Olive May Graves Percival (July 1, 1868 – February 18, 1945) was a writer, photographer, gardener, artist, and bibliophile in Los Angeles.
Although she earned her living as an insurance clerk, she wrote for a variety of magazines, authored several books, and was sought after as a lecturer on gardens, New England antiques, Japanese ceramics, and children’s books, among other subjects.
Early years
Percival was born near
Sheffield, Illinois
Sheffield is a village in Bureau County, Illinois, United States. The population was 821 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Ottawa Micropolitan Statistical Area. Sheffield was founded by Joseph E. Sheffield and Henry Farnam in 1852. Sheffie ...
, in a log cabin on her family’s farm. Growing up, there was tension between her parents, most likely as result of debt related to the family farm.
Her older brother, Leo, remained disconnected from the family,
and Percival's father died when she was ten.
In 1887, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister, lured by the climate and the prospect of year-round gardening.
Her sister, Edna, died when she was 17 in 1893
leaving Percival to spend much of the next fifty years with her mother, Helen Mason Percival.
Down-hyl Claim
Percival began work as a saleswoman in the People’s Store (later a branch of the
May Company California
May Company California was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California and Nevada, with headquarters in North Hollywood, California. It was a subsidiary of May Department Stores and merged with May's other Southern California s ...
) before joining the fire agency firm of McLellan & Golsh.
In 1895, she joined the Home Insurance Company as a clerk and remained there for more than thirty years.
Despite her modest salary, which never exceeded $150 a month, she built a home called the Down-hyl Claim in the
Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)
The Arroyo Seco, meaning "dry stream" in Spanish, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. , accessed March 16, 2011 seasonal river, canyon, watershed, and cultural area in Los Angeles County, Cali ...
, a scenic area northeast of Los Angeles, often described as an artists’ colony. Oddly, when she built her home, she did not have it wired for heat or electricity. Instead, it was lit with oil lamps and candles and warmed by fires in the fireplace.
Her home was often the setting for garden teas, moon-viewing parties, and memorable salons attended by local and visiting celebrity authors, artists, and book lovers. Her diaries from 1889 to 1943 are peopled with artists, actors, writers, society leaders, career women, and others active in the intellectual life of Los Angeles during that time. One guest thought of the occasions as a mingling of “the inconvenient and the cultivated.”
Writing
Percival began writing for publication in 1896 and sold her first poem and first article just before her 28th birthday.
Eventually, she began to regularly contribute to the
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
, writing articles on subjects ranging from women’s suffrage to gardening. After the
Los Angeles Times bombing
The ''Los Angeles Times'' bombing was the purposeful dynamiting of the ''Los Angeles Times'' Building in Los Angeles, California, United States, on October 1, 1910, by a union member belonging to the International Association of Bridge and Str ...
in 1910, she penned an article titled ''Would Woman's Vote Suppress Anarchy'', which appeared in the October 16, 1910, issue:
If ever we needed the full representation of the whole people in government affairs, that need is terribly emphasized by this distressing occurrence. As for equal suffrage, I have never in my life heard one sane argument against it. I think the only argument that men who are opposed to the measure have ever advanced in justification of their unfair and un-American position, is that they do not want women to lose their delicacy and charm by rough contact with matters political. This is not 'sentiment' but sentimentality. . . . There is no sense or intelligence about it. Women must live in the world as truly as men and in many instances they are as well equipped for the actualities of life as men. . . .
If there is to be anything democratic or republican about the government of America, that independence must be based upon the liberty of all of its citizens. . . . When half of the people of any country are disenfranchised, that country has no freedom. We pretend to be progressive and we boast our splendid republicanism, but our republic is more despotic than any monarchy unless all who are taxed have a voice in the control of public affairs.
Her books include ''Leaf-Shadows and Rose-Drift, Being Little Songs from a Los Angeles Garden'' (1911) and ''Mexico City: An Idler’s Note-Book'' (1901) which featured some of her own photographs and was reviewed favorably. In her will, she arranged for the publication of two of her manuscripts, ''Our Old-fashioned Flowers'' (Pasadena, CA 1947) and ''Yellowing Ivy'' (Los Angeles, CA 1946). In 2005, the Huntington Library Press published excerpts from her book-length manuscript ''Children’s Garden Book'', as Olive Percival’s Children’s Garden Book.
The Huntington Library
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Ma ...
has seven hundred of her photographs, many of which are a record of her garden. Others are of scenes in Mexico, Los Angeles, San Pedro, and San Francisco. She often printed them herself—purposely on blueprint paper—because the colors reminded her of Oriental porcelain.
In 1949, Los Angeles nurseryman Paul Howard patented an Olive Percival Rose.
It was chosen to honor the teachers of America and planted at the White House.
Although she achieved some success as a writer, she often lamented to her diary the fact that she was not able to make a living as a writer.
Book, Art and Doll Collections
Percival accumulated notable book and art collections, many of which are now in three Southern California libraries: Ella Strong Denison Library, The Libraries of the
Claremont Colleges
The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)— Pomona College, Sc ...
, the
Huntington Library
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Ma ...
, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens and the University Research Library at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
, CA.
In "Different Images, Portraits of Remembered People," author
Hildegarde Flanner writes this of Percival:
"It was in 1915 in Los Angeles that I first met Miss Olive Percival. More properly, let me say, I had the honor to be presented. She was a prominent figure in Southern California, a well-known hostess, a collector of books and art. She was an authority on Oriental art and also early American antiques. She collected both. She had a fine collection of textiles, bookplates, and exquisite paper dolls. Her library of children's books was one of the best in America. She was a direct descendant of Gov. William Tracy of Virginia. In the midst of her scrupulously filed and arranged ten thousand good books she was a very important person, intellectually and socially, at a time in the history of Los Angeles when such possessions as hers represented conspicuous achievement and impeccable position."
Percival also collected old hats while making new ones. Her hat making extended to her dolls, for whom she made nearly two hundred little hats. She also made paper dolls, inspired by a letter about antique paper dolls from Wilbur Macey Stone, an authority on children’s literature and toys. The Denison Library now houses over 300 of Percival’s dolls, clothes, and other accessories.
Chinese and Japanese collections
Percival was considered an authority on many aspects of Chinese and Japanese art, lending pieces from her collections of prints, porcelain, scroll paintings, lacquer, bronzes, sword guards, and stencils to local art groups for special exhibitions.
Her interest in the Japanese and their culture lead her to protest anti-Japanese measures,
such as the
California Alien Land Law of 1913
The California Alien Land Law of 1913 (also known as the Webb–Haney Act) prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning agricultural land or possessing long-term leases over it, but permitted leases lasting up to three years. It affe ...
discriminating against the Japanese. During World War II, she stored the belongings of her Japanese friends when they were sent to internment camps. To counteract the charges of some friends who accused her of being un-American, she joined the
Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Society of Colonial Families, and
the Mayflower Society
The General Society of ''Mayflower'' Descendants — commonly called the Mayflower Society — is a hereditary organization of individuals who have documented their descent from at least one of the 102 passengers who arrived on the ''Mayflower'' ...
. This did not stop her from also belonging to the
Japan Society of the UK
The Japan Society of the United Kingdom, founded in 1891, is an organisation that fosters British-Japanese relations. It is the oldest such organisation dedicated to inter-cultural understanding and positive relationships between a European Count ...
, the
Japan Society (New York)
Japan Society is a non-profit organization formed in 1907 to promote friendly relations between the United States and Japan. Its headquarters was designed by Junzo Yoshimura and opened in 1971 at 333 East 47th Street near the United Nations. Wit ...
, the local Japan-American Club, and the Japanese-American Woman's Club.
Death
Olive Percival died on February 19, 1945, after suffering from a stroke a few months earlier in her garden.
Lawrence Clark Powell
Lawrence Clark Powell (September 3, 1906–March 14, 2001) was a librarian, literary critic, bibliographer and author of more than 100 books. Powell "made a significant contribution to the literature of the library profession, but he also writ ...
paid tribute to her after she died:
In spite of an income limited to her clerk's earnings and from the occasional sale of articles, this woman, whose name was Olive Percival, collected beautiful things so assiduously that, after her death, it took an appraiser two weeks to inventory the contents of her cottage. . . . What a pity that she lacked the wealth and the leisure of a Huntington or a Morgan.
References
External links
* Ingrid Johnson discussed the life and work of Olive Percival on November 15, 2005, as part of the Tuesday Noon Academy speaker series at Scripps College;
podcast of this lectureis available at the Scripps College web site.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Percival, Olive
1868 births
1945 deaths
People from Bureau County, Illinois
Writers from Illinois
American garden writers
Artists from California
American book and manuscript collectors
Hatmaking