Wheelwright Looks Back on 60 Years of Museum Evolution

By William A. MacNeil
Journal Staff Writer
More than 60 years ago a wealthy scholar from Boston, Mary Cabot Wheelwright, and esteemed Navajo medicine man Hastiin Klah decided the only way to preserve Navajo ceremonial heritage was to build a private museum.
So they did.
The huge handmade doors to what was briefly called the Navajo House of Prayer opened off Old Santa Fe Trail on Nov. 21, 1937.
The name soon changed to The Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, which it remained until 1977 when it became the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.
To note its 60th anniversary, the Wheelwright today opened an exhibition of highlights from its collections.
And last week, the museum received a major challenge grant for construction of a 5,900-square-foot addition. Museum director Jonathan Batkin said the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., will give the museum $150,000 if the Wheelwright can raise an additional $300,000 by Sept. 30, 1998. Batkin expects to raise the money by spring so ground can be broken for the expansion.
Wheelwright arrived in New Mexico in 1918, when she was 40. In 1921 she met Klah, an influential weaver and singer, as Navajo medicine men are called.
Klah, 54, had seen decades of efforts by the U.S. government and missionaries to assimilate Navajo people into mainstream U.S. society. The future of traditional Navajo religious practices seemed bleak, and he welcomed the sympathy Wheelwright offered, she later wrote in her journal.
The two became close friends and decided to create a permanent record of Klah's and other singers' ritual knowledge. Klah dictated and Wheelwright recorded the Navajo creation story and other narratives that form the basis of Navajo religion.
They were joined by Frances Newcomb, who had introduced them. She focused on the sand paintings that are created and destroyed during healing ceremonies, recreating versions of them in tempera on paper.
Klah wove huge tapestries, which were also permanent records of sand paintings.
The sand painting tapestries and reproductions used to hang in the museum's main gallery. They are not included in the current exhibition because such displays need the approval of the Navajo Nation, and permission is rarely given. The sand paintings are considered sacred, and Navajos believe harm may result from improper display.
When Wheelwright and Klah decided to build a museum, they chose Santa Fe artist and architect William Penhallow Henderson to design it. He based the structure on the hogan -- the traditional Navajo home and setting for ceremonies. Klah blessed the ground upon which the museum is built but died a few months before it was completed.
By the 1970s, the Navajo Nation exerted its independence. Navajo singers revived traditional Navajo religion and became concerned about the teaching of the religion by anyone other than Navajos. In 1977 the museum's board voted to repatriate medicine bundles and other items to the Navajo people.
The museum's name was then changed. It no longer actively studies the Navajo religion, but it maintains a collection documenting Navajo art and culture from 1850 to the present. It also presents changing exhibitions of traditional and contemporary Navajo and other Native American art.
The museum has been visionary and pioneering, not backward-looking as are many natural history museums, said J. Edson Way, head of the state Cultural Affairs Office and director of the Wheelwright from 1985 to 1989.
"The greatest importance of the Wheelwright is that since the 1930s it has sought to document aspects of Native American culture which are enduring. It broke new ground when it began to document continuity between tradition and contemporary American life," he said Friday.
The planned addition will allow it to expand exhibitions and access for scholars.
Phase one of the $1.5 million expansion was completed in July. A 900-square-foot addition includes an information center, gallery space and an elevator.
The elevator will let visitors move from the main gallery to the Case Trading Post museum shop and restrooms on the building's lower level without using the stairs. The restrooms also were remodeled to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The 5,900-square-foot addition will be built next to the main building. It will include space for collections and archives, a library, a meeting room for up to 80 people and work space for exhibit preparation. The building will provide state-of-the-art storage facilities and allow visiting researchers easier access to archives.
The city's Historic Design Review Board approved plans for the addition last week.
Construction is expected to take about nine months.
In addition to the Mabee Foundation, significant donors were the Stockman Family Fund of Albuquerque, which gave $150,000, and American Indian Art Magazine of Scottsdale, Ariz., which donated $45,000.
Herbert Beenhouwer of Santa Fe made a large contribution in honor of his wife, Susan Brown McGreevy, former museum director, trustee, and former board president. Part of the new building will be called the Susan Brown McGreevy Collections and Archive Center.
Batkin said the only amount yet to be raised toward the $1.5 million expansion cost is the $300,000 to match the Mabee challenge grant.