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Isabella Stewart Gardner, the American West, and Central America

Read about Isabella's interest in the art and culture from some of the Spanish-speaking regions outside of Spain.

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Isabella Stewart Gardner’s enthusiasm for Spanish culture was legendary. We’ve explored Isabella Stewart Gardner’s passion for Spanish art and music in some of our previous posts, elaborating on her travels in Spain, her fondness for flamenco music, and her embrace of Spanish artists, as well as paintings inspired by Spanish subjects. But did you know that she was also fascinated with the art and culture of other Spanish-speaking regions including Central America?

In January 1881, Isabella, Jack and some friends left Boston by train for a tour of the American West. Isabella included a map in her travel album, highlighting the route to Chicago. From there they headed south, stopping in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Gardner included pictures of the Spanish colonial churches in Santa Fe and Tucson, and photographs from a Pueblo village in Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico. From El Paso, they made their way across the border to Mexico.

A cream colored page with some darkened areas throughout due to age showing a map in black ink at the center taking up most of the page, and handwritten text in black ink along the top of the page.

Page 17 from the travel album. Isabella Stewart Gardner (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston), Travel Album: Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Poland, the Western United States, Florida, Mexico, and Cuba, 1867-1886. Bound album including collected photographs, found papers, pressed botanicals, and pen and ink annotations, 32.1 x 27 x 3.5 cm (12 5/8 x 10 5/8 x 1 3/8 in.)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (v.1.a.4.1)

Two black and photographs beside each other with handwritten text below each one. The photograph on the left shows the exterior of a building in ruin with rubble in the foreground. The photograph on the right shows a side view of the exterior of a large church with two towers on the right and a dome structure on the left.

Detail from page 19 from the travel album. Isabella Stewart Gardner (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston), Travel Album: Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Poland, the Western United States, Florida, Mexico, and Cuba, 1867-1886. Bound album including collected photographs, found papers, pressed botanicals, and pen and ink annotations, 32.1 x 27 x 3.5 cm (12 5/8 x 10 5/8 x 1 3/8 in.)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (v.1.a.4.1)

The visit to Mexico lasted only four days and Gardner singled out the multiple times the group had to ford the swollen Rio Grande River. Even though few notes of this trip survive, Gardner’s enthusiasm for this region and its culture emerge in unexpected ways throughout the museum. Notably, she owned sixteen mammoth-plate photographs of the American West and Mexico by the celebrated American photographer William Henry Jackson, and installed them in the rear stair hall of Fenway Court.* One, for example, depicted an Aztec calendar stone.

A black and white photograph of a round stone fragment with intricate carvings.

Detroit Publishing Co, P., Jackson, W. H., photographer. Aztec Calendar Stone. Mexico City Mexico, None. [Between 1880 and 1897] [Photograph]
Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016797237/. One of the photographs like the one previously found in the rear stair hall on the West wall of Fenway Court.

Her interest in the Spanish cultures of Central America may have been piqued by the stories of travel told to her by close friends. In 1872, Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight— a writer, employee of Putnam and Sons publishing house, and later the director of the Boston Public Library—stopped in Panama on a journey from California to New York. He later wrote to Gardner describing the visit in detail. 

The cathedral of Santa Maria la Antigua stood out to Dwight. Consecrated in 1796, it had been damaged by a fire in 1870 and was subsequently closed to the public. Dwight persuaded its custodian to allow him entry, despite the building’s perilous condition and his fear that “at any moment the roof would fall.” Among the debris at floor level were pieces of the ceiling decoration. The custodian permitted him to keep two carved wooden heads and a piece of the ceiling molding. 

A sepia-toned photograph of a cathedral with two spired towers on each side of the facade and three open entryways at the center.

Eadweard Muybridge (English, April 9, 1830 - May 8, 1904), Cathedral, Panama, 1875, published 1877, albumen silver print
Exterior view of the cathedral of Santa Maria la Antigua after the fire.

Three pieces of carved wood placed side by side. One on each end shows round pieces of wood with dark discoloration due to fire damage. Between the heads is a center piece of wood carved in a horizontal orientation. It has sustained extensive fire damage resulting in partial losses of gilding and dark discoloration.

From left to right: Spanish, Cherub Head, late 18th century. Wood, 10.2 x 15.2 x 7.6 cm (4 x 6 x 3 in.); Spanish, Cherub Head, late 18th century. Wood, 20.3 x 25.4 x 11.4 cm (8 x 10 x 4 1/2 in.); Spanish, Cherub Head, late 18th century. Wood, 10.2 x 15.2 x 7.6 cm (4 x 6 x 3 in.).
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (S6e6, S6e10, and S6e2). The two carved wooden heads and piece of ceiling molding side by side as displayed in the Spanish Chapel along the top of the window.

In 1915, Dwight recalled the visit in a letter to Gardner and donated the three pieces of sculpture to her museum. Gardner installed them in the Spanish Chapel where the carvings form a decorative frieze, providing a suitable complement to the Spanish works of art and religious setting (Fig. 6).  Dwight recognized Gardner’s interest in art and architecture from the Spanish-speaking world,making sure the fragments had a home where they could be preserved for the public to see and enjoy. 

A color photograph showing the Spanish Chapel of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum behind a half-height wrought iron gate with an intricate floral and curving design. On the right, there is a  white stone carving of a human figure lying down in front of a window. On the left is a cloth-covered table against a wall with candlesticks on top and a framed painting on the wall above.

The Spanish Chapel
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

*In February 1973, the Museum gave these photographs to the Boston Public Library.