Society for the Study of American Women Writers awards Dr. Laura Laffrado for book on Ella Higginson

Dr. Laffrado with her award winning book Selected Writings of Ella Higginson and the plaque given to her by the Society for the Study of American Women Writers for winning the 2018 Edition Award.

Dr. Laura Laffrado, Director of the Ella Higginson Recovery Project, received the Society for the Study of American Women Writer's (SSAWW) Edition Award for her book Selected Writings of Ella Higginson (2015) at the SSAWW conference in Denver, Colorado on November 10, 2018. Of the Edition Award, the SSAWW website reports, "The SSAWW Edition Award is given every three years at the Society for the Study of American Women Writers’ conference in order to recognize excellence in the recovery of American women writers."

The plaque given to Dr. Laffrado by the Society for the Study of American Women Writers for winning the 2018 Edition Award.

In her acceptance speech, Dr. Laffrado said, "I am utterly, utterly delighted by this, and especially delighted that this award comes from an institution, an organization, so dear to my heart, the Society for the Study of American Women Writers.I think I can safely say that the last time Ella Rhoads Higginson's name would have been publicly proclaimed in the great state of Colorado would have been at the turn of the twentieth century, at the peak of her fame."

Below is a transcription of Dr. Laffrado's acceptance speech. To watch the speech, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0j324aXdao&list=PLeTs8k1yGXek0EXLHXc1SQcDkQ7j9EiNg&index=3&t=0s 

Dr. Laura Laffrado: Chris made the mistake of telling me I could say a few words. I promise, I promise I will keep this brief. I am utterly, utterly delighted by this, and especially delighted that this award comes from an institution, an organization, so dear to my heart, the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. I think I can safely say that the last time Ella Rhoads Higginson's name would have been publicly proclaimed in the great state of Colorado would have been at the turn of the twentieth century, at the peak of her fame. This would have been around the same time that a review in the Chicago Tribune of her latest book of short stories described her as the author "who put the Pacific Northwest on the literary map." That was an accurate assessment. Higginson would publish over eight hundred works in her lifetime—I catalogued all of them—she would publish over eight hundred works in her lifetime, she was the recipient of a variety of national literary awards, her poems were set to music and were sung by the major dramatic singers of the day such as Enrico Caruso, and she was elected first Poet Laureate of Washington State. Despite all that, for reasons that every single person in this room understands, she was completely erased from the literary record, pretty much without a trace. It has been one of my pleasures in recovering Ella Higginson to find her self-designed gravestone, a gravestone she designed long after she has been forgotten, on which she had engraved, "Ella Higginson, Poet - Writer," just waiting for the moment when sometime in the future she would be found and recovered again. I would like to thank the—since I'm here—I would like to thank the organizers of this wonderful conference. I know how many moving parts there are in a thing like this, and this has been just such a deep pleasure. I would like to close by reading a poem, if you will, reading a poem by Ella Higginson celebrating her beloved Pacific Northwest, the region with which her writing is most closely associated. You'll all get it anyway, but the ending couplets are a very good time. This is "The Snow Pearls" from 1897.

I love the pale green emerald,
The ruby's drop of flame,
The rare and precious sardonyx
        Of deeply envied fame;
I love the opal's restless fire
        With green lights interwove,
And e'en the royal amethyst,—
        But most of all I love
The string of snow-pearls set around
        This great blue sapphire, Puget Sound.

The modest garnet, finely cut,
        Gleams like some rich old wine;
I hold the diamond's crimson flash
        As something half divine;
The turquoise—chill December's gem—
        Blue as the blue above,
Is precious unto every heart—
        But more than these I love
The string of snow-pearls linked around
        This cool, blue sapphire, Puget Sound.

When up Mount Baker's noble dome
        Struggles the morning sun,
And waves of crimson and of gold
        Across the pale sky run;
When every fir-tree flashes out
        Like a tall gilded spire,
Sweet as a hope rooted in Heaven,
        Springs a soft, sudden fire
Upon the snow-pearls strung around
        This deep blue sapphire, Puget Sound.
Take, then, all the jewels of the earth
        Which only gold can buy—
Not one is worth that glistening chain
        Linked in God's pale green sky!
Let him who will, roam East or West,
        On prairie or on sea,
Searching for empty gems—but oh!
        Let us contented be
With these pure snow-pearls clasped around
        Our own blue sapphire, Puget Sound.

🍀

Ella Higginson's Bronze Bust Unveils!

The bronze bust of Ella Higginson. Photo by the Ella Higginson Blog.

The bust of Ella Higginson has been unveiled! 

At 11:30AM Friday November 2nd, the bronze bust of Ella Higginson was installed in the North foyer of Wilson Library at Western Washington University.

Matt Waldman from Western Washington University's carpentry shop prepares to install the bust. Photo by the Ella Higginson Blog.

From left to right, Pat Schuette and Matt Waldman from the university carpentry shop, and Matt Glenn of BIG Statues in Provo, Utah. Photo by the Ella Higginson Blog.

The reception for the bust took place that afternoon in the Wilson Library Reading Room. Students, staff, faculty, and passionate community members flooded the Reading Room to celebrate with speeches, live music, and free food! Also present were two of Russell Carden Higginson’s (Ella Higginson’s husband) great-great-great nephews representing the Higginson Family. 

The great-great-great nephews of Russell Carden Higginson, Russell and Tom. Photo by Debrah Hansen Dorr.

The event was filmed by local filmmakers Talking to Crows, who filmed Higginson’s lost feminist screenplay Just Like the Men this summer. We’ll announce when the unveiling footage becomes available to the public, which we are told will be in about three weeks. To read more about these innovative and vibrant filmmakers, visit their site: https://www.talkingtocrows.com/

Guests in the Reading Room. Photo by Rhys Logan, Western Washington University.

The life-size-and-a-half,  hollow-cast bronze bust was sculpted by Matt Glenn in his studio in Provost, Utah. Glenn’s company, BIG Statues, provides bronze sculptures for memorials and parks all over the US. One of Glenn’s recent projects was a memorial for women veterans installed in Las Cruces, New Mexico. To read more about Matt Glenn’s work, visit https://www.bigstatues.com/

Dr. Laura Laffrado, Director of the Ella Higginson Recovery Project, and Matt Glenn of BIG Statues in Provo, Utah with the bust of Ella Higginson. Photo curtesy of Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

The first to speak was Dr. Mark Greenberg, Dean of Libraries, who welcomed guests into the Mabel Zoe Wilson Library. He noted the beautiful friendship that spanned three decades between Mabel Zoe Wilson and Ella Higginson. Next to speak was Elizabeth Joffrion, Director of Heritage Resources, who described the lively research relationship between Dr. Laura Laffrado, Director of the Ella Higginson Recovery Project, and the resources in the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. Dr. Brent Carbajal, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, affirmed Western Washington University’s support for the preservation of women’s achievements in our current political climate. Finally, Dr. Laura Laffrado took the podium to paint a picture of Ella Higginson’s life, from her family’s trek from Kansas to Oregon, her arrival in Whatcom, her first big literary breaks, her international fame, her obscurity after WWI, and now her literary recovery. The last speaker was Dr. Laffrado’s research assistant, Marielle Stockton, who demonstrated Ella Higginson’s love for the people of Whatcom County with a brief survey of her memorial poetry. 

Dr. Mark Greenberg, Dean of Libraries. Photo by Rhys Logan, Western Washington University.

Elizabeth Joffrion, Director of Heritage Resources. Photo by Rhys Logan, Western Washington University.

Dr. Brent Carbajal, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Photo by Rhys Logan, Western Washington University.

Dr. Laura Laffrado, Director of the Ella Higginson Recovery Project. Photo by Rhys Logan, Western Washington University.

Talented Vocal Performance music major Olivia Pedroza of Sedro-Woolley then performed three songs, each of them featuring Ella Higginson poems as lyrics that were performed regularly in Higginson’s own lifetime. Footage of Pedroza’s marvelous performance will be available shortly; a special thanks again to filmmakers Talking to Crows. Next, Pedroza will be performing in WWU’s Concert Choir’s program “A Light in the Darkness: Songs of Hope and Comfort” on November 17, 2018. For more information on the event, visit here: https://cfpa.wwu.edu/event/light-darkness-songs-hope-and-comfort

Olivia Pedroza, Vocal Performance major. Photo by Rhys Logan, Western Washington University.

The brilliant manager of Special Collections, Tamara Belts, curated the first ever Ella Higginson exhibit. Pieces from the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Dr. Laffrado's, and her research assistant's collection were featured. Belts also put together a large binder of newspaper clippings about Higginson, postcards featuring Higginson's poems, and sheet music where Higginson's poems were used as lyrics. Included was Ella Higginson's music score cabinet, donated by former university Children's Literature librarian Miriam B. Snow Mathes.

The music score cabinet of Ella Higginson, kept in Special Collections in Western Libraries. Photo by the Ella Higginson Blog.

Cases from the Ella Higginson exhibit by Tamara Belts. Photos by the Ella Higginson Blog.

“What a deep pleasure it was to join with the many friends of Western who packed the Library’s Reading Room on Friday for the gala Ella Higginson Celebration!" Dr. Laffrado said of the reception. "Over a century after the peak of her fame, Ella Higginson is now permanently memorialized in a beautiful bronze bust proudly displayed in the entrance to Wilson Library. This is a wonderful moment of feminist literary recovery that I am so pleased to have guided.”

The bronze bust of Ella Higginson is now the fifth public statue of a female historical figure in Washington State, but there are nearly thirty statues of male historical figures in Washington. Your faithful blog editor hopes that the bust of Ella Higginson will inspire the installment of more statues of women to eliminate the gender disparity of historical monuments in Washington.

Dr. Laffrado with the bust before installation. Photo curtesy of Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Dr. Laffrado sharing a moment with the bust. Photo by the Ella Higginson Blog.

Bronze Bust of Ella Higginson Unveiling at Western Washington University!

Announced earlier this year, a bronze bust of Ella Higginson will be installed in Western Washington University's Wilson Library. The unveiling will take place on November 2, 2018 in the Wilson Library Reading Room from 4:00PM-6:00PM.

All are welcome to celebrate the literary recovery of the first Poet Laureate of Washington State with us! There are no reservations necessary or admission fees. See an exhibit of Higginson works and artifacts, and enjoy a live musical performance and refreshments.

To read more about the event, read the Western Today's press release on the event: https://westerntoday.wwu.edu/news/ella-higginson-celebration-at-western-libraries-set-for-nov-2

The Mabel Zoe Wilson Library as seen from the upper floors of Old Main at Western Washington University.

The Reading Room of Wilson Library where the reception of the Ella Higginson bust will take place.

The bust will be placed in the Wilson Library entrance hallway, across from the portrait of the library's first librarian, Mabel Zoe Wilson.

The Mabel Zoe Wilson Library began construction in 1927, being the first separate library building the State Normal School at Bellingham (now Western Washington University) ever had. Until that time, the library was housed in various rooms and floors (and even in part of the attic) of what is today called Old Main, the only building on campus during the school's early years. In 1964, this library was named for pioneer librarian Mabel Zoe Wilson, who was the head of the library from 1902 to 1945, an astonishing 43 years of service! Just under two months after the naming, Mabel Zoe Wilson would die at the age of 86.

Ella Higginson and Mabel Zoe Wilson shared a sweet friendship. In 1953, thirteen years after Ella Higginson passed away, Mabel Zoe Wilson donated dozens of letters that Ella Higginson had written to her over several decades to the University of Washington's Special Collections, all perfectly preserved and even including the envelopes. This correspondence reveals a deep and affectionate bond between these two inspiring women. How fitting it is that a bronze bust of Ella Higginson will be installed in one of her dearest friend's thriving legacy, the Mabel Zoe Wilson Library.

Mabel Zoe Wilson, WWU's first librarian.

Dear Zoe Wilson. . .

        This is just to tell you how much I admire you and how much I love you - so I hope you'll receive it before you turn homeward. I think of you so often and always with the same constant and loyal affection I feel for Olive - you are so different and yet so alike.

        I'm sure you're having a wonderful summer and I think you might have let me tag! . . . If you go to Venice, think of me every single minute - and love me a little bit, bad as I am.

        Your devoted friend,

                        Ella Higginson

Quoted from a letter written on July 14, 1925 to Mabel Zoe Wilson, who was traveling in Rome that summer.

"A Sepulchre of Snow": Ella Higginson's Memorialzation of the 1939 Avalanche at Mt. Baker

Front page of the July 28, 1939 Western Washington College of Education student newspaper the WWC Collegian, now titled the Western Front. Digitized by Special Collections, Western Libraries Heritage Resources, Western Washington University.

A local tragedy that took the lives of six young affiliates of Western Washington College of Education (now Western Washington University) inspired one of Ella Higginson’s most touching memorial poems “A Sepulchre of Snow.”

Headlines from various newspapers: July 24, 1939 The Bend Bulletin of Bend, OR; July 24, 1939 The Eugene Guard of Eugene, OR; July 24, 1939 The Vidette Messenger of Valparaiso, IN.

On July 22, 1939 a group of twenty-five experienced mountain climbers were fifteen minutes from the summit of Mount Baker during the 20th annual climb hosted by Western Washington College of Education when an avalanche the width of a football field swept the entire party a mile down the mountain. The tumbling snow spilled over into a crevasse in the mountain seventy feet deep. When the slide had ceased, seven members were missing.

The two guides of this expedition frantically searched the vast snowscape and managed to find Elizabeth Beers clinging to the mouth of the crevasse by her fingertips. Two other members of the party raced down the mountain and reached William N. Parke, the current district forest ranger at Mt. Baker, and alerted him of the disaster. Parke immediately gathered both a rescue team and supplies and initiated a search that would last six days, hoping to find six bodies. They found two. The body of Alice James and Julius Dornblut were recovered from the top few feet of snow that filled the crevasse. It is believed that the remaining victims' bodies were piled under dozens of feet of hardening snow in the crevasse near the bottom of the slide.

An unidentified hat and handkerchief were found later, as well as the glasses of Vene Fisher.

Members of the search party surveying the path of the avalanche. Photograph by John Scurlock, July 1939.

At the time, the Mt. Baker avalanche of 1939 became the worst mountain tragedy in Washington State history. In light of the disaster, Higginson wrote three poignant and haunting sentences titled “A Sepulchre of Snow.”

 Of all beautiful burial places on this lovely earth, if I might choose my own, my choice would surely be to lie in the depths of a crevasse, covered with perpetual snow; and with my name visibly etched by God upon a majestic mountain for an enduring monument.

Think of the sunrises and the sunsets; think of the moonlight on those silvery slopes; think of how large and brilliant are the stars that keep ceaseless watch over those silent places.

Through the ages to be identified with one of the most beautiful mountains known; to lie there forever, on the silver crest of the world, close to God—my brothers, do you know anything lovelier after death than this would be?

 On Western Washington University’s campus, at the north end of Old Main, is a memorial erected in honor of the victims: Julius Dornblut, Vene Fisher, Maynard Howat, Alice James, Beulah Lindberg, and Hope Weitman.

The line “You will be forever climbing upward now” is taken from a memorial poem written by Charles E. Butler, who was the current reference librarian for the college.

Julius Dornblut was born in Radersburg, Montana on January 23, 1909. He received his BA from Western Washington College of Education in 1935. For the past four years he had taught at Alderwood Manor in the Edmond’s school district. At the time of his death, he was fulfilling the roles of adviser and editor of the WWC Collegian and was vice-president of the Alumni Association. He was survived by two sisters.

Vene Fisher was born in Brady, Montana on June 21, 1914. The avalanche occurred the day after his twenty-fifth birthday. He received his BA from Western Washington College of Education in 1936. He taught for a year in Grays Harbor County, then had been an assistant in the county engineer’s office of Island County for the past two years. He was survived by his wife Hazel Lindquist Fisher, his parents, two brothers, and one sister.

Maynard Howat was born in Seattle, Washington on May 3, 1915. He was scheduled to complete his three year degree at Western Washington College of Education less than a month later on August 18, 1939. A veteran trackman, Howatt captured a conference title for the two-mile run twice while attending college. He was survived by his parents, one brother, and one sister.

Alice James was born in Valley City, North Dakota on June 3, 1917. While attending Western Washington College of Education, she was a member of the orchestra and the library student staff. She left the college halfway through the 1938-39 academic year to teach in Standwood and planned to return there in the fall. She was survived by her parents, three sisters, and a brother.

Beulah Lindberg was born in Simms, Montana on October 9, 1916. She attended the State Teachers’ College at Dillon, Montana then taught in both Belt and Fairfield, Montana. She was visiting friends also of Montana origin who lived here in Bellingham when she was killed by the avalanche. She was survived by her parents in her hometown.

Hope Weitman was born in Prairie City, Oregon on September 28, 1915. She graduated from Eastern Washington College of Education in Cheney and had taught in Chewelah. She was attending summer classes at Western Washington College of Education and was residing at the Bellingham YWCA. She was survived by her parents.

"A Sepulchre of Snow" printed on a card ca. 1939. Courtesy of Special Collections, Western Libraries Heritage Resources, Western Washington University.