Description
The map was published by the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences where the author, Arthur C. Parker, who had Seneca ancestry, was director, and the artist, Robert Gribbroek was the museum’s art director.
Robert Gribbroek was a painter, illustrator and commercial art director. He was born in Rochester, New York, and studied at Rochester Institute of Technology, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Students League. In 1934 and 1935 he was art director for the Rochester Museum and Science Center. In 1936, he moved to Taos, New Mexico, and became associated with a group of artists who formed the Transcendental Painting Group, which were dedicated to avant-garde abstraction. In the 1940s he worked as a technical illustrator for Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles and Disney Studios, followed by employment from 1945 to 1964 at Warner Brothers as a background and layout artist on dozens of Looney Tunes cartoon shorts. However, he remained active in the Taos art community, exhibiting his paintings there and in nearby Santa Fe, and returning to live there just before his death.
Arthur Caswell Parker was an American archaeologist, historian, folklorist, museologist and noted authority on American Indian culture. He was born on the Cattaraugus Reservation of the Seneca Nation in western New York. His father was half Seneca; his mother, of Anglo-American descent, was a reservation schoolteacher. In 1903 he was adopted into the tribe as an honorary member and given the Seneca name Gawaso Wanneh. His Seneca grandfather and great-uncle were prominent tribal leaders. Throughout his career he worked to connect his heritage with contemporary American history and culture. He attended Dickinson Seminary in Pennsylvania but left before graduation to follow his passion for history and archaeology. In 1906 he took a position as the first archaeologist at the New York State Museum. Five years later he co-founded the Society of American Indians to educate Americans about Native American culture, and edited the society’s magazine from 1915 to 1920. He served as director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences from 1925 to 1946. During the 1930s he also directed the WPA-funded Indian Arts Project and served as the first president of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1944 Parker helped found the National Congress of American Indians.
Mrs. Walter Henricks (Sah-Nee-Weh), listed as cartographer of the map, also served as New York State chair of the Daughters of the American Revolution committee on Indian Affairs beginning in 1938. She and residents of the Tonawanda Indian Reservation in Genesee County were responsible for the construction of a community house dedicated in 1939.
Stecher-Traung was a Rochester, New York, printing firm, co-founded in the 1870s by Frank A. Stecher as a chromolithography firm. In 1887, Stecher changed the name to Stecher Lithographic Company and turned it into a major printer of labels and posters. After being acquired in the mid 1930s by Traung Lithographic Company of San Francisco it was known as Stecher-Traung. The Rochester plant closed in 1980.
Publication information, lower margin: Indian Episodes of New York. A Drama-Story Map of the Empire State. Compiled by Arthur C. Parker, Historian; and Mrs. Walter Henricks, Cartographer, Penn Yan, N.Y. Drawn by Robert Gribbroek. Published by the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences at Rochester, N.Y. 1935
Condition: Generally very good with only minor overall toning, wear, handling.
References:
Amrhein, Cindy. “Town of Alabama, Genesee County, New York Historic Timeline.” New York GenWeb Project. 2016. http://genesee.nygenweb.net/Alabama/Alabama%20-%20Timeline.htm (25 August 2020).
“Arthur C. Parker.” Wikipedia. 18 June 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Parker (25 August 2020).
“Robert Gribbroek.” Peyton Wright Gallery. 2020. https://peytonwright.com/modern/artists/robert-gribbroek/ (25 August 2020).
“Stecher Litho Co.” Library of Congress. https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2013118733.html (25 August 2020).
