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Audrey Hawthorn

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Audrey Hawthorn
Born
Audrey Genevieve Engle

(1917-11-25)November 25, 1917
DiedNovember 18, 2000(2000-11-18) (aged 82)[1]

Audrey Genevieve Engle Hawthorn (25 November 1917 — 18 November 2000) was a Canadian anthropologist and author. She is known for her work establishing the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and creating the concept of visible storage as a means of displaying art in museums.

Early life and education

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Hawthorn was born in Lewellen, Nebraska on November 25, 1917.[2] She grew up in New York City, where she was exposed to anthropology through people that visited her parent's home.[3] She received both a B.A. (1939) and an M.A. (1941) from Columbia University,[2] and while there studied under Ralph Linton.[4]: 147 She studied anthropology at Yale University from 1940 until 1941, and there she met and married one of her fellow anthropology students, Harry Hawthorn.[2]

Career

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With a fellowship from Yale University, Audrey and Harry spent one year working in Bolivia,[3] and published the outcome of their work on social stratification in 1948.[5] They moved to Sarah Lawrence College, where they remained until they left for the University of British Columbia in 1947.[3] Anti-nepotism rules at the University of British Columbia prevented Audrey from working on the staff due to her husband's position as head of anthropology, so she accepted a volunteer position as curator.[2] She was an honorary curator until 1968.[4]: 139  Hawthorn would later note that she did not want an official position because she was raising children.[6]

After her husband retired in 1967, she joined the faculty of the anthropology department,[2][7]: 162  thereby becoming the first woman appointed to the department.[7]: 169 

Establishing the Museum of Anthropology

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The collection at the University of British Columbia initially held 2,500 pieces,[8] some of which came from Frank Burnett who had donated the pieces to the university in 1927.[9] Hawthorn and her husband started visiting Aboriginals in 1947 to learn about their community, and they particularly sought out those involved with carving and weaving. Starting in 1949 they hired Kwakwaka'wakw people to work on totem poles that had been relocated to the University of British Columbia.[10] Hawthorn went on to acquire works from Aboriginal artisans to bring them to the museum,[10] which included work from the Haida artist Bill Reid.[2] The Museum of Anthropology first opened to the public in 1949 as a space in the basement of the university's library.[11] Her husband Harry was its first director.[9]

As Hawthorn continued to expand the museum's collection, it became large enough that only one-tenth of it could be displayed at any one time.[12] As she sought to display the pieces in the collection, she established the concept of visible storage[2][11] that became a model for other museums displaying their collections.[13]

One artist who Hawthorn worked with at the museum was Mungo Martin whom she commissioned to carve new totem pole.[4]: 165  Martin became a friend of the Hawthorns, and would go on to encourage others artists to sell their works directly to the museum.[14] Hawthorn would later published essays on Martin's work with Wilson Duff.[4]: 260 

The museum opened in a permanent space in 1976, at which point Hawthorn retired as curator, though she would continue as a volunteer.[2]

Other exhibitions

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Hawthorn also coordinated exhibits of the university's collection at other locations. An early example was the 1959 exhibit, Arts of the Raven that was held at the Vancouver Art Gallery and centered on art originating from the Northwest Coast of Canada.[2] In 1967 Hawthorn published the Art of the Kwakiutl Indians and other Northwest coast tribes. Since there was limited space to display the pieces from the collection, her goal was to use the book to share the collection with others. When Jean Drapeau learned of the collection through her book, he invited her to exhibit the collection in Montreal[15][14] at the Expo 67 world's fair.[2] Since Hawthorn had no staff, she and university students did the preparations for the Montreal exhibit.[3] The exhibit ended up as more than 5000 artifacts that were displayed for two years in Montreal.[15]

Teaching

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Hawthorn also taught classes on tribal arts and museum studies. She started teaching in 1948, first as seminars. In 1963 she started formal program of classes that students were able to take for credit.[11][4]: 253 

Honors and awards

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Hawthorn received honorary degrees from Brandon University in 1984[16] and the University of British Columbia in 1986[13][2] In 1985 she was elected a member of the Order of Canada.[17]

Selected publications

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  • Hawthorn, Audrey (1967). Art of the Kwakiutl Indians and other Northwest coast tribes. University of British Columbia; University of Washington Press, Vancouver, Seattle. ISBN 9780295740881.[18]
  • Hawthorn, Audrey (1972), People of the potlatch, [Vancouver]: Vancouver Art Gallery and the University of British Columbia, OCLC 82357824[19]
  • Hawthorn, Audrey (1993). A labour of love : the making of the Museum of Anthropology, UBC ; the first three decades, 1947-1976. Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Museum of Anthropology. ISBN 978-0-88865-124-2. OCLC 29841192.
  • Hawthorn, Audrey; University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology (1994). Kwakiutl art. Seattle, Vancouver: University of Washington Press ; Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 978-0-295-96640-3. OCLC 230762733.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "Obituary for Audrey HAWTHORN". The Vancouver Sun. 2000-11-21. p. 52. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Gregory, Valerie (2000-12-08). "Creator of museum for native artifacts". National Post. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  3. ^ a b c d Thom, Agnes (1981-08-09). "Where the past lives". The Province. pp. [1], [2]. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  4. ^ a b c d e Jacknis, Ira (2002). The storage box of tradition : Kwakiutl art, anthropologists, and museums, 1881-1981. Internet Archive. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 978-1-58834-011-5.
  5. ^ Hawthorn, Harry B.; Hawthorn, Audrey Engle (1948). "Stratification in a Latin American City". Social Forces. 27 (1): 19–29. doi:10.2307/2572454. ISSN 0037-7732.
  6. ^ Prentice, Alice (2006). "Boosting husbands and building community: The work of twentieth-century wives". In Stortz, Paul; Panayotidis, E. Lisa (eds.). Historical identities : the professoriate in Canada. Internet Archive. Toronto : University of Toronto Press. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-8020-9000-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  7. ^ a b Whittaker, Elvi; Ames, Michael M. (2006). "Anthropology and sociology at the University of British Columbia from 1947 to the 1980s". In Harrison, Julia; Darnell, Regna (eds.). Historicizing Canadian anthropology. Vancouver : U.B.C. Press. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7748-1272-6.
  8. ^ SImmins, Richard (1970-10-16). "Will Indian art be saved?". The Province. pp. [3], [4], [5]. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  9. ^ a b Cherry, Alissa; Ferrante, Katie (2019-12-18). "A Look Back to the Beginning: Seventy Years of MOA in the Making". Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  10. ^ a b Clapperton, Jonathan Alex (2010). "CONTESTED SPACES, SHARED PLACES: The Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Aboriginal Peoples, and Postcolonial Criticism". BC Studies; Vancouver (165): 7–23, 25–30, 129. ProQuest 500043187.
  11. ^ a b c Piternick, Anne B. (2021). "The Museum of Anthropology and the work of Audrey Hawthorn" (PDF). University of British Columbia. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-06-03. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  12. ^ Grantham, Ronald (1968-03-23). "Museum without walls for Coast Indian art". The Ottawa Citizen. p. 24. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  13. ^ a b "UBC Archives - Honorary Degree Citations 1981-1988". University of British Columbia. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  14. ^ a b Peterson, Leslie (1971-07-21). "Culture to rival Egypt". The Vancouver Sun. p. 41. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  15. ^ a b Lowndes, Joan (1970-10-02). "The Collection". The Vancouver Sun. pp. [6], [7]. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  16. ^ "Past Recipients | Convocation". Brandon University. Archived from the original on 2024-12-08. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  17. ^ CP (28 December 1985). "71 named to Canada's top honor:". Toronto Star; Toronto, Ont. pp. A1. ProQuest 435370798.
  18. ^ Reviews of Art of the Kwakiutl Indians and other Northwest coast tribes
  19. ^ Palette (1956-03-16). "Illustrated handbook explains coming Indian art exhibit". The Province. p. 26. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  20. ^ Reviews of Kwakiutl art
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