Holland-Terrell library is a main fixture on campus, anyone who goes to Washington State University can tell you where it is. However many students do not know that the library houses the university’s Manuscript, Archives and Special Collections (known as MASC) department. Even less students know that the MASC has exhibits that various professors and the faculty at the MASC put together. The current exhibit is no exception. In honor of Women’s History Month that takes place in March, the MASC showed an exhibit that was about the life and experiences of Mary Robinson Walter.
Mary Walter was a missionary who came to the Pacific Northwest with her husband Elkanah in the spring of 1838. The exhibit, titled Baskets, Bonnets and Pincushions: Interpreting the Life and Work of Mary Richardson Walker, was designed and curetted by Jennifer Thigpen and Rachael Johnson. Thigpen is a professor of history at WSU and Rachel Johnson is a graduate student in the history department. Thigpen states in promotional video for the exhibit that the goals of the exhibit were to tell the story of who Mary was, the kinds of things she did in her life, the various kinds of work she participated in, what things she valued, and the things that she found to be of the most importance in her life. Also, in the video, Trevor Bond, the interim head of the MASC, says that exhibit highlights a number of collections on the WSU campus. Bond says the exhibit tells a very compelling story of a woman who rebelled against the situation that she was in. He also makes the statement that the exhibit tells of a woman who had difficulty with her husband and children, and that the exhibit tells the story of a woman who survived in a difficult place of the country to live in.
Because many of the visitors to the exhibit will not know who Mary Robinson Walter was, the designers of the exhibit decided that the first thing the visitor should see is a short biography of Mary along with a short timeline of her life. Below the timeline and the biography are various pictures of the Walter family and the Robinson family. The exhibit moves through the different areas of Mary’s life. To tell the story of Mary’s life the exhibit uses text and various objects that were either owned by Mary and her family or were from the same period and region where Mary and her family lived. The objects shown include clothes that Mary would have worn, which were provided by the Historical Costume and Textile Collection that is part of the Department of Apparel Merchandising, Design and Textiles at WSU. The exhibit also includes personal correspondence letters written by Mary, a passport from the US War Department allowing her to travel through Indian country and diaries of Mary. In addition to this, the exhibit features books from the Walkers personal library, plant specimens that show examples of the plants that Mary used for medicinal purposes. The visitor will also see things that Mary and her family may have traded for or bought from the local Native Americans. These objects include coiled and woven baskets, woven bags and a pair of moccasins. There are objects that show what life was like working in the mission field such as a wooden paddle that was probably used for baking and various pincushions that Mary made, and a shirt for a newborn baby. One of the main objects displayed is the traveling writing desk of Mary. Various paintings and drawings done by Mary are also displayed.
The exhibit does a wonderful job of showing what life was like for Mary Walter and her family in the missionary field, how she got into missionary work and what her life was like before she was a missionary. There is a good deal of text that is required for the visitor to understand and contextualize what the life of Mary of like, which I started out reading as I moved through the exhibit, however I found that by the fourth part of the exhibit, I had stopped reading the text that explained the objects shown below it and was just looking at the objects. In my opinion, less text would have been nice, however I understand why the curators had incorporate a large amount of text into the exhibit. The flow of the exhibit makes sense and is very fluid, one part exhibit flows nicely into the next part. Because some of the writing on the objects, especially in the personal correspondence and the personal diaries, the designers pulled out key phrases that illustrate or support the point the curators are trying to make in the block of text from the objects shown. Overall, the exhibit does an excellent job of meeting what Thigpen and Bond state as being the objectives of the exhibit or what the exhibit will show. As I walked through the exhibit I got a sense of just how hard life was for Mary and her family. I also gained a new appreciation for just how hard women who lived in the Pacific Northwest at the time that Mary did had to work. For anyone who wants a good look at what life was like for women who were settlers and missionaries in the Pacific Northwest from the early 1800’s to mid 1800’s, the exhibit on Mary Robinson Walter is definitely worth the visit.
Bibliography:
Haugen, M. (2010). Women’s History Month: WSU Exhibit of Mary Richardson Walker [online video]. (Available online from WSU Today, a publication of WSU News Service at the web address http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp? Action=Detail&PublicationID=18719&PageID=&ReferrerCode=uggc%3A%2F%2Fjjj%2Ejfhgbqnl %2Ejfh%2Erqh%2Fcntrf%2Ffrnepu%2Enfc%3FCntrVQ%3D%26Xrljbeqf% 3DZnel+Evpuneqfba+Jnyxre).
King, C. (2010, Feb. 25). Artifacts, diaries reveal pioneer woman’s life. WSU Today. Retrieved April 6, 2010, from http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp? Action=Detail&PublicationID=18409&TypeID=1
For more information on the exhibit take a look at these websites:
WSU Today Online – Artifacts, Diaries reveal pioneer woman’s life: http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=18409&TypeID=1
WSU Today Online – Video debuts artifacts from MASC mission wife exhibit:
http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=18719&PageID=&ReferrerCode=uggc%3A%2F%2Fjjj%2Ejfhgbqnl%2Ejfh%2Erqh%2Fcntrf%2Ffrnepu%2Enfc%3FCntrVQ%3D%26Xrljbeqf%3DZnel+Evpuneqfba+Jnyxre
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