Anne Eisner Putnam (1911–1967) was an abstract and landscape painter, watercolorist, and collector of African art, originally from New York where she also died.
She became a writer, best known for her book ''Madami: My Eight Years of Adventure with the Congo Pygmies''. This was an account of her time and experiences in the
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
.
She and her husband, Patrick Tracy Lowell Putnam (1904-1953) met in the USA in 1945 and lived together on Martha's Vineyard and in New York City. They later moved to Africa and later married on July 28, 1948 in
Léopoldville
Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...
(now
Kinshasa), in the
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
, what is now known as the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. Her husband was a Harvard graduate and student of anthropology who, beginning in the 1930s, established what became known as Camp Putnam along the
Epulu River in the Belgian Congo.
Camp Putnam was on the edge of the
Ituri rainforest
The Ituri Rainforest is a rainforest located in the Ituri Province of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The forest's name derives from the nearby Ituri River which flows through the rainforest, connecting firstly to the Aruwimi Ri ...
of the Belgian Congo, near the home of the
pygmies
In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...
. They ran Camp Putnam for paying tourists, a hotel giving an African experience. At the same time, they also ran a medical clinic and offered legal aid to local people. Among the Putnams’ many outsiders, both tourists and researchers, was anthropologist
Colin Turnbull
Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 – July 28, 1994) was a British-American anthropologist who came to public attention with the popular books '' The Forest People'' (on the Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire) and '' The Mountain People'' (on the ...
who later authored ''The Forest People'' about ''The Mbuti Pygmies: Change and Adaptation''.
During their years at Camp Putnam, they spent years studying and documenting the pygmies. While there, they collected many African artifacts including
masks
A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practi ...
. Many of these artifacts they collected later became part of the collection of the
American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Patrick Putnam died at age 49, in 1953. Anne stayed on running Camp Putnam for some years. She returned to live in New York in 1958 and Camp Putnam was closed. She died of cancer in New York City in 1967 and was buried in
Ferncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located at 280 Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, United States, about north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian. Fernc ...
,
Hartsdale
Hartsdale is a hamlet located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census. It is a suburb of New York City.
History
Hartsdale, a CDP/hamlet/post-office in the town of Green ...
, NY.
Painting career
In New York she continued her painting career, writing and lecturing on her experiences in the Congo. She was also one of the founders of the
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors in 1940.
*1941 Jan. Won Marcia Brady Tucker Prize from The
National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors
The National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) is a United States organization, founded in 1889 to gain recognition for professional women fine artists in an era when that field was strongly male-oriented. It sponsors exhibitions, awards ...
for her painting "
Washington Square."
*1962. Received F. Weber Co. Prize from the
National Association of Women Artists
The National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) is a United States organization, founded in 1889 to gain recognition for professional women fine artists in an era when that field was strongly male-oriented. It sponsors exhibitions, awards ...
.
*1965. Received the Jane C. Stanley Memorial Prize for Watercolor from the National Association of Women Artists.
Anne Putnam Eisner’s writings
*Putnam, Anne Eisner. ''Madami: My Eight Years of Adventure with the Congo Pygmies''. New York: Prentice Hall, 1954.
*Putnam, Anne Eisner. "My Life with Africa's Littlest People," ''The National Geographic Magazine'' Feb. 1960.
Bibliography
*Mark, Joan T. 1995. ''King of the world in the land of the pygmies.'' University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln.
*McDonald, Christie. 2004. Ethnography, Literature, and Art in the Work of Anne Eisner (Putnam): Making Sense of Colonial Life in the Ituri Forest. ''Research in African Literatures'' Vol. 35, No. 4: pp. 1–16.
*McDonald, Christie, ed. 2005. ''Images of Congo: Anne Eisner Art and Ethnography, 1946–1958.'' Milan: 5 Continents. , cloth.
*Lawal, Babatunde. 2008. In Word and Image: Remembering Anne Eisner's Adventures in Africa. ''Research in African Literatures'' 39.2: 138-142.
*Mustafa, Hudita Nura. 2008. Art, Ethnography, and Anne Eisner's "Images of Congo". ''Transition'' No. 98 pp. 136–149.
*McDonald, Christie. 2020. ''The Life and Art of Anne Eisner: An American Artist between Cultures''. Rome: Officina Libraria. ISBN 978-88-3367-100-0, cloth.
References
External links
Putnam, Anne Eisner. Anne Eisner Putnam papers, 1913-1995: Guide.Images of Congo: The Art and Ethnography of Anne Eisner Putnam, 1946-1958 Exhibition Opens October 2 - HCL News - Harvard College Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Putnam, Anna Eisner
American women painters
1911 births
1967 deaths
20th-century American painters
20th-century American women artists
Painters from New York (state)
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)