By Kathryn Reisdorfer 

The relationship between Sharlot Hall and Charles F. Lummis was based on more than their shared love for literature. Both the Arizona ranch woman and the California celebrity were dedicated to preserving the history of the American Southwest; the activities each engaged in ranged from collecting stories and writing histories to acquiring and preserving historical artifacts, including buildings. Prescott's residents and visitors are direct beneficiaries of Hall's work and indirectly that of Lummis' as well. Hall learned a great deal from him. 

Although he was very bright, Lummis left Yale University without a degree after four years; practical jokes and athletics were more interesting to him than mathematics. Observant if not degreed, in his legendary trek across the United States, Lummis discovered the amazing architecture and cultures indigenous to New Mexico and Arizona, and his immediate fear was that Anglo culture would crowd them out. Trying to stem the tide, Lummis worked tirelessly to assure Native peoples' survival physically and economically, and at the same time, he photographed them, collected their stories, songs and artifacts and worked to preserve their villages. Once settled in California, he began a nation-wide movement to rescue the beautiful but crumbling missions built by early Spanish priests and was instrumental in preserving the art, music and literature of the Hispanic settlers.

Hoping to make materials available to the public, Lummis worked to establish a museum that would house materials related to Southwestern culture. He envisioned that it would be the hub for similar organizations across the Southwest. 

Lummis' work inspired Sharlot Hall. Like Lummis, who was eleven years her senior, Hall was intrigued by the history of her immediate surroundings, and, like Lummis, she saw the valuable traditions of the past threatened by progress. Rather than concentrating on Indians, however, Sharlot's early emphasis centered on the Anglo pioneers of Arizona Territory, especially the ranchers, farmers, and miners - the simple folk - who established the base of what she felt was a flourishing culture and economy. 

The deaths of a few pioneers alerted her to the fact that time was her enemy. If the past was going to be preserved, someone would have to do it immediately, and that someone, she reasoned, was Sharlot Hall. 

In addition to visiting old pioneers and getting their stories and, in some instances, their diaries, Sharlot launched a public campaign to acquire the Prescott building that had housed the original Territorial government. Simultaneously, Sharlot lobbied to obtain a coveted position that didn't even exit at that point: Territorial Historian. 

The story of how she obtained this position is complex, but the fact is that she was appointed to it in 1909. Immediately, she realized she needed help. Only two weeks after she got the appointment as Territorial Historian, Sharlot wrote Lummis a long letter. Acknowledging that she herself was no scholar - Sharlot had very little formal education - she told her mentor she wanted to do honest work that was good enough to be respected by scholars. Petitioning him for advice, she wrote, "I am seeking to know the best methods of organization and research and to avail myself of the most authoritative advice in the field I hope to cover, knowing my own limitations I am seeing to mitigate them by making wise and honest use of the experience of others, and if I fail here in this office it will be at least an honest failure." 

The tireless Lummis, in addition to editing, writing, and working as a reformer, had also served for a time as the librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library, knowing something about cataloging. Never happier than when giving advice, he fired Sharlot a quick response based on experience. First, he said, collect newspapers. Pointing out that it was obvious that the most important things happening 'today' are in the newspapers, he said that if all Sharlot could to do was to collect current issues, she would provide the grist for the historians in the future. Thus, she should get people to send her all of the newspapers in the territory, including past issues. Then he told her what to do with them. She needed to get two copies of each, keeping one whole for future binding. She should clip articles out of the other, creating a guide to subjects on index cards. "Anyone who does not save and catalog newspaper stuff," he warned her, "is....lost." 

The second important source of history was people. Lummis admonished Sharlot to make friends in every hamlet across the Territory, which would allow her to get as much information as possible. Noting that as a Territorial official she had the power to create "Knights," telling her to draw others into her work and insuring their participation and pride in their work by giving them titles! After relating the various ways in which she should operate as the Territorial Historian, he added that in the future there could be profitable collaboration among museums across the Southwest. 

Sharlot paid attention. She had already begun to gather people's stories and would continue to do so. She traveled collecting material, and, even after being unceremoniously removed from her official post (politics can be nasty), she remained dedicated to keeping history. Convincing the Prescott City Council to acquire and let her restore the first Governor's Mansion, Sharlot planted the seed from which the Sharlot Hall Museum grew. 

The network of museums under the umbrella of Lummis' Museum of the Southwest never materialized, but, just as the Sharlot Hall Museum flourishes today in Prescott, Lummis' Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles serves the public under the auspices of the (Gene) Autry National Center, taking advantage of that organization's funding and professional staff. Luckily, the work of both Lummis and Hall will nourish generations for years to come. 

(Kathryn Reisdorfer is a professor of history at Yavapai College.) 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po1089pf). Reuse only by permission.
Photo of Charles Fletcher Lummis inscribed to his friend and colleague, Sharlot M. Hall, 1922