Southwest Museum (Birthday Month Adventure #2)

The Southwest Museum is another place I've always wanted to visit but hadn't until Birthday Adventure Month. Maybe always wanting to go but never having gone is one of my unconscious criteria for an adventure.

I'm determined to have at least one adventure per week this month. It's not easy to schedule adventures! I'm so focused on working. But adventures fuel me and I've never regretted one, even the ones that don't turn out like I expect them to. Especially those.

The Southwest Museum, the oldest museum in Los Angeles, looms over the Pasadena freeway, all southwestern/Spanishy in the sun. Damage from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake was so extensive the building had to be closed, and eventually it was acquired by the Autry Museum along with its extensive collections of Native American pottery, baskets and weavings, not just from the southwest but from all over the country. There's a complicated history to this. This link was sent to me by a friend.

There's only one exhibit room open right now, and a few pieces displayed in a downstairs hallway. I found the straw sandal to be the most affecting. It's a fine exhibit, but don't go expecting a full day. The Museum is open Saturdays only. It's free, there's plenty of parking, and you'll see glorious Native American pottery, some pieces as much as 500 years old, some from the late 20th century.

The website is a bit misleading. I clicked on a link for the cafe but it turns out that's at the Autry. We were so hungry that we skipped out without seeing the tunnel, approached from the disabled parking lot on a lower level of the hill. The elevator's not working right now, so if you are wheelchair-bound you're restricted to the upper level. But that's where the pottery is so you'll see most of the good stuff (but not the sandal).

An adventure doesn't always turn out like you expect it to. That's adventure by definition, in a way.

You might want to enlarge this one to appreciate the snow-covered San Gabriel peaks in the distance. This is a view I hadn't seen before, easily gained by stepping to the edge of the parking lot at the Southwest Museum.

Note: Pasadena Adjacent was across the Arroyo from us at about the time of these photos. She was painting watercolor #19 in a series.

Our Heritage, the Right to Vote

Why is Natalie smiling?

Because this beautiful dress is only a costume, it's not 1913, and she's not a real suffragist. She's already got the right to vote, thanks to the women who came before her.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, allowing women the right to vote. To commemorate the anniversary, Heritage Square Museum presents Their Rights and Nothing Less, an exhibit of information and ephemera from the suffragist era. The exhibit is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to September 26th.

It's a quiet exhibit, one you'll want to contemplate, as there are plaques to read and ideas to consider. I found myself especially interested in the biographies of Los Angeles- and Pasadena-area women who fought for the cause, and I was touched by the small buttons they wore to support their efforts. I got nostalgic when I saw the items related to the Equal Rights Amendment. They brought back my own memories of the march on Springfield, Illinois in the early 1980's. My friend who attended the exhibit with me said, "Whatever happened to the Equal Rights Amendment?" We both looked at each other and said, "Nothing."

I like voting. I vote every chance I get. You know the teeny, tiny elections you hear of where only 18% of the population showed up to decide the fate of everyone else? That was me.

It's not that I'm power-mad, though I like having my say. It's not that I'm fond of hanging out with election officials in cleared-out schoolrooms. But a while back I read about the suffragettes/suffragists. They didn't just march for the vote. They didn't just argue with their husbands. They went to jail. They went on hunger strikes. They were force-fed, ridiculed, vilified and beaten so we women could have the vote. So I just really appreciate the opportunity.

We met Mitzi March Mogul, the curator of Their Rights and Nothing Less, who told us no other museum in the U.S. is commemorating this anniversary. I note the Autry Musem is featuring an exhibit entitled Home Lands: How Women Made the West, which is timely. Since the museums are close together, the two might make a nice day trip.

Our beautiful model Natalie, by the way, has been volunteering at Heritage Square for 17 years. She was all smiles, and believe it or not she made that gorgeous dress and hat herself. You might have guessed that at Heritage Square, she's in charge of costumes.
vintage images courtesy of Heritage Square Museum