Furnishing the Santa Fe Style - El Palacio Magazine

Furnishing the
Santa Fe Style
Part II: Searching for Good Old Sam
Samuel Francis Hudelson, 1874-1946
By Penelope Hunter-Stiebel
42 El Palacio

Much of the furniture created for the New
Mexico Museum of Art over the years since
its opening in 1917 still exists in galleries
and storage areas. Beyond Jesse Nusbaum’s readily identifiable
contributions based on local Hispanic tradition
lay a mystery. In a group of significant works an accomplished
furniture maker had continued Nusbaum’s
vocabulary while introducing elements from various
Native American cultures. Who might be the author of
this evidence of a developing triculturalism in the Santa
Fe style? And when were these pieces made?
Above: Desk carved with Indian motifs that provided the key for identifying
the furniture of Sam Hudelson. The file drawer is carved with the initials
of the Museum of New Mexico. Photograph by Blair Clark. All furniture
made for the Museum of Art pictured here and throughout is shown courtesy
of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Left: Pencil notation under the
center drawer of the desk with the initials of Samuel Francis Hudelson and
dating his completion of the assignment to March 10, 1934, with emphatic
flourish and underline. Photograph by Blair Clark.

SAM HUDELSON
Firm in the belief that all the contents of the museum
should be documented, Registrar Michelle Gallagher Roberts
assigned her colleague Dan Goodman (now curator of collections
at El Rancho de las Golondrinas) to work with me, and
together we photographed, measured, and recorded every
piece we could find. Most bore inventory numbers assigned
in 1990, but no further study had been undertaken to determine
their author or date.
Moving what appeared to be a battered radiator cover with
elaborate carved Indian-style decoration out from under a
window recess in a corner of a gallery, we found it to be a
desk with the initials MNM carved on the front of the deep file
drawer, clearly indicating official use for the Museum of New
Mexico. But it was the shallow center drawer that provided
the Eureka moment: when we removed the drawer we discovered
scrawled in pencil underneath “SFH/ Finished March
10-34.” We now had a lynchpin!
Over the months when Dan could fit periodic furniture
forays into his full schedule I was researching in libraries and
archives where I had picked up on the name Sam Huddleson,
Huddelson, or Hudelson, variously spelled. He had been
officially added to the Museum of New Mexico staff in 1920
as superintendent, with responsibility for the Palace of the
Governors and the Art Gallery (as the New Mexico Museum
of Art was originally called) buildings, then jointly administered
with the School of American Research (SAR, now School
of Advanced Research) under the founding director Edgar L.
Hewett. “Superintendent” was the same title held by Jesse
Nusbaum before his departure from Santa Fe in December
1917. Further, Nusbaum in his memoirs credited Hudelson
as one of the “good men” he had helping with the elaborate
architectural woodwork he designed for the art museum. 1
Finding S. F. H.
What singled Hudelson out to me was the artist Will Shuster’s
passing reference in a 1940 interview as he described the
scene in the art museum basement: “There’s Sam Huddleson
[sic] presiding over a carpentry shop where Joe Bakos and
Fremont Ellis and several other artists are busy making frames
and crating paintings . . . good old Sam ready to lend a helping
hand or a bit of advice.” 2
I couldn’t even be sure that “good old Sam” was the SFH
written under the desk drawer as I could find no mention of
a middle name—at least until I opened a manila envelope
in the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, crammed with
Sam Hudelson posing with an unidentified “Indian Friend” in El Palacio 50 (7),
July 1943. Hudelson taught “industrial arts” for the Indian Service on several
reservations before coming to Santa Fe in 1912 to work with Jesse Nusbaum on
the renovation of the Palace of the Governors. He held the post of superintendent
for the Museum of New Mexico from 1920 until 1941.
yellowed newspaper clippings. I carefully removed each crumbling,
irrelevant bit of trivia published in the Santa Fe New
Mexican mentioning the Museum of New Mexico until out
came a one-paragraph obituary published on June 7, 1946, for
“Hudelson, Samuel Francis,” stating he had been custodian of
the Museum of New Mexico. At last the correct spelling and
his middle name!
The information that he had retired eight years earlier
proved incorrect, but it sent me to back issues of El Palacio to
see if the fact was mentioned. An appreciation of his service
in the July 1943 issue revealed that he had actually retired in
1941. In a brief biography, Assistant Editor Hulda R. Hobbs
wrote that this son of a Texas rancher had come to Santa
44 El Palacio

SAM HUDELSON
Hudelson’s photograph (ca. 1925–30) of his workshop in the basement of the New Mexico Museum of Art showing the
armchairs and table made for the Women’s Board Room in the foreground. The premises were frequently visited by artists and
admirers, and, on his retirement, Hudelson was credited with “inaugurating the local renaissance of hand-made and handdecorated
furniture.” Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Neg. No. 091790.
Fe in 1912 when he worked on Jesse Nusbaum’s project of
remodeling the Palace of the Governors, doing cabinetwork
and continuing improvements, as well as the ornamental
woodwork for the new Art Gallery. Hobbs credited Hudelson
“with inaugurating the local renaissance of hand-made and
hand-decorated furniture.” Now I knew that I was on the
right track!
Hobbs’s claim about the significance of Hudelson’s contributions
to furniture design is all the more amazing considering
that Hudelson’s primary responsibility was maintenance,
repair, and additions to the Museum of New Mexico campus
(both the Palace of the Governors and the Art Museum). He
also did field work every year with SAR working at Gran
Quivira and Quarai, Jemez, Puyé, Chaco, Pecos, and Acoma.
Hobbs quoted an official statement from Hewett (notoriously
loath to credit his staff) saying, with uncharacteristic enthusiasm,
“What this capable workman (artist as well as master
mechanic) accomplished assisted by a few unskilled laborers,
was beyond praise…. His methods have influenced the work
of about all of us who have had to do with the preservation of
ruins during this generation.”
Furniture for Private Clients
Hudelson himself was not a man of words, or at least not of
written words. The only records that he made relating to the
Museum of Art that I could find were his photographs, now
in the Photo Archives of the Palace of the Governors. A key
image had been published by Lonn Taylor and Dessa Bokides
in their invaluable book, New Mexican Furniture, 1600–1940. 3
It showed furniture in the Art Museum basement with two
of the armchairs for the Women’s Board Room in front of the
room’s long table, which was up on saw horses. No trace has
been found of the foreground bench or the second table in the
background. Could these have been made for a private client?
Hewett was notoriously stingy when it came to paying his
staff, who worked for both the museum and SAR. Most were
considered “part time” employees and expected to supplement
their salaries with outside work.
It was just such extracurricular work that forced Hudelson
to put words in writing. I was led to the SAR library archive
by Kathy Fiero, who is writing a biography of Nusbaum
and shared with me an unpublished manuscript by Lonn
Taylor on the construction and furnishing of the Martha and
El Palacio 45

SAM HUDELSON
Elizabeth White house now occupied by SAR. 4 Although they
engaged as their architect William Penhallow Henderson, who
developed a furnituremaking business, the White sisters wrote
to Nusbaum that they wanted furniture like that they had seen
in his home at Mesa Verde. Since he was then fully occupied
with his duties as superintendent of Mesa Verde National
Park, Nusbaum said from the start that he could design the
pieces but that they would have to be made by Hudelson in
his shop in the museum basement. An agreement was struck
for twenty-two pieces, and correspondence between the
Whites, Nusbaum, and Hudelson covering 1923–25 in the
SAR archives reveals a dynamic collaboration with sketches
and measured drawings and commentary. 5 I found a number
of the pieces documented in photographs by Hudelson among
the images he donated to the museum, now in the Palace
of the Governors Photo Archives. The project stirred great
interest, and visits to Hudelson’s basement workshop were so
frequent that Nusbaum wrote him, “Who comes the most to
offer suggestions and criticisms of ‘Grand Rapids.’ Nordfelt
[the painter. J. O Nordfelt (1878-1955), I suppose]. Guess he
will be imitating lot of things later in his house if I do not miss
my guess.” There was also correspondence with the museum’s
assistant director, Paul Walter, about the possibility of an exhibition
which never came about.
The White furniture was just one of Hudelson’s furniture
commissions: in a letter to Nusbaum dated March 10, 1924,
Hudelson wrote, “contracted 2 large chairs—4 benches—one
thin table $390.00 for a lady here. Will begin as soon as [I]
finish yours.” Clearly these pieces were of Hudelson’s own
design and may represent an extended production that is yet
to be identified.
The clue to identifying Hudelson’s independent work lies
in the carved ornament. In a letter dated March 7, 1924,
Nusbaum complained to Martha White “he [Hudelson] was
too ambitious in carving and everywhere he could lay a dollar
down on it, he had to carve it, That ruins it for me…” 6
Examining the Museum of Art furniture, we may not agree
with his assessment of a developing style born of Hudelson’s
personal experience.
From the 1943 El Palacio article I learned that at age nineteen
Hudelson was hired as a teacher of “industrial arts” for
the Indian service. Starting in Oklahoma, where his parents
had homesteaded, he was transferred to San Carlos Apache
school in Rice, Arizona; then to Fort Dermitt, Nevada, on the
Paiute Reservation; and finally to Tohatchi, New Mexico, on
the Navajo Reservation, before coming to Santa Fe in 1911.
Putting this together with what was happening at the museum
from the time of Nusbaum’s departure, the rationale behind
the museum furnishings came into focus.
This varied experience of Native American communities
combined well with the museum’s increased focus on contemporary
Indian arts. What Hewett called “The Santa Fe
Program” started with promoting a revival of pottery at San
Ildefonso and moved on to the presentation of Pueblo painters
in the Art Gallery. Two breakthrough exhibitions of students
of Santa Fe Indian school in 1919 brought a “new” art form
to the attention of the Anglo community. In 1924 the Art
Gallery’s eleventh annual survey exhibition presented as usual
the latest paintings by members of the Taos and Santa Fe artists
colonies, but also dedicated the upstairs gallery to paintings
by Indian artists. Further, the report in the September 24
El Palacio stated that in the arts and crafts section where work
was presumably by non-Indians, “the application of Indian
designs as applied to the decoration of china and was of high
merit and attracted much attention.” The 1934 frescoes by
Will Shuster in the museum patio illustrating Pueblo Indian
scenes left a lasting reminder of the institution’s involvement.
Hudelson’s Distinctive Designs
Kenneth Chapman stands out as a pioneer in the appreciation
of Indian design. As Hewett’s first employee at the museum
and SAR he devoted whatever hours could be spared from
administrative duties to begin a life-long study of Pueblo
ceramics, analyzing the decorations and working them up in
hundreds of sheets of watercolor studies. Under the auspices
of the WPA he even conducted classes where artists emulated
This ca. 1923 photograph by the Cross Studio shows a Hudelson bench in situ.
Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Neg. No. 022975.
46 El Palacio

Benches carved with Pueblo and Navajo motifs Hudelson made to cover radiators and provide
supplemental seating in the Women’s Board Room by the early 1920s. Photographs by Blair Clark.
El Palacio 47

Left: A small bookcase whose carvings, including a swastika, traditional in
Navajo weaving, allow the piece to be dated before the motif was associated the
threat of Hitler’s Nazi party. Photograph by Blair Clark.
his process. He created a lens through which Anglo admirers
perceived this form of ceramic art, and Indian motifs entered
the vocabulary of contemporary decoration.
Hudelson’s initial use of Indian-style ornament may have
been in two benches supplied to provide additional seating
and cover the radiators in the Women’s Board Room, as shown
in photographs from the early 1920s. On one he carved friezes
and stepped motifs in common use in the pueblos, and on the
other he carved openings in the low back that recall motifs of
Navajo rugs.
Early in our exploration Dan Goodman and I stumbled
across a small bookcase in the museum storage. The carvings
of the sides are almost a lexicon of Southwest Indian design.
The inclusion of the design of the swastika that had long figured
in Navajo weaving told us that the piece had to predate
American awareness of the threat from Hitler, who had appropriated
the age-old symbol for his Nazi party.
A double bench still in use in the galleries recalls the commercial
“Mission style” of the benches purchased by Hewett
for the gallery opening, but the outlines are softened and the
sides with cut-out slats below incised Indian-inspired motifs
convey a distinct Southwest character.
Were the Indian motifs Hudelson carved on the art museum
furniture copied from Chapman’s designs? After examining a
number of Chapman’s works I felt the carvings were of a very
different character. I was vastly relieved when Dody Fugate,
assistant curator for archaeological research collections at the
Laboratory of Anthropology, confirmed my observation, saving
me hours and hours of poring over still more Chapmania.
Most of Hudelson’s carvings are free improvisations adapting
Indian design elements, from Mimbres pots to Navajo weavings,
drawn from his personal experience. There were two
outstanding exceptions, however. One was the front panel on
a small reception desk. On seeing my snapshot, Dody cried
out, “That’s a Hopi pot!” as indeed the carved bird design
resembles that painted on a Hopi pot that she led me to on the
shelves of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture storeroom.
In the second case I already knew the source, since Dody
had published it in her recent El Palacio article coauthored
with Pete Pino. I recognized the sun symbol carved on the side
of the chest of shallow drawers in the museum basement and
also on the side of a desk that has has been traditionally called
48 El Palacio

SAM HUDELSON
Above: A double bench still used in the museum galleries. Its softened
“Mission” style is given Southwestern character by the cut-out slats and
Indian-inspired engraving at each end. Photograph by Blair Clark.
Right: Small reception desk with the front panel carved with a motif
similar to those on Hopi pottery. Photograph by Blair Clark.
El Palacio 49

SAM HUDELSON
The “Director’s desk” with the initials of the Museum of New Mexico on the
file drawer. It can be dated to around 1931–32 and still serves as the work station
of the current director of the Art Museum, Mary Kershaw, who graciously allowed it
to be cleared for photography. The side panel of “the Director’s desk” exactly
replicates the motif on an important Zia pot. Adapted by the addition of a fourth
ray and the elimination of the sun’s facial features, the motif was the winning entry
in the 1920 competition for a New Mexico state flag. Hudelson would have been
familiar with the original pot that was donated by the painter Andrew Dasburg to
the School of American Research in 1931 and housed in the museum buildings in
Hudelson’s charge. Photograph by Blair Clark.
and remains in use as “the Director’s desk.” Both of these
carvings differ in character from the symbol as adopted for
the New Mexico state flag, with only three, not four rays. The
sun on the Director’s desk has a face, with eyes and mouth.
I had not realized until the Fugate/Pino article that this was
precisely the decoration on the Zia pot donated to SAR in
1931 by the painter Andrew Dasburg and recently repatriated.
Hudelson would certainly have known the celebrated
acquisition. He would have been well acquainted with ceramics
in the collection, as he would have relocated their storage
on the repeated occasions when Hewett reassigned spaces in
the museum buildings.
Inset: The Zia pot that inspired
Hudelson’s carvings and the New
Mexico flag. Courtesy Peter Pino
and the Pueblo of Zia.
Several pieces in the art museum that have elements suggesting
Hudelson’s work give evidence of being subsequently
heavily reworked and/or transformed by succeeding generations
of carpenters. The huge table currently occupying the
location of the original table made for the Women’s Board
Room, which is now in the museum lobby, appears to be
a composite. The Indian motifs carved on the apron are in
Hudelson’s style but they include one carved on the inside
of the apron, indicating the wood was a trial piece or salvaged
from another use. As in the 1917 original, the massive
Solomonic spiral column legs are hand-hewn, but the overall
proportions are awkward, being exaggerated in length with a
single central stretcher and a shallow apron. The structure is
held together with metal plates bracing the corners, unthinkable
for a craftsman of Hudelson’s caliber.
50 El Palacio

A chest with shallow drawers,
probably intended for works on paper.
Here Hudelson enhanced the decorative
vocabulary Nusbaum based in regional
Hispanic tradition for the Women’s Board
Room with Pueblo motifs, including the Zia
sun symbol on the sides. Hudelson’s
furniture for the museum illustrated
the institution’s active promotion of the
aesthetic value of Native American art and
further amplified the developing “Santa Fe
Style.” Photograph by Blair Clark.
Not long ago I learned that the chest with shallow drawers
carved with stepped Indian motifs and sides carved with the
Zia symbol had narrowly escaped plans for cutting it up for
adaptive use. Some twenty years ago the museum director
hesitated and consulted Robin Farwell Gavin, then curator
of Spanish Colonial art at the Museum of International
Folk Art. She advised him that though it was not a Spanish
Colonial antique, it was a piece of real merit that might be
part of the early furnishings of the museum and should be
preserved. It has carving on all sides indicating that it was
made to be free-standing in a place where it could be seen in
the round. Its shallow drawers were probably made for the
storage of works on paper, perhaps the paintings by Indian
artists that were not only exhibited but also sold by the
museum. It would make sense to associate the decoration of
such a functional showpiece with its contents.
An Artist Too
Recently I discovered an unexpected aspect of Good Old Sam’s
unsung creativity by following a lead in Kenneth Chapman’s
papers at the School of American Research. 7 He listed
Hudelson as a participant in a two-week exhibition staged
in a single alcove at the Art Gallery at the height of the controversy
over “Modernist” art in 1924. The museum seemed
to have no record of the exhibition, but searching through
microfilm of the Santa Fe New Mexican I discovered a review
titled “Astigmatic Expressionists” (February 16, 1924). While
most works were given tongue-in-cheek criticism, Hudelson’s
contribution received straight-forward comment. His silverpoint
drawing of the Devil was commended as “remarkable
for its intimacy and detail.” Further it was stated, “His woman
drawn with a single line also reveals this carpenter’s familiarity
with his subject.”
There is so much more to be learned about Sam Hudelson,
but identifying some of the furniture he made for the New
Mexico Museum of Art is a first step that sheds light on this
historic phase of the Museum of New Mexico as it took the
lead in embracing and validating Native American creativity.
Hudelson’s furniture incorporated Indian design into the
evolving “Santa Fe Style.” n
NOTES
1. Rosemary Nusbaum, Tierra Dulce, Reminiscences from the
Jesse Nusbaum Papers. (Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 1980), 63.
2. Quoted by Janet Chapman and Karen Barr, Kenneth Milton Chapman,
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008), 137).
3. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1987, 216.
4. Thanks to Lonn Taylor, who has generously allowed me to cite his research.
5. School for Advanced Research, SAR AC 28.
6. From the papers of Nusbaum’s daughter, Rosemary Talley,
quoted by Lonn Taylor.
7. School for Advanced Research, Kenneth Chapman Papers (AC02:157.1).
El Palacio 51