A Marriage Out West: Theresa and Frank Russell's Explorations in Arizona, 1900–1903 by Theresa Russell, Nancy J. Parezo and Don D. Fowler (review)

In 1900, Harvard anthropology instructor Frank Russell took his bride, Theresa, on an unusual honeymoon to northern Arizona. The location was chosen because Frank was suffering from tuberculosis and they hoped the arid climate would alleviate his condition, but also because he was seeking a significant site to excavate to enhance his professional credentials. Over the next four years, the young couple traveled more than 4,000 miles throughout the territory, journeys that authors Parezo and Fowler suggest were "done in haste and at first glance appear to be random wanderings to locate a Holy Grail" (10).

The book is divided into three quite distinct parts. The first section is a lengthy overview of Frank's travails in the academic world and will interest scholars seeking an understanding of the careers of pioneering archaeologists, ethnologists, and anthropologists. After years of fruitless searching for a site to excavate, Frank finally pivoted his research to focus on recording the memories of O'odham elders in southern Arizona. This section does not rehash his findings—those were published in The Pima Indians, which was ghost written by Theresa after Frank's death in 1903—but instead provides in-depth coverage of Frank's frustrations with securing funding and working with government agencies, all while balancing his academic teaching load, reminding us that little has changed in the profession over the past century.

Parezo and Fowler's portrayal of the Russells pulls no punches, revealing that they saw their own culture as superior to the Indigenous cultures they studied and that they placed precedence on their own research over the concerns of their subjects. The authors also show Theresa's personal growth as she adjusted to her new life "out West," learning some of the skills of her husband's trade—to pack artifacts or piece together pottery fragments—while overcoming the challenges of living in primitive conditions where scorching heat and the absence of water could be deadly. With Frank's encouragement Theresa eventually "overcame her preconceptions about proper dress and ladylike behavior" and adjusted to living in the desert (72).

During their travels, Theresa kept a journal, which, after Frank's death, she published as a twelve-part serial titled "In Pursuit of a Graveyard: Being the Trail of an Archaeological Wedding Journey" in Charles Lummis's Out West magazine. Excerpts from her travelogue, along with commentary from the authors, form the second, and strongest, part of the book. Theresa's witty and enjoyable writing deserves to be included in the pantheon of Euro American women who wrote about frontier Arizona, including Martha Summerhayes, Clara Spalding Brown, and of course Sharlot Hall. For example, when asked by her husband what she thought about their temporary residence, she responded, "Well, you'll just carry that little problem of Immensity around with you as long as you run about in the desert. You'll never be able to leave it behind" (192–193). Of a sunset that broke her heart with its "flippant garishness," she wrote, "'Why, my beautiful Desert,' you hear yourself saying, 'I did not suppose you had it in you!'" (184).

The last section of the book examines Theresa's life after her husband's death, when she was an English professor at Stanford University, and it provides keen insight into how women of her era navigated professional careers. One appendix provides both Frank and Theresa's journal entries while a second appendix catalogs their archaeological work.

By trying to fit these three sections, each with different audiences, into one volume, Parezo and Fowler muddle their message, but Theresa Russell's writings shine in A Marriage Out West, and by resurrecting these two people from obscurity the authors make an important contribution to the history of the Southwest.