Giving DIRECTIONS

"Go three miles down this road until you get to the Texaco station. Turn left at the Texaco station and continue another two miles until you come to the orange juice stand. Drive around the back of the orange juice stand to the dirt road. Take the dirt road around sixteen miles until you come to the old house with the rooster on the roof. If the rooster isn't on the roof knock on the door and ask why the rooster isn't on the roof. Turn left after the rooster and go a quarter mile to the palmetto plant. Whatever you do, don't touch the palmetto. Turn right at the palmetto and drive until you come to the paved road. Cross over the paved road and drive through the tunnel of trees, but watch out for the snakes hanging in the trees. Turn left right after the tunnel of trees and continue on a quarter of a mile until...."

"Grandpa, where did you send those people?"

"I have no idea."




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SEMINOLE INDIANS in Florida

The word Seminole is a corruption of cimarrón, a Spanish term for "runaway" or "wild one", historically used for certain Native American groups in Florida. The Indians who constituted the nucleus of this Florida group either chose to leave their tribe or were banished. At one time the terms "renegade" and "outcast" were used to describe this status, but the terms have fallen into disuse because of a negative connotation. They identify as yat'siminoli or "free people," because for centuries their ancestors had resisted Spanish efforts to conquer and convert them, as well as English efforts to take their lands and use them in their wars. They never signed a peace treaty with the United States. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)




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Check the labels below to see other post cards from the Asheville Post Card Company or to see more cards showing Native Americans.

GREETINGS from Cedar Ridge Trading Post

If you've never been to the Navajo Nation you've missed some of the most interesting and beautiful places in this country. Much of the land is desert, which for many would seem boring and ugly. I guess I'm different, because I find a beauty in the mile after mile of nothingness.

But it's in places like Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly where you will find your breath taken away. If you haven't seen Monument Valley at dawn you've missed an incredible experience. No man made church can compete with the spiritual beauty of this place. Canyon de Chelly will make your heart beat a little faster. To see the wing shadow of a raven flying across a canyon wall is stunning. To hear the sound of a native flute echoing across the walls of Anasazi ruins as the leaves of a poplar tree quietly rustle...incredible.

I believe this post card photo was taken in Monument Valley. This particular Navajo/Diné woman appeared on many post cards and in many books. Her name was Happy Cly. It is believed that she was the most photographed Native American. If you have seen the movie The Return of Navajo Boy you will know about the Cly family and what happened to them at the hands of unregulated uranium mining in Monument Valley. It's a powerful movie. Click here and here to see more photos of Happy Cly. The photo below the card is from the book Kayenta and Monument Valley authored by Carolyn O'Bagy Davis, Harvey Leakes, and Richard Paul Mike.




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You might not be able to read it, but on the front of the card it says "Greetings from Cedar Ridge Trading Post." You can see an old photo of the trading post here. It was located on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. I don't believe it still exists. But there is a wonderful historical trading post that you can visit called the Hubbell Trading Post. Well worth the stop and make sure you take the tour. So many beautiful hand woven rugs available to buy. It had my head spinning and wishing I had a ton of money.

This card was published by Bob Petley. You can see more about him by clicking on his name in the labels below.

HAPPY COUPLE

There's such a sweetness to this man's face. He makes me smile.

Photographer LAURA GILPIN

I've had this post card sitting on my bookcase for many years. I've always been drawn to this couple, wanting to know something about them.





So far I've found out nothing about the couple, but the photographer, Laura Gilpin, was quite well known.

Laura Gilpin (April 22, 1891– November 30, 1979) was an American photographer known for her photographs of Native Americans, particularly the Navajo and Pueblo, and her Southwestern landscapes.

Gilpin said she made her earliest dated autochome in 1908 when she was 17 years old. Since this process had only become widely available the year, she showed remarkable interest in photography for a teenage girl at that time. When she decided she wanted to seriously study photography, Käsebier advised her to go to at the Clarence White School in New York City. She moved there from 1916–1918 and learned the techniques and craft of her trade. She deeply admired White, whom she later called "one of the greatest teachers I have ever known in any field". Her early work was in the Pictorialist style, but by the 1930s she had moved away from the soft-focus look of that style. She found her true vision in the peoples and landscapes of the American Southwest, and she published several books on the region. Like her mentor Käsebier she made her living taking portraits, but in the mid-1930s she began to receive critical acclaim for her photographs of the Navajo and Pueblo peoples and for her landscapes. By the end of that decade she was exhibiting photos in shows throughout the United States and in Europe.

She went to become one of the great masters of the art of platinum printing, and many of her platinum prints are now in museums around the world. She said "I have always loved the platinum printing process. It's the most beautiful image one can get. It has the longest scale and one can get the greatest degree of contrast. It's not a difficult process; it just takes time."

Over a thirty-year period from 1945-1975 her work was seen in more than one hundred one-person and group exhibits.

In 1974 the governor of New Mexico awarded her one of the first Annual Awards for Excellence in the Arts. She continued to be very active as a photographer and as a participant in the Santa Fe arts scene until her death in 1979.

Gilpin's photographic and literary archives are now housed at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To see a selection of her work click here for a Google image page.

All of her books selling at Amazon are out of print, but this one looks promising, Laura Gilpin: An Enduring Grace. I'll put this on my wish list for when I have spare cash which means I'll probably actually never see this book.

Dennison INDIAN PAPER DOLL from 1905

This vintage paper doll was produced by the Dennison Manufacturing Company around 1905 and would have cost 15 cents when new.

The Dennison Manufacturing Company, which was located in Framingham, Massachusetts, was founded in 1844 as a jewelry and watch box-manufacturing company by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, who later became the pioneer of the American System of Watch Manufacturing. Five years later Aaron turned the Dennison Manufacturing Company over to his younger brother, Eliphalet Whorf Dennison, who took over and developed the company into a sizable industrial enterprise. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

In the 1870s Dennison produced colored tissue paper. Around 1890 they introduced crepe paper. In the late 1800s they introduced their jointed paper dolls. This Indian doll is badly damaged (missing rattle, portion of pipe, and obviously his legs) but still worth the few dollars I paid for him.

The crepe paper outfit was handmade and came with the doll when I purchased it.

Look through the posts from this previous week to see more antique paper dolls. And to see some real dolls with their dolls visit Tattered and Lost Photographs.