Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers, 1745 - 1970, bulk 1880 - 1960

Summary

Abstract:

The Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo collection consists of the papers of eight family members created over a period of four generations. During the 19th and 20th centuries the family traveled internationally, established homes in New York, Colorado, New Mexico, and California, and accumulated a rich and varied collection of financial, legal, personal and professional documents.

Extent:

219 Boxes Approximately 110 Linear Feet

Language:

English, Finnish, Hungarian, German, Spanish, Italian and Arabic

Background

Scope and content:

The Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo collection consists of the papers of eight family members created over a period of four generations. Across the 19th and 20th centuries the family traveled internationally, established homes in New York, Colorado, New Mexico, and California, and accumulated a rich and varied collection of financial, legal, personal and professional documents. Financial and personal papers form the bulk of the collection, while legal and professional papers form smaller portions.

Financial documents include correspondence, receipts, ledgers, banking and investment papers, real estate records, and tax records.

Personal documents include correspondence, receipts, newspaper and magazine clippings, pamphlets, brochures, scrapbooks, postcards and postcard albums, photographs and photograph albums, diaries, notebooks, sheet music, books, prints, and paintings. The daily life of family members, their worldwide travels, and their individual interests and pursuits are reflected throughout this wide variety of formats. The papers reveal associations with relatives, friends, and historic personalities, including significant artists of the period. Many of Eva Scott Fenyes' watercolor sketches are contained in 14 folio sketchbooks. These as well as smaller sketchbooks and many unframed paintings provide insight not only into her travels and interests, but also into her significant artistic talent.

Legal documents include divorce papers, wills, and estate papers. Property litigation records relate to the Pasadena Civic Center renovation project and various Pasadena street reconfiguration projects.

Professional documents include the papers of Adalbert Fenyes who was a physician and entomologist.

Files of Margaret E. Nicholas

Margaret E. Nicholas was secretary to Eva Scott Fenyes, Leonora Scott Muse Curtin, and Leonora Frances Curtin Paloheimo. She terminated employment October 26, 1945. Her files have been kept in their original order.

Files of Harold J. Schiesswohl

Harold J. Schiesswohl was secretary to Leonora Scott Muse Curtin, Leonora Frances Curtin Paloheimo and Yrjo Alfred Paloheimo. When possible, the original order of his files has been maintained.

Biographical / historical:

Eva Scott Fenyes (ESF) was a gifted watercolorist, a successful businesswoman, and a devoted daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother. She was a patroness of the arts, literature, and music, and an advocate for the preservation of America's Southwestern heritage. Heiress to the fortune created by her father, Eva utilized her inheritance and talents to establish a life in Pasadena, California, that allowed her to nurture her family and sustain an active participation in Pasadena's turn of the 20th century culture and society. She built luxurious homes where she entertained renowned guests. She managed her business properties with sophisticated acumen, traveled extensively, and studied continuously. She participated in establishing and supporting Southwestern cultural institutions and created a unique and artistic record of California's and New Mexico's Spanish and Mexican legacies.

Eva Scott (ESF) was born in New York City on November 9, 1849. Her father, Leonard Franklin Scott, born in 1810 in New Brunswick, Canada, was a New York City real estate investor and founder of the Leonard Scott Publishing Company. He married Rebecca Briggs of White Plains, New York, in 1840, and together they had two daughters. Only Eva survived. Attendence at private schools and travel throughout Europe and Africa, where she was tutored in languages and the arts, provided Eva with an education that contributed to her success and independence. As a young woman she developed an interest in the preservation of the native cultures of the American West. In 1877, while visiting her parents in St. Augustine, Florida, she assisted Native American detainees held at Fort Marion by purchasing art supplies that they used to paint a record of their historic past as well as their present encounters with American culture. In 1878, Eva married Marine Lieutenant William Sulivane Muse. Their daughter Leonora Scott Muse (LSMC) was born in White Plains, New York, in 1879. Together the family lived on the East Coast and then in California before Eva obtained a divorce from William Muse in New Mexico in 1890. While in the Southwest, Eva purchased her first Santa Fe, New Mexico property and lived for a short time in Prescott, Arizona.

From late 1891 through 1895, Eva again traveled in the eastern United States, Europe and Africa, studying language and art. While in Egypt, she met her second husband, Dr. Adalbert Fenyes, whom she married in Budapest, Hungary in 1896. The newlyweds settled in Pasadena, California that same year. There Dr. Fenyes practiced as a physician and was an early practitioner in the use of X-ray technology. He was also a renowned entomologist who traveled the world collecting beetle specimens. Today this important beetle collection is housed at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Living and painting in California, Eva Fenyes soon became acquainted with Charles Fletcher Lummis, founder of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles. Eva supported the establishment of the museum, and Lummis supported her effort to paint a historic record of the crumbling adobe houses and missions that represented California's Spanish and Mexican heritage. Today the Braun Research Library of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian at the Autry National Center houses collections of Eva Fenyes' watercolors and papers.

Ever mindful of her own development, Eva also saw carefully to her daughter's education. For several years prior to their permanent move to California, Eva sent Leonora (LSMC) to school in Lausanne, Switzerland. In Pasadena, she enrolled Leonora in Miss Orton's Classical School for Girls. Leonora's life was also enriched by her parents' varied interests and the many visitors to their home; and, she was involved in Pasadena's social life, attending events at the Valley Hunt Club and the Hotel Green.

In 1903, Leonora Scott Muse (LSMC) married Thomas Edouard Curtin. They settled in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where their daughter Leonora Frances (LFCP) was born. Thomas Curtin died in 1911, and Leonora and her daughter returned to Pasadena where Eva and Adalbert built a house for them on the Fenyes Mansion property. Leonora, however, like her mother, was drawn to the Spanish colonial culture of New Mexico.

Over the years, the family's interest in western Spanish heritage became a studied endeavor; and, Eva Fenyes, Leonora Scott Muse Curtin, and Leonora Frances Curtin Paloheimo each brought their own special focus to their collective interest in the Southwest. They gave their financial support and offered their particular skills to anthropological studies and archaeological expeditions; and, they sponsored institutions. They developed friendships and professional relationships with Adolf F. Bandelier, Edgar L. Hewett, Frederick Webb Hodge, and John P. Harrington. Leonora Scott Muse Curtin's deep interest in the use of native plants for healing and cooking culminated in the publication of her books Healing Herbs of the Upper Rio Grande (1947) and By the Prophet of the Earth (1949). Leonora Frances Curtin's (LFCP) interest in language led to her work as a linguistics researcher at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Together, along with writer Mary Austin and Frank G. Applegate, the women's support for Spanish Colonial art in New Mexico resulted in the founding of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society in 1925. In the 1930s, during the Depression, Leonora Frances Curtin (LFCP) supported vocational training for the preservation of Spanish Colonial arts and crafts. From this venture, Native Market developed as an innovative commercial outlet for Spanish Colonial artisans.

In 1926, the family built their home in Santa Fe, and while much of their legacy remains there today, their roots in Pasadena held firm as well. In 1946, Leonora Frances Curtin married Yrjo Alfred Paloheimo, Finnish Consul to the United States. They adopted four children from Finland: George, Nina, Eric, and Eva. They made their home in both California and New Mexico and traveled frequently to Finland. In 1939, Consul Paloheimo was the Commissioner General for the Finnish Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. He later established the Finnish Consulate for the Southwestern United States in the Fenyes' Pasadena home, where his office may be seen today. In the 1950s, the Paloheimos participated in the creation of the Museum of International Folk Art as part of the Museum of New Mexico. In 1972, Yrjo and Leonora Paloheimo (LFCP) and Leonora Curtin (LSMC) founded the living history museum, El Rancho de Las Golondrinas (Ranch of the Swallows) at La Cienega, New Mexico. It is dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of Spanish Colonial New Mexico.

In 1970, the Paloheimo/Curtin families donated the family papers and the furnishings and artwork from the Fenyes Mansion to the Pasadena Historical Society which is now known as Pasadena Museum of History. In partnership with Finlandia Foundation, the Museum is also home to the Finnish Folk Art Museum.

The history of the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo family is culturally rooted in the eastern United States. As the family grew, Eva Scott Fenyes, Leonora Scott Muse Curtin, and Leonora Frances Curtin Paloheimo, along with their husbands, extended their interests and their love of art and education to the cultures and societies of the Southwest. Through their foresight and generosity their legacy has been established and preserved in both California and New Mexico.

Acquisition information:

In 1970, the Paloheimo/Curtin families donated the family papers and the furnishings and artwork from the Fenyes Mansion to the Pasadena Historical Society which is now known as Pasadena Museum of History.

In 2006 and 2007, additional family papers were found in the Fenyes Mansion and the History Center Archives. In 2008 and 2009, these papers were processed into the existing Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers.

In 2009 and 2010, the 14 folio sketchbooks created by Eva Scott Fenyes were photographed and cataloged and added to the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized in 11 subgroups by person and one subgroup by size.

Subgroups:	Box
Leonard Franklin Scott	1-6
(July 30, 1810 - March 1, 1895)
Leonard & Rebecca married May 21, 1840
Rebecca Briggs Scott	7
(November 20, 1811 - June 13, 1896)
Adalbert Fenyes	8-12
(November 17, 1863 - February 23, 1937)
Adalbert & Eva married April 25, 1896
Eva Scott Fenyes (ESF)	13-72, 142-152, 201-215
(November 9, 1849 - February 3, 1930
Thomas Edouard Curtin	73-76
(March 19, 1874 - October 30, 1911)
Thomas & Leonora married March 12, 1903
Leonora Scott Muse Curtin (LSMC)	77-111, 153-170
(October 2, 1879 - September 2, 1972)
LSMC/LFCP - Mixed	171-176
Yrjo Alfred Paloheimo	112-118, 177-183
(October 29, 1899 - May 23, 1986)
Yrjo & Leonora married October 17, 1946
Leonora Frances Curtin Paloheimo (LFCP)	119-127, 184-186
(December 7, 1903 - November 24, 1999)
Yrjo and Leonora Paloheimo - Mixed	128-129, 187-195
Unassigned Family Papers	130-140, 196-200, 216, 219
Oversize Boxes:	141, 217, 218

Boxes 142-219 were added to the original complement of Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers. These numbers have been interspersed throughout the subgroups and are designated in "Bold" typeface throughout the container list.

Location of this collection:

Pasadena Museum of History

470 West Walnut Street

Pasadena, CA 91103-3594, US

Contact:

626.577.1660

research@pasadenahistory.org

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