Dancing Chef caters Feb 1 Historical League meeting

Kay Holcombe, Deb Hester and Ruth Ann
Hogan (peeking behind Deb) enjoy the luncheon.
The huge salad bowl was refilled quickly.

Our February meeting was busy with many reports and introductions. Adjourning to the lobby, we had a delicious lunch prior to our guest speaker Carolyn O'Bagy Davis' presentation about Goldie Tracy Richmond, the "Desert Angel".

Thanks to The Dancing Chef, Mark Vanek, for creating a delicious lunch.We are glad that they are conveniently located in the museum kitchen!

Goldie Tracy Richmond - Quilter, 1896-1972

We learned the amazing story of this fascinating woman at our Historical League meeting on Monday, February 1. Carolyn O'Bagy Davis has researched Goldie Tracy Richmond for years, met with Tohono O'odham people and uncovered lost quilts that Goldie made. We are grateful for Goldie's artistic quilt works and so glad that Carolyn has rescued them for history. Several quilts are at AHS Museum in Tucson. Carolyn also brought a quilt for us to see the detail up close. Goldie described the scenes in her quilts with embroidery thus turning the quilt into a journal.

Goldie Tracy Richmond "Desert Angel"

Picking sahuaro fruit with a quipad c. 1932

Scene of picking sahuaro fruit stitched in this quilt

Many State Fair ribbons from her quilts

Goldie lived on the Tohono O'odham reservation for years and documented the story of the people in her quilts. Having little money, she befriended a dressmaker so any scraps of left-over materials became her quilts. At 6'4" and 340 lbs, she was a prominent figure among the native people remembered for telling the story of Arizona history through her sewing and her big heart. Reaching only sixth grade and never having a sewing lesson, her unique quilts are  a diary of desert life. She was a trapper, farmer and owner of a Trading Post. She once strangled a bobcat that attached her husband!
Thanks to Dee Steen and Mary Parker for organizing this wonderful presentation.

League members and guests linger in the lobby.

February guest speaker - Carolyn O'Bagy Davis

Meeting 10:00 - 11:15 am. Lunch 11:30 am - 12:15 pm.  Guest Speaker 12:15-1:00 pm.
Purchase tickets by Wednesday, January 27           
www.HistoricalLeague.org

We are pleased to announce that our speaker at the general membership meeting on February 1, 2016 will be CAROLYN O’BAGY DAVIS, a fourth-generation descendant of Utah pioneers, and the author of 14 books on archaeology, quilting and the history of the Southwest. She will be speaking about an Arizona legend, Goldie Tracy Richmond, the woman who was the Tohono O’odham Indian trader who made amazing applique? quilts with images of the O’odham life.

Carolyn’s book, Hopi Summer, was selected as the OneBookArizona for 2011 and Desert Trader was named one of the Best Books of the Southwest 2012. Carolyn was founding President of the Tucson Quilters Guild and Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, and is an inducted member of the Society of Women Geographers and the Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame. She has appeared on HGTV, PBS, and Lifetime television programs and has curated many traveling museum exhibits.

The Arizona Historical Society owns three of Goldie’s world-renowned quilts, and we will have one in the lobby for our program on February 1. We decided to publicize this program to non-members, and to have the lunch catered by the Dancing Chef. He leases the museum kitchen and catered the HistorymakerTM Exhibit Unveiling event. Our general membership meeting will be at 10:00 in the boardroom, as usual. Our luncheon and program will be in the lobby at 11:30.