ARTIST FEATURES

Norton C. Williams (b. 1907) was an Oakland, California–based artist who studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts and with Maurice Logan. The colored pencil sketch hanging in the den of the Stockyard Exchange depicts an exciting scene: a heavily loaded stagecoach being driven at high speed along a rutted desert road.

Williams often completed these sketches as preliminary studies for larger oil paintings. His works can also be seen at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

The Navajo weaving tradition goes back centuries. These Native American artisans trace their craft back to the legend of Spider Woman who, it is said, created the first loom from sky and earth cords and made her first weaving from sunlight, lightning, crystals, and white shells.

The beautiful Navajo rug displayed in the den of the Stockyard Exchange is probably of the “Two Gray Hills” type, named for the village in New Mexico where the style may have originated. Rugs in this style are woven of natural undyed, hand-spun wool colored in brown, white, and black.

The authentic Sears and Roebuck wagon wheel chair in the den of the Stockyard Exchange makes a perfect spot for reading—or even dozing! Manufactured in the 1950s, as ranch-style architecture was sweeping the nation, these chairs were regularly featured items in the Sears and Roebuck mail-order catalog, a publication with status in most American homes second only to the family Bible!

Black pottery from the Santa Clara Pueblo in north central New Mexico is based on patterns found in prehistoric pottery sherds first excavated in the early 1900s.

Maria Martinez, of nearby San Ildefonso Pueblo, popularized the style that is carried on today by well-known potters like Gwen Tafoya, Stella Chavarria, Candelaria Suazo, Julie Gutierrez, and Dusty Naranjo.