’s maiden name?

Describe the kind of persons they were?

If you have inherited any of the characteristics of your mother’s parents, describe what they are and how you feel about them?

What do you know about their values, philosophies and religious beliefs?

What kind of work did your mother’s parents do?

What else would you like to say about them?

About Your Mother

Has your mother shared any stories she knew about her parent’s childhood?

When and where was your mother born? Where did she grow up? What was her maiden name?

Tell about the family in which your mother grew up. Do you know what her childhood was like? Do you remember any stories she told you about it?

What memories do you have of your mother during your childhood?

Describe your mother’s work, both in and out of the home.

What other interests did she have? What were her hobbies and what did she do for fun?

Which of your mother’s physical and personality characteristics did you inherit?

Describe her best qualities.

Describe your mother’s traits with which you are least compatible.

Did she experience much sadness or tragedy while you were little? How did she deal with it?

What is the happiest memory you have of your mother?

What is the most painful memory you have of her?

Tell about your mother’s spiritual or religious beliefs.

If she is deceased, how and when did she die? Where is she buried?

What are the most important things you learned from your mother?

What else do you remember about her?

About Your Father’s Side

If your ancestors emigrated from another country, from where did they come from? When? How did they come? Where did they settle and why?

What do you remember about your oldest relative(s) you knew personally?

When and where were your father’s mother and father born? What was his mother’s maiden name?

Describe the kind of persons they were.

If you have inherited any of the characteristics of your father’s parents, describe what they are and how you feel about them.

What do you know about their values, philosophy, and religious beliefs?

What kind of work did your father’s parents do?

What else would you like to say about them?

About Your Father

Has your father shared any stories she knew about his parent’s childhood?

When and where was your father born? Where did he grow up?

Tell about the family in which your father grew up. Do you know what his childhood was like? Do you remember any stories he told you about it?

What memories do you have of your father during your childhood?

Describe your father’s work, both in and out of the home.

What other interests did he have? What were his hobbies and what did he do for fun?

Which of your father’s physical and personality characteristics did you inherit?

Describe his best qualities.

Describe your father's traits with which you are least compatible.

Did he experience much sadness or tragedy while you were little? How did he deal with it?

What is the happiest memory you have of your father?

What is the most painful memory you have of him?

Tell about your father’s spiritual or religious beliefs.

If he is deceased, how and when did he die? Where is he buried?

What are the most important things you learned from your father?

What else do you remember about him?

From the book, The Story of a Lifetime: A Keepsake of Personal Memoirs by Pamela and Stephen Pavuk

Keep an eye out on our blog for the next set of questions, Gathering Family Stories—Part 2

Tumbleweed Found works closely with families who've lost a loved one. When the family (and/or Trust) is ready, we offer a free consultation and an estate walk-through. We bring a calm loving presence to help strategize what is needed to carryout the wishes of the deceased. This is done with great organization and utmost respect.

Depending on the situation, we offer:

Asset inventory

Coordination and referral for formal appraisals

Estate sale preparations-sorting, staging and pricing

Coordination of private buying appointments

Consignment services

Advertising

Public Estate Sale (on or off-site)

Accounting report

Final clear out of estate-donations and dump runs

I have unquenchable thirst for family history. Give me a mystery and I’ll dig to all corners of the earth for the answers. The hunt--full of timelines, relationships, questions and "trying on” possibilities. The rewards, so satisfying or suspended in mystery.

Often, I go looking so hard for one person and find another person or path.

I was contacted by a genealogist that was working for a family, a descendent of a common ancestor. He wanted to know if I want to research with him. So, the magnifying glass went to this branch of the tree and it’s descendants….Ben Olson is my Great Great Grandfather on my maternal side. I won’t geek out too hard on you, I’ll keep to basic information. Ben and Clara married in MN and for unknown reasons Ben left and lived in a nearby town as a bartender (listed single) while Clara (listed as married) lived with his family and their baby Hilda. I don’t know what happened to Clara. Hilda was given to family in Lake Preston, SD to be raised. I was hoping that tracking Ben would give me more information about Clara and Hilda but, instead I learned about Ben’s suicide and his brother Eugene’s murder.

Ben moved from Minnesota to North Dakota and then to Canada where he joined his brother Eugene fur trapping. For unknown reasons they split up and trapped different areas. In 1930, Eugene and his partner were murdered in their cabin on the Thelon River, in the Northwest Territories.

Fascinated by this life of solitude and harsh conditions, I found a book on Ebay that was written about a man interviewing a Canadian trapper that would’ve been alive during the same time period. I got to better understand the landscape, the trade, the beauty and the intensity of this chosen career. I let out a scream when the author mentioned the known murder of my great great uncle and his partner. I got ahold of newspaper articles, Canadian Mounted Police reports and death certificates. I found a kayaking company that does excursions up the river where they died. They wanted to know all the facts so they could honor and correctly pass on their history to their tours. They blessed me with photos of the man-made grave. There were a theories about who murdered them—Albert Johnson AKA the Mad Trapper of Rat River or Inuk Tekaluk. The trappers left a journal that was an important part of the investigation. I recently contacted the RCMP Historical Collections Department to see if any items, including the journal are at a museum or available to view. I love inscriptions of a book, sometimes more than the book itself. To see handwriting, dates, dedications…I’ve learned it’s worth the ask even if it feels like a long shot. It’s on my bucket list to go on that kayak trip, too. To see the land, to feel the stories of my ancestors and to weep for the loss of family.

At the age of 58, Ben committed suicide (1935) near Beaver River, N. British Columbia. He was found by a visiting friend and fellow trapper. No journal, no explanation. I can only imagine that it was a hard life and that the isolation and remoteness got to him. A newspaper article shows there was a 300 mile trek by Provincial Police to investigate. So many questions...

I continue to research this part of my family. I search for postcards, photos, trapping books, maps and objects of the time to learn, understand and remember them. I honor them by passing on their stories and having these objects around in my home. My home is my nest of memories, family history and inspiring objects.

The new suicide and crisis lifeline can be reached by text or calling 988

Habitus is one of Pierre Bourdieu’s most influential yet ambiguous concepts. It refers to the physical embodiment of cultural capital, to the deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions that we possess due to our life experiences.

— SOCIAL THEORY re-wired, Routledge, member of the Taylor & Francis Group 2016

When I research art, I love learning about the artists life. Who were they? What were their circumstances growing up? Where did they live? What was happening around them?…….How did these life experiences get channeled in their art.

And what do I see? Based on who I am, what I’ve been through and am going through. My son is visiting and I know that if we both looked at the same art piece we would see different things—he might see the spirit of a horse and I might see the aura of my grandmother.

Navajo weavings are complex, beautiful, time-intensive artwork made from natural dyes that are full of symbolism and tribal history.

I recently learned about the “Spirit Line” from one of my wise old mentors. When the Navajo weaver works on a weaving, she puts her soul, energy and spirit into it.

Sometimes you will find a ch’ihónít’i, also known as a “spirit line” or “spirit pathway” on a Navajo rug. This is a thin line which extends from the center of a Navajo rug across the border to the outside edge or is sometimes placed near a corner and made of the same color as the background of the field.

Navajo believe that when weaving a rug, the weaver entwines part of her spirit into the rug. The spirit line prevents the weavers spirit from being trapped and allows weaver's spirit to safely exit the rug.

The belief is that the energy and spirit woven into the rug must be released so the weaver will have the energy and spirit to continue weaving other rugs.

This intentional and sacred line should not be mistaken as a flaw. I now look for it, pause and honor the weaver’s work and her freed spirit that brought so many generations of weavings.

I was reminded of this song when Interviewing my friend Richard. We were both sharing how we loved worn objects. Like old religious items worn smooth. “It’s a wonderful feeling. Someone held onto them for years. And like a coin, how much energy went into making it smooth.”

The Jeweller by This Mortal Coil (written by Tom Rapp)

Jeweller has a shop on the corner of the boulevard.

In the night, in small spectacles he polishes old coins.

He uses spit and cloths and ashes.

He makes them shine with ashes.

He knows the use of ashes.

He worships God with ashes.

The coins are often very old by the time they reach the jeweller.

With his hand and ashes he will try the best he can.

He knows that he can only shine them, cannot repair the scratches.

He knows that even new coins have scars so he just smiles.

He knows the use of ashes.

He worships god with ashes.

In the darkest of the night.

Both his hands will blister badly.

They will often open painfully and the blood flows from his hands.

He works to take from black coin faces, the thumb prints from so many ages.

He wishes he could cure the scars.

When he forgets he sometimes cries.

He knows the use of ashes.

He worships god with ashes.

He knows, He knows

He worships God with ashes

When I was very little my grandparents gave me a tape recorder. I taped everything from my grandpa playing the guitar and singing to conversations in their house. I loved to interview my grandparents. I wanted to know all their old stories, music and jokes. My love for family history research grew as I learned about more of the family characters. Solving family history mysteries and figuring out timelines have always been so rewarding to me. Researching found items have a very similar reward.

What an incredible story unfolded from an art piece that passed through me—an ARCHAELOGICAL RELIEF RUBBING BY MERLE GREENE ROBERTSON

The original archaelogical rubbing by famed scholar Merle Greene Robertson was created by her in 1993. This is a close up detail with it’s beautiful paper and ink.

It came to me in excellent condition on rice paper, mounted, matted in linen face board and framed. Signed and dated. Overall with frame approximately 66” x 17.75”. Rubbing 58” x 11.25”. A dramatic horizontal rubbing.

Mrs. Robertson was a leading researcher of ancient Mayan civilization and a passionate teacher who led hundreds of local students on adventures amid the ruins of Central America and Mexico. She pioneered a type of archaeological rubbing, using Japanese rice paper and ink, that elevated the standard technique for recording images artifacts to an art form. For the rubbings, she would clean the artifact, then cover it with wet rice paper. When the paper dried, she meticulously blotted it with ink until she created a perfect impression of the of artifact. Rubbings are superior to photographs or drawings because they’re 100 percent scale, can be three-dimensional and contain no shadows. More than 2,000 of her rubbings are preserved at Tulane University in New Orleans. In 1983, the Mexican government honored her with the highest award it bestows on foreigners, the Order of the Aztec Eagle, for her years of helping preserve Mayan heritage. There are many fascinating books about her research work, rubbings, awards and photos—A fascinating woman and such a rare glimpse of history in art form.

The rubbings of Merle Greene Robertson, which are noted for their accuracy, are considered the finest anywhere. Best represented are the Classic sites of Tikal, Kaminaljuyu, Santa Lucia Cotzumalhuapa, Tazumal, Palenque, Chinikiha, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, Picdras Negras, Uaxactun, Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Dzibilchaltun. All of them have been done with the written permission of the Mexican, Guatemalan, Honduran, Belizian, and Salvadoran governments.

Two important developments in the area of Maya studies gave this project a sense of urgency. One has to do with the explosion of knowledge about the political history of the ancient Maya. New archaeological data, including the discovery of new sculptured monuments in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, as well as recent advancements in the decipherment of the Maya hieroglyphic script, have greatly increased our understanding the processes of ancient Maya civilization. Questions about the roles of warfare and environmental destruction to the demise of the large centers in the tenth century relate directly to the problems of today. The other reason for urgency in recording and preserving monuments has to do with the continuing destruction of Maya archaeological remains. It is a race against time to record them due to deliberate loss through theft and vandalism, as well as the natural ravages of time. The average rate of destruction of limestone by normal wear is about to 4 mm in 50 years, or roughly, 1mm every 12years. In addition, jungle growth-plants, bacteria, and algae-takes its toll. It can cover the monuments and send plant roots into the cracks and crevices. These in turn break up the sculpture.

Merle Greene Robertson recorded the Maya Archival Database Project of rubbings from 1962-1993. These CD ROM disks contain over 1200 rubbings of Classic Maya monuments from over 80 sites. At the time this rubbing was made, in 1993, the archive was just published. They were still other works/rubbings that they were working on from Chichen Itza and other sites. I do not know the specific site or project that this particular rubbing came from. It’s rare to see or own one of her rubbings. It was a very special piece that I had the honor of seeing, researching and finding a new home for.