Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton (March 25, 1889 – July 26, 1971) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

artist, author, educator,

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

, and curator. She is one of the principal founders of the

Museum of Northern Arizona The Museum of Northern Arizona is a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, that was established as a repository for Indigenous material and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau. The museum was founded in 1928 by zoologist ...

. She was a member of the Philadelphia Ten, exhibiting at the group's annual shows from 1926 to 1940. She was also a member of 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 ...

, the

American Watercolor Society The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. Qualifications AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...

, and the

American Federation of Arts The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 w ...

. She is known for her advocacy of the arts, Native American rights, and women's rights. For her advocacy of Native American arts, she received a certificate of appreciation from the

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Indian Arts and Crafts Board The Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior whose mission is to "promote the economic development of American Indians and Alaska Natives through the expansion of the Indian arts and craft ...

in 1935. In 1982, she was inducted into the

Arizona Women's Hall of Fame The Arizona Women's Hall of Fame recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Arizona for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. In 1979, the office of Governor Bruce Babbitt worked with the Arizona Women's Comm ...

Personal background

Mary-Russell Ferrell was born on March 25, 1889, in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. She is the daughter of Joseph and Elise (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Houston) Ferrell. Her father was known as one of the first

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to explore the

Tenaya Canyon Tenaya Canyon is a dramatic and dangerous canyon in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, that runs from the outlet of Tenaya Lake 10 miles down to Yosemite Valley, carrying water in Tenaya Creek through a series of spectacular cascades and ...

in what is now

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. After he died in 1904, Elise Ferrell remarried businessman Theodore Presser. In 1904 at age 15, Mary-Russell Ferrell enrolled at the

Philadelphia School of Design for Women Philadelphia School of Design for Women (1848–1932) was an art school for women in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Housed in the former Edwin Forrest House at 1346 North Broad Street, under the directorship of Emily Sartain (1886–1920), ...

, graduating in 1909 with honors. After her graduation, she opened a studio in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Her projects included art restoration and commercial art projects. In addition to the commercial art her studio produced, Mary-Russell Ferrell showed as a member of the Philadelphia Ten's annual exhibit in

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, the Midwest, the Eastern States of the US and Europe.Horstman, Eugenia. "Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton", ''Plateau'', New Series, Vol. 56, No. 1, Museum of Northern Arizona. Flagstaff 1984. On May 23, 1912, Mary-Russell Ferrell married Harold Sellers Colton, a

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

professor at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. They had two sons, Ferrell, born in 1914, and Sabin born in 1917. Sabin died of valley fever in Tucson in 1924. Their marriage lasted until her death.

Professional background

In April 1926, the Coltons moved to

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has ...

. During this time, she painted in and around the

Colorado Plateau The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of ...

. She also established the

. Through her writing, painting and work as an advocate of Native American peoples and Native American arts, she made contributions to progressive education, the Indian arts and crafts movement and

archeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

. Colton served as the curator of art for the Museum of Northern Arizona for 20 years. She also recorded the history of the Colorado Plateau through her paintings and her MNA exhibits. She wrote 21 articles and two books.Olberding, Susan Deaver. "Telling the Story of the Museum of Northern Arizona", ''Plateau'', New Series, No. 2, 1997. As an artist and the curator of art at the museum, Colton often worked with Native American artists to bring recognition and acceptance of their work into the international art community. Throughout her career as an artist, Colton painted a variety of subjects including landscapes, figures, still life and genre scenes.Petersen, Allan. "Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton: Discovering the West", ''Plateau'', New Series, Vol. 7, No. 2, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, 2012. She is known for her sensitive portraits utilizing vibrant, unusual color values. The ''

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'' of September 2, 1920, printed a copy of her painting, ''Sunset on a Lava Field''. The author wrote; "In her Arizona canvases, Mrs. Colton gives full sway to her love of color. One is impressed by the sense of vast remoteness that she manages to capture for these western paintings that are bringing her increasing recognition." ;Prominent works include * ''Church at Ranchos de Taos'' (c. 1913) * ''Edmund Nequatewa'' (c. 1942) * ''Walpi'' (c. 1914) * ''Navajo Shepardess'' (c. 1916) * ''Sunset and Moonglow'' (c. 1917) * ''Lonesome Hole'' (c. 1929) * ''Sedona From Red Ledge'' (c. 1952) * ''Sunset on a Lava Field'' (c. 1919)

Exhibitions

''Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton: Artist and Advocate in Early Arizona''. Museum of Northern Arizona, June 17-October 28, 2012; Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, Arizona, December 14, 2012, to March 3, 2013.

Published works

* Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell. ''Hopi Dyes'', Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona, 1965. * Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell and Harold Sellers. "Petroglyphs, the record of a great adventure", Washington D.C. ''American Anthropologist'', 1931. * Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell; Nonabah Gorman Bryan; Stella Young. ''Navajo and Hopi Dyes'', Salt Lake City, Utah: Historic Indian Publishers, 1965. * Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell. ''Art for the schools of the Southwest, an outline for the public and Indian schools'', Museum Bulletin, No. 6, Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, 1934. * Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell and Edmund Nequatewa. ''Truth of a Hopi and other clan stories of Shung-Opovi'', Museum of Northern Arizona. No. 8, Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, 1947. * Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell. "Hopi silversmithing, its background and future", ''Plateau'', Vol. 12, No. 1, Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, 1939. * Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell. "Letter to the Editor", ''

Coconino Sun The ''Arizona Daily Sun'' is a six-day newspaper in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. It publishes an entertainment supplement on Thursdays called "Flagstaff Live!". It also publishes a monthly magazine, Northern Arizona's Mountain Living Magaz ...

'', August 12, 1927. * Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell, and Harold Sellers. ''The Little Known Small House Ruins in the Coconino Forest'', Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association Vol. 5. Lancaster, Pennsylvania, American Anthropological Association, 1918. * Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell. "Technique of Major Hopi Crafts", ''Museum Notes''. Vol. 3, No 12. Flagstaff, Arizona, Museum of Northern Arizona, 1931.

References

External links

History of Philadelphia Ten

Arizona Women's Hall of Fame:Arizona State Library

Arizona Women's Heritage Trail

"Mary and Harold Colton, Founders of the Museum of Northern Arizona"
KBAQ:Hearing the Century {{DEFAULTSORT:Colton, Mary-Russell Ferrell 1889 births 1971 deaths American ethnographers 20th-century American historians American conservationists American women environmentalists 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century American painters American women painters American watercolorists Modern painters Painters from Kentucky Artists from Louisville, Kentucky Writers from Louisville, Kentucky Painters from Arizona Writers from Arizona American women anthropologists American women historians 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American women scientists Women watercolorists 20th-century American women writers Kentucky women artists Philadelphia School of Design for Women alumni 20th-century American philanthropists