El Graduado
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Have patience with me. There are more than a couple of connections between me and the characters in this tale; it will just take a little reading to get there.
In January, 1913, Sylvanus Griswold Morley and Jesse Logan Nusbaum set off from Santa Fe New Mexico on an expedition to Mexico to film a silent feature on the ancient Maya for the Panama-California Exposition that was to be held in San Diego California in 1915. The script that Morley wrote was to tell the story of Maya life at Chichén Itzá, with fanciful scenes of young, sacrificial virgins being thrown into the sacred cenote located there. However, when they finally set up to film in the ruins in February of 1913, they found they had underestimated the funds they needed to build sets, buy costumes, and hire actors. They ditched the project and began travelling around Yucatan filming and photographing whatever struck their fancy. In Tulum, their canoe overturned in the surf and they lost most of their exposed film. The accident also rendered their movie camera inoperable. When they later landed on Cozumel, they only had their still cameras in working order with which to record their experiences there.
Nusbaum and Morley were good friends and had worked together on digs in New Mexico and Guatemala earlier in 1910.
Above: Quiriguá, Guatemala, 1910. Sylvanus Morley is center left, and Jesse Nusbaum is center right. Their two friends are unidentified.
Above: Jesse Nusbaum and United Fruit Company employee dressed-up in Guatemalan military uniforms, Guatemala City, Guatemala, 1910
Nusbaum also worked with Alfred V. Kidder in 1908 at Mesa Verde. Kidder was later to fly with Charles Lindbergh in the 1929 aerial survey of Yucatan which included a stop in Cozumel.
Above: Nusbaum on left, Kidder on right at Mesa Verde 1908.
This whole group of Santa Fean archaeologists were party animals. Below is a photo taken by Nusbaum of his friends at Fiesta, the Santa Fe celebration of the towns founding:
Above: Nusbaum’s friends dressed for a party in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Although I didn’t know Nusbaum’s connection with Cozumel at the time, a couple of friends of mine, Taylor A. (Tad) Dale and his wife Sandy, used Nusbaum’s old home in Santa Fe as their tribal art gallery. My wife and I spent many pleasant evenings, dining and partying at the gallery with them and their guests, a tradition that apparently had carried over from Nusbaum’s days.
Even though Nusbaum failed to film the movie he wanted for Panama-California Exposition while he was in Yucatan, the archaeologist would later work with the New Mexican government designing the “Painted Desert” pavilion at the exposition in San Diego in 1915. In the photo below, he is shown holding Maria Martinez’ baby. Notice the hand-rolled cigarette in his hand and the rather bemused look on his face. Maria was a potter from San Idelfonso Pueblo in New Mexico. When Nusbaum’s friend and fellow archaeologist, Edgar Lee Hewett, discovered shiny black pottery sherds in a Pueblo Indian excavation he was working on in 1908 and asked Maria to help him figure out how it was made. The young potter experimented a while and eventually found that by reducing the oxygen available to the kiln, the red clay would turn black. She then began producing this black pottery in her pueblo and offering it for sale to tourists and was wildly successful. Nusbaum and Hewitt took her to San Diego for the exposition where she, her husband and baby wore traditional garb for the visitors while they sold their wares. Much later, in the 1970s, Sharon Morales of Cozumel began to buy Maria’s pottery to sell at Sharon’s gift shop “Los Cinco Soles”.
Above: Nusbaum holding Maria Martinez’ baby and a hand-rolled cigarette. I’ll bet I know which one he put down first.
Nusbaum was not only an archaeologist, but also a well-known photographer at the time that delighted in taking self-portraits and posing for shots.
Above: Nusbaum in 1908.
Above: Nusbaum dancing with mannequin in Santa Fe, 1916.
Above: Nusbaum in 1917, prior to entering the army and serving in France.
Above: Nusbaum and friend, 1917.
In January, 1913, Sylvanus Griswold Morley and Jesse Logan Nusbaum set off from Santa Fe New Mexico on an expedition to Mexico to film a silent feature on the ancient Maya for the Panama-California Exposition that was to be held in San Diego California in 1915. The script that Morley wrote was to tell the story of Maya life at Chichén Itzá, with fanciful scenes of young, sacrificial virgins being thrown into the sacred cenote located there. However, when they finally set up to film in the ruins in February of 1913, they found they had underestimated the funds they needed to build sets, buy costumes, and hire actors. They ditched the project and began travelling around Yucatan filming and photographing whatever struck their fancy. In Tulum, their canoe overturned in the surf and they lost most of their exposed film. The accident also rendered their movie camera inoperable. When they later landed on Cozumel, they only had their still cameras in working order with which to record their experiences there.
Above: The two archaeologists did manage to salvage the negatives of a few shots they staged at Chichén Itzá.
Nusbaum and Morley were good friends and had worked together on digs in New Mexico and Guatemala earlier in 1910.
Above: Quiriguá, Guatemala, 1910. Sylvanus Morley is center left, and Jesse Nusbaum is center right. Their two friends are unidentified.
Above: Jesse Nusbaum and United Fruit Company employee dressed-up in Guatemalan military uniforms, Guatemala City, Guatemala, 1910
Nusbaum also worked with Alfred V. Kidder in 1908 at Mesa Verde. Kidder was later to fly with Charles Lindbergh in the 1929 aerial survey of Yucatan which included a stop in Cozumel.
Above: Nusbaum on left, Kidder on right at Mesa Verde 1908.
This whole group of Santa Fean archaeologists were party animals. Below is a photo taken by Nusbaum of his friends at Fiesta, the Santa Fe celebration of the towns founding:
Above: Nusbaum’s friends dressed for a party in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Although I didn’t know Nusbaum’s connection with Cozumel at the time, a couple of friends of mine, Taylor A. (Tad) Dale and his wife Sandy, used Nusbaum’s old home in Santa Fe as their tribal art gallery. My wife and I spent many pleasant evenings, dining and partying at the gallery with them and their guests, a tradition that apparently had carried over from Nusbaum’s days.
Even though Nusbaum failed to film the movie he wanted for Panama-California Exposition while he was in Yucatan, the archaeologist would later work with the New Mexican government designing the “Painted Desert” pavilion at the exposition in San Diego in 1915. In the photo below, he is shown holding Maria Martinez’ baby. Notice the hand-rolled cigarette in his hand and the rather bemused look on his face. Maria was a potter from San Idelfonso Pueblo in New Mexico. When Nusbaum’s friend and fellow archaeologist, Edgar Lee Hewett, discovered shiny black pottery sherds in a Pueblo Indian excavation he was working on in 1908 and asked Maria to help him figure out how it was made. The young potter experimented a while and eventually found that by reducing the oxygen available to the kiln, the red clay would turn black. She then began producing this black pottery in her pueblo and offering it for sale to tourists and was wildly successful. Nusbaum and Hewitt took her to San Diego for the exposition where she, her husband and baby wore traditional garb for the visitors while they sold their wares. Much later, in the 1970s, Sharon Morales of Cozumel began to buy Maria’s pottery to sell at Sharon’s gift shop “Los Cinco Soles”.
Above: Nusbaum holding Maria Martinez’ baby and a hand-rolled cigarette. I’ll bet I know which one he put down first.
Nusbaum was not only an archaeologist, but also a well-known photographer at the time that delighted in taking self-portraits and posing for shots.
Above: Nusbaum in 1908.
Above: Nusbaum dancing with mannequin in Santa Fe, 1916.
Above: Nusbaum in 1917, prior to entering the army and serving in France.
Above: Nusbaum and friend, 1917.
