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; Santa Barbara Natural History Museum SBNHM; Alameda Naval Air Station ANAS; Palo Alto Junior Museum PAJM
1Ruben Stirton, letter to A.S. Coggeshall (Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, CA), 22 Mar 1939, Ruben A. Stirton Correspondence, 1924-1945, box 1, folder 8, Stirton "C" Correspondence, 1926-1945, UA.
2Ruben Stirton, letter to C.W. Hibbard (Museum of Paleontology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS), 16 Feb 1940, Ruben A. Stirton Correspondence, 1924-1945, box 1, folder 20, Stirton "H" Correspondence: Claude W. Hibbard, 1925-1946, UA.
3E.H. Sellards (Director, The University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, Austin, TX), letter to Huff, 24 Apr 1939, HFA.
4Chester Stock (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA), letter to Huff, 16 Sep 1940, HFA.
1The FWA news release, HFA, provides additional information about Huff's bas-relief:
In seeking suitable subject matter for the decoration of the Post Office, Mr. Huff says he was impressed with the stories in early Texas history which recall the time when the great herds of Bison ranged the Lone Star plains. "'Since I am especially interested in animals as subject matter for my work," he told the Section of Fine Arts, "I took advantage of the appropriateness of the Bison and chose it for my design."
The relief has been cast in terrazzo — a mixture of crushed marble, pigment and cement — and depicts in the foreground the tremendous impact of a Bison stopped in his rush for freedom by a well directed Indian arrow. Behind him, other members of the herd continue their stampede. Though held within the framework of a semicircle, the sculpture gives us a feeling of unrestrained physical movement which the Bison once know [sic] on the mesa of Texas.
The decoration of the Bryan, Texas, Post Office, is one of the hundreds of Federal Building embellishments commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts since 1934.
2The additional texture may have been added following Huff's receipt of a letter dated 13 Nov 1940 from Inslee A. Hopper (Consultant to the Chief, Section of Fine Arts), HFA. Hopper wrote "We have reviewed the photograph of your clay model and think the design has developed with interest but suggest that before casting you consider giving slightly more definition to some of the forms particularly the relations of the planes of the three buffalo behind the first one. It was thought that a greater differentiation of texture between the animals and the background might be desirable."
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.
2Sophus Robertson was an interesting individual. The Bancroft Library has a collection of Robertson material and their online finding aids had this to say about the man: "Sophus John Robertson, who came to be known as Captain Jack Robertson, was born in Hayward, Calif. in 1885. He worked as a wilderness guide and hunter in Alaska and eventually became a documentary filmmaker in the region. A number of his films enjoyed commercial release. Later in his life he was hired by the University of California and served as director of U.C. Extension's Motion Picture Production Department. Robertson died in 1966."
3Correspondence between Huff and Ray Strong confirms that a second set of the horse models were made for the SBMNH. In a 14 Aug 1960 letter to Huff, Ray Strong wrote "Van [VanderHoof] is coming up for the Horse panels and to see you about recasts of the horse sculptures since Stirt [Ruben Stirton] wants to keep the originals for the U.C. Paleo museum." Then in a 15 Jan 1961 letter to Huff, Ray, writing from Santa Barbara, said "This week we are going to put in a temporary exhibit of the three horse sculptures of yours I brought down. Van is most enthusiastic about them and the treatment in color and texture." And in a 2 Feb 1961, letter to Huff, Ray wrote "Will the other three horses be ready to fetch back this time? The others have had unstinted praise by the staff sculptor and other technicians here and Van is much pleased with them." All three letters from the RSFP.
4After sending her images of the horse dioramas, Terri Sheridan (Museum Librarian, SBMNH) emailed me on 29 Sep 2014 to say "In comparing the horses in the foreground with our horse models, I think there is strong likelihood that they are the work of Huff. I'm attaching photos — see what you think." The photos she sent are the ones pictured. Later, in a 10 Mar 2016 follow-up email, Terri wrote "I was able to make confirmation on the horses in our prehistoric horse exhibit. They were indeed sculpted by Huff. The daughter (Jill) of our then Director, Vertress VanderHoof remembers driving up to UC Berkeley with her dad in about 1960 to retrieve them for our Paleo Hall."
5In an 11 May 2014 email to me, Blake Bufford (Director of the Fossil Discovery Center, Chowchilla, CA) explained that the horse sculptures "came from the East Bay city of Alamo California [Blake later corrected himself and said that the high school was in Danville, probably Monte Vista High School]. They had been in their … library. I received an email from them asking us if we wanted them because they were making room for other projects and did not want them anymore. I saw the pictures they sent and told them yes!! I then asked Grady Billington and Gerry McDougal to drive up to Alamo and bring them back which they did. I think this was in 2010?"
6Ruben Stirton, letter to Huff, 3 Sep 1946, HFA. "If you are still interested I presume we should get in touch with Mr. Wm. P. Kyne concerning the proposed dioramas at Bay Meadows."
7Ruben Stirton, letter to Huff, 16 Jan 1952, HFA. Stirton wrote:
I am extremely sorry that your work was not recognized on the Science in Action program on 'The Horse.' … I simply failed to think of it at a time when it could be gotten into the script.
But I shall see that a correction is made next week when they show your big Bison. I am trying to reach Dr. Groody [the show's host] now and will see to this matter. Your work played such an important part in the entire show that I feel terrible about this." UA
Science in Action was a television program produced by the California Academy of Sciences and broadcast from 1950 to 1966. Tom Groody hosted the show during its first two years. Ruben Stirton was the guest scientist on The Horse episode, "From prehistoric times to modern blooded horses," that aired 15 Jan 1952. Vanishing Herds aired the following week (22 Jan 1952), "The story of the bison from pre-historic times to the days of Buffalo Bill." Neither of these episodes appears to have been preserved in the Cal Academy's archives. The one-line descriptions of the two programs were obtained from a Cal Academy web page that no longer exists.
1The draft letter, dated 16 Apr 1941, is in the HFA and reads as follows:
The object of this letter is to acquaint you with our work in the field of visual education. We have a two fold purpose in mind: First, to inform you that our services are available for any opening which may occur in your visual department, and second, we wish to announce that pending such an opening material of this program will be made available very shortly through commercial channels.
Our program will bring into existence new and original timely material. All creations will be treated in [the] best available artistic manner and based on authentic information obtained at the University of California.
This plan as outlined has been the outgrowth of our association as a team in designing and executing the Paleontology exhibit for the California Commission and University of California at the Golden Gate International [Exposition] and more recently in the creation of new visual material for the University Extension Division - Visual branch [a reference to the horse film].
This was followed by a list of men at UC Berkeley who are "acquainted with our work and proposed program and will verify our qualifications": Charles Camp, Bruce Clark (another UCMP paleontologist), Edward Winslow Gifford (Anthropology), Worth Ryder (Art), John Haley (Art), Nicholas L. Taliaferro (Geology), Howell Williams (Geology), Michael Goodman (Architecture), and William J. Norton (Executive Officer for the Committee on Cooperation with the GGIE).
2Ray Strong, "Art of the Diorama," American Artist, Oct 1965, 36. Strong wrote "Mr. Huff and I secured advisors from the University of California and Stanford University and proposed to school boards across Northern California that on their vacant walls they place placques [sic] and murals of pre-history, California Indians, and pioneers. There was no response."
3Ruben A. Stirton Correspondence, 1924-1945, box 1, folder 34, Stirton "U" Correspondence, 1930-1944, UA. The document begins "Copy of proposed program of Visual Education for the schools of California which was drawn up by Mr. William Gordon Huff, sculptor, and Mr. Ray Strong, painter, and R.A. Stirton."
4Ray Strong, letter to Huff, 23 Jun 1966, HFA.
1From a handwritten biographical sketch written by Ray Strong in Jan 1987, provided by Strong biographer Mark Humpal (Portland, OR). Strong wrote "We heard of a remarkable woman and a Palo Alto Community Group who had through Eugenia Frost erected a Junior Museum building for ceramics, art work, nature studies, ecology ideas. … we [Strong and Huff] sat down one evening with nails and cardboard on ½ inch plywood base — made a time tunnel for the story of evolution to go into a new Science Wing adjoining the Frost grant one. Taking this and a typed list of sequential exhibits to Palo Alto we secured their interest. And together secured a $12,000 Columbia Foundation S.F. Grant. $6000 goes to build the 19' x 60' wing — $3000 each to sculptor and painter — with one year to do the exhibits."
Also, in Ray Strong, "Art of the Diorama," American Artist, Oct 1965, 36, Strong wrote "Hearing soon after of the Palo Alto Children's Museum new building, we prepared a scale model for a Science Wing addition on the 'Life Through the Ages' story. With a citizens committee and Director Josephine O'Hara, a Columbia Foundation grant was secured for a building, where the exhibits were scaled down in size and view-height accommodating children."
2R.W. Burnett, Life Through the Ages: A Visual Introduction to the Story of Change in Living Things (Stanford University Press, in cooperation with the Palo Alto Junior Museum, 1947), 48 pp.
3Mark Humpal (Ray Strong biographer, Portland, OR), "Re: Excerpt from a 1987 Ray autobio.," email to me, 5 Feb 2014. "From what I know, the Spiral chart is at SBMNH. After the exhibits at PAJM were taken down, Ray made a couple of trips to Palo Alto to rescue or reappropriate some of the material. He even mentions this in his letters to Bill [Huff]. I think most of what he got were wall charts only; I'm not sure what happened to Bill's pedestal sculptures or the dioramas."
4Terri Sheridan (Museum Librarian, SBMNH), "Re: Ray Strong and W.G. Huff horse diorama," email to me, 6 Oct 2011. "I do know that the Spiral used to hang on the corridor wall between our Education Offices and Farrand Hall. It is now stored in the Exhibits Department. The second panel, New Life, is stored with art collections in the Library Department. I'm not sure whether or not it was ever put on exhibit as it has been in storage for at least the last twenty years."
5Mark Humpal, "More PAJM stuff," email to me, 5 Feb 2014. Three panels "were donated by Barbara Strong to a Montessori school in AZ 7 years ago. While the artwork is all Ray's, the lettering is Bill's." Humpal mentions another panel in a second email, same date: "On pages 24-25 [in Burnett's book] is a large chart. This chart is in Three Rivers, CA. I had thought Tim Huff bought it, but apparently not. Georgellen Parker, Ray's daughter Barbara's partner, has it and is looking for a home for it."
1Mark Humpal, Ray Stanford Strong: West Coast Landscape Artist (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017), 134.
2Ibid.
3Actually, Huff went to work for the A&R Department (aircraft Assembly and Repair); it wasn't until 1948 that the department name changed to O&R (Overhaul and Repair). See a concise history of operations at ANAS in the Combined Specific Buildings Survey and Evaluation Report / Cold War Era Historic Resources Survey and Evaluation Report for Naval Air Station Alameda prepared by JRP Consulting, LLC, of Davis, CA, in September 2011.
4William Gordon Huff, letter to Ray Strong, undated but probably 1984 or later, RSFP.
5Strangely, Huff's plaque gives October 1, 1940, as the commissioning date but according to the Alameda Naval Air Museum, it was November 1, 1940.
6Carrier information from the Alameda Naval Air Museum website.
7Same letter as in footnote 4.
1Kaoru Nakashima (Consulate General of Japan, San Francisco, CA), letter to Huff, 25 Jul (no year but probably 1938), HFA
2Quotes and most details from an undated, two-page, handwritten account by Huff, HFA.
3Betty Godzinski, "Dr. Noguchi Memorial Bust Presented in Japan by NASA," The Carrier (a U.S. Navy publication), Nov 1956, HFA.