Home → About UCMP → UCMP History → William Gordon Huff
Abbreviations: Tim Huff and the Huff Family Archives, Laytonville, CA HFA; Antonia Huff Rodrigues, Santa Rosa, CA (all photographed by Dave Strauss) AHR; University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) Archives, Berkeley, CA UA; Ray Strong Family Papers, Upper Lake, CA RSFP; Golden Gate International Exposition GGIE
1William Gordon Huff's informal autobiography, "Hearst Avenue Experience" page, HFA. "Charles Camp needed many plaster casts of fossil bones for the Museum of Paleontology …. Toward the end of this Hearst Avenue experience my good friend and mentor Charles Camp phoned me that the University had granted me the contract to make the prehistoric animals for the paleontology section of the UC exhibit, 'Science In the Service of Man,' Golden Gate International Exposition." This would suggest that Huff got the contract for the paleontology exhibit before getting the contract to do the monumental sculptures for the fair, but this is incorrect. He did, however, begin designing the paleontology exhibit well before the opportunity to work on the monumental sculptures came along.
2University of California Committee on Cooperation with the Golden Gate International Exposition, Science in the Service of Man: Exhibits in the Basic Sciences. Hall of Science, Golden Gate International Exposition 1939-40 (San Francisco, 1940), p. x.
As the San Francisco Chronicle's science writer in Mar 1948, Milton Silverman accompanied UCMP's paleobotanist Ralph Chaney to China to see and report on Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia) that, up until then, had been thought to be extinct.
3Charles Camp, letter to T. Harper Goodspeed (Botany Department, UC Berkeley), 23 Aug 1937, UC Archives (NRLF), "Records of the Committee on cooperation with Golden Gate International Exposition, 1937-1939," Call No.: CU-5.54, Box 1, Folder "Exhibit Ideas" 1:4. "I am sending this stuff [exhibit plans] over. It is probably not at all suitable for your purposes but it was turned in several weeks ago to Silverman before your committee was organized."
1Worth Ryder taught art at UC Berkeley from 1927 to 1955 and was on the GGIE's Fine Arts Committee. Learn more about Worth Ryder.
There were three contracts for the monumental works: "Contract for Sculptural Models To Be Used on the Buildings of the Golden Gate International Exposition, Agreement" (San Francisco Bay Exposition), Contract nos. 6002, 6007 and 6023, 26 Jul 1937, HFA. Contract 6023 was for the production of a model of a "monolith figure" for the Temple of Dawn, but that building was scratched from the fair and Huff's contract for that was cancelled (J.E. Stanton (Director of Color, San Francisco Bay Exposition, San Francisco, CA), letter to Huff, 17 Sep 1937, HFA).
2William Gordon Huff's informal autobiography, "U.C. Paleontology Exhibit — Golden Gate International Expo, 1939-40" page, HFA. Huff says that the Tower of the Sun figures were enlarged to 20 feet, but it's possible that they were only 18 feet. After all, his contract says that his models should be made one-quarter size at 4.5 feet. I have been unable to find another source that gives the size of the Tower figures.
3San Francisco Bay Exposition, Official Guide Book: Golden Gate International Exposition, World's Fair on San Francisco Bay (San Francisco: Crocker-Union, 1939), pp. 31 and 32. Coating information from Renée Dreyfus, "The Classical Ideal in the New Athens," Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition, ed. James A. Ganz (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco / University of California Press, 2015), p. 67.
4William Gordon Huff's informal autobiography, "U.C. Paleontology Exhibit — Golden Gate International Expo, 1939-40" page, HFA.
5Eugen Neuhaus. The Art of Treasure Island: First-hand Impressions of the Architecture, Sculpture, Landscape Design, Color Effects, Mural Decorations, Illumination, and Other Artistic Aspects of the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939 (Berkeley: UC Press, 1939), p. 47.
6"Sculpture Plans for Fair Draw Moan from Chief," Oakland Tribune, 8 Feb 1938.
7McClatchy Newspapers Service, "Art? S.F. Fair Director Says Sculpture Is 'Lousy,'" Fresno Bee, 8 Feb 1938.
1Quote and plan components from an undated, three-page exhibit plan submitted by Charles Camp with letter to T. Harper Goodspeed (Botany Department, UC Berkeley), 23 Aug 1937, UC Archives (NRLF), "Records of the Committee on cooperation with Golden Gate International Exposition, 1937-1939," Call No.: CU-5.54, Box 1, Folder "Exhibit Ideas" 1:4.
Square footage info from Sam Welles, letter to Ruben Stirton, 10 Mar 1938, Ruben A. Stirton Correspondence 1924-1945, box 1, Stirton "W,Y,Z" Correspondence 1926-1944, UA.
2Quote and paleontology exhibit details from University of California Committee on Cooperation with the Golden Gate International Exposition, Science in the Service of Man: Exhibits in the Basic Sciences. Hall of Science, Golden Gate International Exposition 1939-40 (San Francisco, 1940), p. 3.
3Sam Welles, letter to Ruben Stirton, 10 Mar 1938, Ruben A. Stirton Correspondence 1924-1945, box 1, Stirton "W,Y,Z" Correspondence 1926-1944, UA.Sam reported that there had still been no decision on the paleontology exhibit: "There is a meeting of the Fair Committee at noon today and I think Camp plans to tell the boys to either give Huff the 'go ahead' sign or else." About three months later, in Ruben Stirton, letter to Charles Camp, 8 Jun 1938, Ruben A. Stirton Correspondence, 1924-1945, box 1, Stirton "C" Correspondence, people 1, 1926-1945, UA: "Huff has started the diorama and has completed the two Smilodons for the Rancho La Brea exhibit."
4Charles R. Knight (1874-1953) was the preeminent painter of prehistoric animal reconstructions at that time. He executed many paintings and murals for a number of natural history museums, including the American Museum of Natural History and The Field Museum in Chicago. Read more about Knight on Wikipedia. Huff probably based many of his own reconstructions on Knight's interpretations.
Charles Camp, letter and three-page exhibit plan to T. Harper Goodspeed (Botany Department, UC Berkeley), 23 Aug 1937, UC Archives (NRLF), "Records of the Committee on cooperation with Golden Gate International Exposition, 1937-1939," Call No.: CU-5.54, Box 1, Folder "Exhibit Ideas" 1:4. Near the end of the three-page plan, Camp wrote "We therefore suggest the names of Mr. W.G. Huff of Berkeley as head sculptor and Charles R. Knight of New York as artist to paint the backgrounds."
5William J. Norton, namesake of one of the Unit 3 residential halls at Cal, was the campus business manager from 1941-1954. He must have been promoted to that job after successfully managing UC's GGIE project.
6Strong biographical information from askart.com, first accessed June 7, 2013.
7William Gordon Huff's informal autobiography, "U.C. Paleontology Exhibit — Golden Gate International Expo. 1939-40" page, HFA.
Howard T. Anderson (1909-1981) studied with Charles Camp, earning his Ph.D. in vertebrate paleontology in 1935. His thesis was based on studies of the anatomy of the phytosaur Machaeroprosopus. He was hired as a consultant to Huff for the GGIE. Anderson spent 28 years with Standard Oil, working primarily in southern California. He was then "loaned" to Iran for seven years, assisting that country in locating and developing its petroleum resources. Read a memorial to Howard T. Anderson.
8Emma May Jordan would soon marry Cecil Tose, a taxidermist and exhibit maker for the California Academy of Sciences. Cecil also did some work for Ansel Hall; Tose is in the photograph at the bottom of page 1. Confirmation of the marriage from Mark Humpal, "Re: Dioramas," email to me, 3 Feb 2014.
Strong's reference to the women working on the foregrounds from Ray Strong, "Along the Way, perceptions and images of Ray Strong" {handwritten, autobiographical notes), c. Jan 1987, p. 12; RSFP.
9Lori Pond (late President of the San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation), "Re: Diorama measurements," email to me, 24 Jun 2013.
10Ray Strong, "Art of the Diorama," American Artist, Oct 1965, p. 34.
1Descriptions of all diorama scenes from University of California Committee on Cooperation with the Golden Gate International Exposition, Science in the Service of Man: Exhibits in the Basic Sciences. Hall of Science, Golden Gate International Exposition 1939-40 (San Francisco, 1940), pp. 4-9.
2Called Episcoposaurus at the time of the GGIE but the name is now considered invalid.
3The mosasaur was probably based on the specimen found by Allan Bennison in Fresno County, CA, in 1937. It was originally named Kolposaurus but Charles Camp changed it to Plotosaurus in 1951 when he realized that the name Kolposaurus had already been assigned to a nothosaur
Hydrotherosaurus was originally referred to as Elasmosaurus, based on a skeleton excavated by UCMP's Sam Welles in 1937. Although the animal was an elasmosaurid plesiosaur, Welles determined that it was a different genus and named it Hydrotherosaurus alexandrae in his description published in 1943.
The hadrosaurid was originally labeled as Trachodon for the GGIE but this genus name is no longer used.
1GGIE press release, 6 Sep 1938, p. 5, UC Archives (NRLF), "Records of the Committee on cooperation with Golden Gate International Exposition, 1937-1939," Call No.: CU-5.54, Box 1.
2V.L. VanderHoof, "A skull of Bison latifrons from the Pleistocene of northern California" University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geological Sciences 27, no. 1 (1942), 1-24.
3Ruben A. Stirton, "A new genus of Artiodactyla from the Clarendon lower Pliocene of Texas," University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 21, no. 6 (1932)), 147-168.
1GGIE press release, 13 Dec 1937, UC Archives (NRLF), "Records of the Committee on cooperation with Golden Gate International Exposition, 1937-1939," Call no. CU-5.54, Box 1.
1GGIE press release, 6 Sep 1938, p. 5, UC Archives (NRLF), "Records of the Committee on cooperation with Golden Gate International Exposition, 1937-1939," Call No.: CU-5.54, Box 1.
2GGIE press release, 6 Sep 1938, pp. 5-6, UC Archives (NRLF), "Records of the Committee on cooperation with Golden Gate International Exposition, 1937-1939," Call No.: CU-5.54, Box 1.
3Photographs in UC Archives (NRLF), "Records of the Committee on cooperation with Golden Gate International Exposition, 1937-1939," Call No.: CU-5.54, Box 1, Folder IV-B-1 "Paleontology - Sculptured Heads, Animals of California" 1:61.
4Charles L. Camp, Earth Song: A Prelude to History, (University of California Press, 1952), 127 pp.
1Oakland Tribune, "First It's 'Miss Oakland' — Now 'Miss World's Fair," 19 Feb 1939, p. 10.
2"Illustrated catalogue [of the] art exhibition by California artists in the California Building, Golden Gate International Exhibition, 1939, Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, February 18 to December 2." The Bancroft Library, Call no. F869.S3.953.S2145.
3Deke Sonnichsen, "Re: Clampartist William Gordon Huff," email to me, 3 Mar 2014.1Ruben Stirton, letter to Howard Robertson (Attorney at Law, Los Angeles, CA), 28 May 1940, Ruben A. Stirton Correspondence, 1924-1945, box 1, folder 30: Stirton "R" Correspondence, 1926-1944, UA. "He [Huff] had just finished some new additions for the Fair and is awaiting a decision of the directors of Mount Diablo Museum to start some large murals."
2Rodney S. E(?) (State Agricultural Building, San Francisco, CA), letter to Huff, 23 May, 1940, HFA. "Herewith is the chart I promised to send you to accompany the display for the Exhibit Case on the Invertebrate Fossils of Mt. Diablo, for the University of California exhibit."
1Bacon Hall post-GGIE installation from Charles Camp, letter to Annie Alexander, 22 Jan 1941, Charles Lewis Camp Papers, correspondence 1936-1996, box 1, UA. "Mr. Goeriz has just finished installing the dioramas at Bacon Hall. These are the ones that were at the Worlds Fair." The dioramas being in Bacon Hall in 1957 from Joan Perusse, "The History of the Black Hawk Ranch Quarry" (Spring 1957, Paleo 170 paper), Joseph T. Gregory Papers, Records Room, UA. "These dioramas … may now be seen in Bacon Hall on this campus."
2Ray Strong, letter to Huff, 16 Jun 1962, HFA. "He [VanderHoof] was sorry Bison Latifrons went to Miller and the Academy … but did feel more people would see it there."
3Lori Pond (President, San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation), emails to me, 29 May 2012 to 24 Jun 2013.
1Mark Goodwin, "Re: Other Huff sculptures," email to me, 3 May 2013. "Wow! What a find! I'll call/email Sally next week — if she can pack them up, I can pay for FedEx ground shipping and just send her the shipping label pdf."
2Photograph in Joan Perusse, "The History of the Black Hawk Ranch Quarry" (Spring 1957, Paleo 170 paper), Joseph T. Gregory Papers, Records Room, UA. Regarding Huff's Hipparion head, Perusse wrote "It is now on exhibit near the elevator on the third floor of Hearst Mining Building." The other heads were right there with it, assuming her photograph dates from when Perusse was taking Paleo 170.