Talk:Margaret Tafoya

Latest comment: 3 years ago by NOLA1982 in topic Unverified quotation and dubious ref

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Unverified quotation and dubious ref edit

In the course of updating this article, I have done some research to try to fix the Frank/Harlow citation currently in the Career section, regarding the traditional production methods and their history. The current ref includes a pages= value of 1-158, which is essentially the entire book. I got my hands on a copy of the book, which is unindexed. I didn't read the entire book but I did read both the Santa Clara and San Ildefonso chapters and this quote was not found in either chapter. I skimmed the rest of the book and could not find this quote. In addition, I also skimmed through a few other books authored by Francis H. Harlow regarding Pueblo pottery and could not find this quote in any of them (most also unindexed). I think the quote is relevant to the article, and it sure sounds like a direct quote from a reliable source, so instead of deleting or trying to find an alternative quote on this aspect of the article, I am marking the ref with [failed verification].

Also, I am marking the ref regarding Tafoya's influence on Maria Martinez with [unreliable source?]. When I was adding refs to the Further reading section, I could find no evidence anywhere that I looked for a published work by Roller titled Santa Clara Pueblo. Also, in reviewing the edit history of the article, I see that the editor (Rroller0801) who added that sentence about Martinez is a descendant of Margaret Tafoya's. NOLA1982 (talk) 16:10, 29 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

@NOLA1982: I've also been looking for evidence and so far here is what I found in the book, "Pottery by American Indian Women: The Legacy of Generations" by Susan Peterson, pub. National Museum of Women in the Arts, Wash. DC: In the section on Margaret Tafoya, it states:
"In the neighboring pueblo of San Ildefonso, Maria Martinez and her husband Julian, were already well known; Maria as a potter and Julian as a painter. Their oldest son, Adam, married Santana Roybal in 1926; the couple lived with Adam's parents; and Santana proceeded to learn to paint decorations on pottery from Julian. In those days the Tafoya family and the Martinez family were friends, according to what Maria told me, and visited frequently."
In the same book, the section on Maria Martinez says she learned pottery from her Aunt Nicolasa when she was a child. It says that Maria and Julian became famous for the black-on-black ware, and goes on to say:
"She and Julian had developed these wares as a result of a request from the Smithsonian Institituion and the Heye Foundation archaeologists to copy two-thousand-year-old black shards unearthed during an exacation in 1908 at the nearby site of Puye." It goes on to say that "When Maria made her first blackware by smothering red clay pots during a bonfiring, she was was following Dr. Hewett's instructions, and did not realize the that the technique would become her life's work." (Hewett was director of the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe at the time.)
It also goes on to say that the black on black was achieved by polishing and painting with refractory slip before firing to achieve the matte decoration.
So I am not sure what is in the article is entirely correct. The tags should remain for now. I have monographs on both Martinez and Tafoya, and if I find anything else will post it here. Netherzone (talk) 22:36, 5 January 2021 (UTC)Reply
Another discovery, there are photos in the Maria Martinez monograph of her with blackware and black-on-black ware that is dated 1910–1915. Maria Martinez (b.1887) was quite a bit older than Tafoya who was born in 1904. When these photos of Maria with blackware were taken, Margaret Tafoya would have only been 6 to 9 years old at the time, so it is doubtful that Martinez learned black pottery from Tafoya. Netherzone (talk) 22:49, 5 January 2021 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for your research, Netherzone. Very interesting findings. NOLA1982 (talk) 01:05, 6 January 2021 (UTC)Reply