Bookmark this page or copy and paste URL to Email message Gwyneth Harrington Papers,1934-1962MS 24 Biographical NoteGwyneth Browne was born in Boston on February 1, 1894. Her father was the head of the New York Life Insurance Company in New England and eastern Canada. She had two brothers, Alan and Gordon. Gordon Browne went to live in Morocco after he graduated from Harvard in 1923. He worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II and continued to live abroad. Gwyneth visited him at various times in Pakistan, Borneo and Morocco. At the age of 21, Gwyneth married Eugene Harrington; they had two children, Josephine and Alan. In 1932, she divorced and went on a trip to Haiti with a friend. She collected some artifacts on the island of La Gonâve in Haiti which she donated to the Peabody Museum at Harvard in 1934. Gwyneth went to Yugoslavia with Vladimir Fewkes' Peabody-sponsored expedition at Starcevo in 1932. In 1934, she went to the Guajira Peninsula (Venezuela/Columbia, South America) with Lewis Kron and Vincent Petrullo on an expedition sponsored jointly by the University Museum and Columbia University. Sometime during 1930-34, she worked on Lloyd Warner's Yankee town study in Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 1936, she was a field worker for the Soil Conservation Service on the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming. From 1936-38, she was working for the Soil Conservation Service on the Pima and Papago Reservations in Arizona. In 1938, she was transferred to the Indian Arts and Crafts Board on the Papago Reservation at Sells, Arizona. She remained with the Indian Arts and Crafts Board until 1942 when she had to quit work as an anthropologist as a condition of her marriage to Juan Xavier, her Papago interpreter. She worked on the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) exhibit of American Indian Art that opened in January, 1941 with René d'Harnoncourt, manager of the I.A.C.B. She and Juan were divorced after a few years. In the early '50s, she returned to Boston to care for her mother. In 1954, she worked for the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Arizona. She wrote monographs on Algeria and Tunisia for the Human Relations Area Files during 1955-57. From 1958 until her marriage to Frederick Wulsin in 1959, she was hostess at the Christopher Square Inn, a not-for-profit hotel owned by her friend, Helen d'Autremont. Fred Wulsin had been an anthropology professor at Tufts University before his retirement. He died in 1962. Gwyneth died on May 28, 1978. See ASM Archivist Jeanne Armstrong's biographical sketch of Harrington for additional information, published in the Journal of the Souhtwest, 30(4) in 1988. Scope and Content NoteThis collection comprises seven series in two boxes: Series 1, Biographical Material; Series 2, Goajiro Ethnographic Papers, 1934; Series 3, Bureau of Indian Affairs Reports and Notes, 1936-38; Series 4, Papago (O'odham) Ethnographic Papers, 1942-62; Series 5, Seri Ethnographic Papers, 1937-44; Series 6, Professional Papers, 1954-57; and Series 7, Personal Papers. The bulk of the collection consists of Harrington's ethnographic papers related to Tohono O'odham, Seri, Goajiro, and Wind River Shoshone cultures. There are also papers related to her work with the Amerind Foundation and Human Relations Area Files in the 1950s. Her personal papers includes photocopies of poems written by Maynard Dixon that were sent to her by Dixon's wife, Edith Hamlin, in 1970. RestrictionsConditions Governing Access
None. Conditions Governing Use
The Arizona State Museum may not own copyright to all parts of this collection. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for the University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright. Access TermsPersonal Name(s) Dixon, Maynard, 1875-1946 Harrington, Gwyneth Browne Corporate Name(s) Amerind Foundation Human Relations Area Files, inc. United States. Bureau of Indian Affairs United States. Indian Arts and Crafts Board United States. Soil Conservation Service Subject(s) Goajiro Indians Seri Indians -- Mexico Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming Shoshoni Indians -- Wyoming Tohono O'odham Indians -- Arizona Administrative InformationCustodial History
Gwyneth Browne Harrington's Seri field catalog, her manuscripts on Seri dream pictures, santos and face painting, and her manuscript on the "Cattle Industry of the Southern Papago Districts" were in the Arizona State Museum Archives, probably donated with the collection of Seri artifacts in 1941 (ASM Accession Nos. 164 and 165). Her other papers, including her work on the Wind River and Papago Reservations, were in a carton in the Tucson home of her son, Alan Harrington. He eventually gave them to his neighbor, Rosamond Spicer, wife of anthropologist Edward Spicer (See ASM Archives, MS 5). Mrs. Spicer eventually gave them to ASM Archivist Jeanne Armstrong, while Armstrong was interviewing Mrs. Spicer about Gwyneth Harrington. Alan Harrington subsequently donated the papers to ASM in 1987 (ASM Accession No. 87-39). Preferred CitationGwyneth Harrington Papers, 1934-1962. Arizona State Museum Archives. Container List
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||