Kenneth Milton Chapman: A Life Dedicated to Indian Arts and Artists

Janet Chapman
Karen Barrie

The accomplishments of Kenneth Milton Chapman (1875-1968)--a leading force in the revitalization of Pueblo pottery in the 1920s--are as varied as they are significant. Chapman was instrumental in the establishment of the Museum of New Mexico, the School of American Research, and the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe. He was widely recognized for his knowledge of Pueblo pottery design elements and was the University of New Mexico's first professor of Indian arts.

With a special focus on his professional development as artist and archaeologist, this biography is the first to track Chapman's life from his midwestern upbringing through his nearly seventy years in New Mexico. The authors--Chapman a grandniece and Barrie a relation by marriage--have combined material from Chapman's unpublished memoirs with a thoroughly researched history of his life and times to reveal his role within the burgeoning field of Southwestern archaeology and the preservation of ancient Pueblo pottery, as well as his promotion of the work of living potters.

Winner of the Evans Biography Award, 2009, from Utah State University's Mountain West Center for Regional Studies. Selected as a Southwest Book of the Year for 2008 by the Tucson-Pima County Public Library

"...a gracefully written and important contribution to the history and the politics of southwestern archaeology and the development of Pueblo pottery in the early twentieth century."--The Journal of Arizona History

"...a well-researched, sympathetic biography presented in an enjoyable, sometimes poetic, writing style."--Santa Fe New Mexican

"...an important, much-needed biography of Kenneth Chapman that will provide scholars and the general public with a rich new perspective not only on the preservation of early twentieth-century Indian arts but also on the development of Santa Fe in one of its most vibrant and exciting eras."--H-Net Reviews

"...paints an admiring portrait of Chapman...[and] reflects the careful scholarship, discipline, and measured judgment of a historical work that promises to enlighten readers for many years to come." --La Cronica de Nuevo Mexico

"...spares no detail in recounting Chapman's life, studies, and legacy. A welcome addition to biography and Native American studies collections alike."--The Midwest Book Review

Janet Chapman and Karen Barrie are freelance writers who came together because of their familial connections to the Chapman family. In 1999 they coauthored "Kenneth Chapman: Curator's Passion Brings Pueblo Art to Santa Fe," an article published in New Mexico Magazine. Public interest in the article spurred additional research that forms the basis of this book.

7 x 10 384 pages 13 color photographs, 31 halftones