Ukiah Part 2: Art & Death

A highlight was Ukiah's very own Grace Hudson Museum, home to one of America’s first museums dedicated to the work of a female artist.

As the museum puts it, “The Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House is an art, history, and anthropology museum focusing on the lifeworks of artist Grace Carpenter Hudson (1865-1937) and her ethnologist husband, Dr. John W. Hudson (1857-1936). Changing interdisciplinary exhibitions and public programs highlight Western American art, California Indian cultures, histories of the diverse North Coast region of California, and the work of contemporary regional artists.” There are some 30,000 items in the museum’s collection, including stunning Pomo Indian basketry, only a small portion displayed at any one time.
Grace Carpenter Hudson inherited a legacy of determination, creativity, and vision from a long line of fascinating family members. On the Carpenter side, she could trace her lineage back to some of the earliest white settlers of New England, who arrived in Massachusetts from Great Britain in 1638. Ancestors included soldiers in the American War of Independence, a Lieutenant Governor of Vermont, one of the earliest American women’s rights activists, and compatriots of revolutionary abolitionist, John Brown. Many in her family had a true pioneering spirit, migrating westward as the country expanded, settling regions and founding institutions along the way. Grace’s husband, John Hudson, came from an old Southern family in Nashville, Tennessee. His conservative and traditional upbringing was in marked contrast to that of Grace’s restless forebears.
Grace (1865-1937) was born to well-educated pioneer parents in Potter Valley, California, some 130 miles north of San Francisco in rural Mendocino County. She showed an early talent for drawing that was developed by professional training in San Francisco in the early 1880s at the San Francisco School of Design, where she excelled in portraiture.
After a brief failed marriage, she returned to her parents' home in Ukiah where she gave painting lessons and helped out in her parents' photography studio. In 1890, she married again, this time to John Hudson, a physician for the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad that had its terminus in the town.


I loved this 1880 life-sized self-portrait, painted early in her career at age 15. It is probable that in addition to painting the flowers on the dress (and fan), Grace also designed and sewed the dress herself. What talent.

Hudson's reputation as an Indian painter was national during her lifetime. While nearly all her portraits were of Pomo peoples, she is also known for the 26 canvases of Japanese, Chinese, and Hawaiian natives she painted during a year's sojourn in the Hawaiian Islands in 1901, as well as sketches she produced of Pawnee Indians in Oklahoma Territory, circa 1903-04. Though she worked primarily in oils, she also produced lovely watercolors, pen and ink illustrations, and charcoal, pencil, and crayon drawings. Today her work enjoys renewed interest and recognition for its fine and sympathetic portrayals of native peoples. The illustration above, Little Mendocino (1892), is her most copied and utilized for various purposes.



I include Parducci's wine tribute to the Hudsons because of their connection to Ukiah (below).
One of the many galleries showcases Pomo basketry masterpieces woven between 1860-2003. The baskets come from the collections of the Grace Hudson Museum, other private institutions with significant ethnographic holdings, and private collections. Informative text panels explained the steps taken in cultivating, harvesting, and processing materials for basketmaking. Panels also discussed the history of Pomo basket weaving, and the forms and functions of various basket types. John Hudson won awards for his collecting and archiving these treasures.

The current exhibition was titled Gathering Time: Pomo Art During the Pandemic. This is the first exhibition focused completely on the art of contemporary Pomo artists. All the pieces were predominantly made after early 2020, when the onset of the COVID-19 was beginning. The work reflects the trauma of the pandemic in Native communities, but also the power of the arts — both traditional and modern — to connect individuals and promote healing.

Traditionally, gathering time is when Pomo peoples come together with one another to collect basketry materials and traditional foods. In the context of this exhibition, gathering time also references how Pomo peoples use their creativity to reconnect with their culture.

And a little about the Hudsons' home (which I was unable to tour- next time). The Sun House, a 1911 redwood Craftsman bungalow home, where Grace and John Hudson, together with architect George Wilcox, set out to build a functional, custom Craftsman-style home scaled to the Hudsons’ needs. Fairly modest in size, it nonetheless accommodated Grace’s prodigious artistic output and John’s sizeable ethnographic collections. Keeping in mind the Arts and Crafts goal of uniting designer and craftsperson, the Hudsons actively collaborated with Wilcox on the design of the house, while adding their own creative touches. 

Though George Wilcox designed several other Craftsman homes in Ukiah, and a scattering of other Craftsman bungalows exist in the town, the Sun House remains its most famous example. This is in good part due, of course, to its distinctive inhabitants. Taken together, the Hudsons and the Sun House are the embodiment of Arts and Crafts ideals, and leave a local legacy of an international movement.
While at the museum, we learned of one of Grace's last designs, her gravestone. So off we headed to the historic Russian River Cemetery to close this chapter on Grace Hudson. The Hudsons never had children but were very close to their niece and nephews. Each block, under the watchful eye of the eagle is a stone with each family members name inscribed.

Since I come to cemeteries to OGLE gravestones, I thought John Oliver Ogle (1828-1895) was too perfect.
"O Death, Where is thy Sting?
O Grave, Where is thy Victory?"
George S. Fake (1799- 1882) has a metal grave marker which I find enviable. Unlike their stone counterparts, these monuments have resisted weathering and most survive in excellent condition. These metal tombstones are over a century old, are rust-free, and this cemetery has many of them. Labeled as White Bronze, they are not made of bronze however. These monuments were casted from pure zinc. Zinc forms a coating of zinc carbonate, that when it is left exposed, is rust resistant. The monuments have taken on a bluish-gray color that is a result of the zinc-carbonate. The term "white bronze" was used only to make the monuments sound more appealing.
These monuments range in shape and size, but possess many of the same characteristics. These zinc sculptures range from two feet high to as much as fourteen feet tall. Most of them are in the shape of an obelisk, four-sided monolithic pillars that taper as they rise. All have the family name molded on to them, usually at the base of the monument. The base of the sculpture is often cast to resemble rock. Epitaphs are commonly found above the base of the sculptures. In the middle of each there is a tablet which contains names of family members, dates of birth and death, or symbols. All monuments contain symbols, most of a religious nature.
Several interred appear to have been a part of the Ukiah Fire Department.

Civil War Veteran, Joseph N. Rea (1844-1916) and his wife had unique tomb-like graves. There were several of them at this cemetery.


There were even some wooden grave markers, which surprised me.
Poor Alfred Travis Beckwith (1901-1962) got buried sixty years ago but never got his headstone. How does that happen?
Interestingly, several of the big trees had been craved into shapes. We saw chairs and these two: a house and a mushroom. Odd indeed.

And back to the famous winemaking Parducci. John Angelo Parducci (1918-2014), at the time of his death,  was survived by his wife of 76 years; his son; one brother; six grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. John was born in the same house his mother, Isabelle Katherine Lucchetti, was born. The family moved to the Ukiah Valley in the 1920s, where John and his three brothers helped their father construct Parducci Wine Cellars in 1932. History can be found everywhere. Cemeteries are some of my favorite places to seek it out.
Christopher Wren said it best, "My walk through the cemetery was an acquaintance with local history."
Our explore of Ukiah truly delighted. I'm a firm believer that every town has treasures. You just have to take the time to find them. On to the next hunt!

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