Norton Allen: Artist and Avocational Archaeologist

Norton Allen: Artist and Avocational Archaeologist RICHARD A. SCHWARTZLOSE Lawrence Norton Allen had twin interests from childhood. From the time he was a small boy he was fascinated with Indian artifacts, and he avidly collected them throughout his lifetime. He was also a multitalented artist, producing everything from freehand drawings, maps, landscapes , and cartoons, to photographs, documentation of archaeological excavations, and artifact restoration. He was drawing on the backs of envelopes and scraps of paper before he was in high school, and taking photographs by his early teens. In adulthood he succeeded in merging his two talents as a professional artist, notably for Desert Magazine. He published numerous desert landscape sketches there and in other journals , as well as producing nearly all Desert Magazine’s maps starting in late 1937. He also saw his photographs and maps published in various other journals and books. Born in Abingdon, Illinois, on January 6, 1909 (figure 1), Lawrence Norton Allen from the very beginning was always known as “Norton.” In fact, I found the name “Lawrence” only three times in the Allen family papers, one of them being on his World War II draft notice. His parents, Ernest Ground Allen and Lenna Anice Dunbar (figures 2 and 3) were the children of local Illinois farmers. Ernest was Lenna’s second husband, her first having died tragically of a brain hemorrhage only four months after their marriage. Norton’s mother was interested in the family genealogy and traced the family back to England through several branches. She even found the prize of American genealogists: an ancestor, Steven Hopkins, who arrived with his family on the Mayflower and was the fourteenth signer of the Mayflower Compact. Norton’s father graduated from Bradley Polytechnic in Peoria, Illinois. According to Norton, his father was known as a “traveler” before his RICHARD A. SCHWARTZLOSE is a retired researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, and is a longtime friend of the Allen family. Journal of the Southwest 52, 2 and 3 (Summer-Autumn 2010) : 129–190 Figure 1. Lawrence Norton Allen’s first baby picture. Figure 2. Ernest Allen’s high school graduation picture. Norton Allen: Artist and Avocational Archaeologist ✜ 131 marriage. He hopped trains as a hobo and explored the West, especially the Southwestern states, and this may have been the time when he was reported to have taken odd jobs as a colporteur, a peddler of encyclopedias , and an eyeglass fitter, besides being a jeweler. Eventually, he returned to Abingdon and founded Young & Allen Jewelers. Norton’s mother was well educated for her time, having taken courses at a business college and worked as a bookkeeper prior to her marriage. This biography of Norton and his family is possible only because the Allen and Dunbar families were savers of everything from letters and postcards to bills and bank statements. They also meticulously recorded every aspect of their lives, keeping travel logs and diaries, and even notebooks recording what they bought at grocery stores, how much honey was collected and sold in the family business, and the dates and recipients of Lenna’s correspondence. It was not uncommon for Lenna to write four or five letters in a day. I found numerous letters Norton wrote to his parents, and his parents’ replies to him, as well as his mother’s trip logs and diaries from 1921 through 1947, detailing their daily activities , travel adventures, and challenges. Norton was devoted to his family from early on. When he was separated from them he wrote letters almost every day, and his mother wrote to him. Once he wrote his mother from Figure 3. Lenna Dunbar’s high school graduation picture. 132 ✜ JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHWEST San Diego when she was at the ranch in Viejas: “I have been wearing a red carnation around for you, all day because it’s Mother’s day. Been thinking of you a lot. Sure miss you. Write to me every day and I’ll do the same to you.” NORTON’S FORMATIVE YEARS Within seven months of Norton’s birth, in the summer of 1909, Ernest again caught the travel bug, traveling west to Salina and Plateau...