Читать книгу The Man Who Invented Aztec Crystal Skulls - Jane MacLaren Walsh - Страница 6

I am indebted to a long list of people who assisted and guided me during my research into the life and career of Eugène Boban. First and foremost, I am grateful to my coauthor and partner, Brett Topping, who organized and edited the book. She also provided much of the historical research relating to the California Gold Rush, France in the nineteenth century, the Siege of Paris, and the terrible events of the Paris Commune revolt. Her research yielded invaluable context for Boban’s story. Her insights helped me better appreciate his achievements and idiosyncrasies.

When I began my research for an article about crystal skulls in museum collections and first encountered Eugène Boban’s name, I was helped by two good friends, the late Robert von Kaupp and Randall Dean. They translated a number of Boban’s letters and articles for me, as my reading comprehension of French was negligible at the time.

I have enjoyed the friendship, advice, and guidance of a great number of people whom I have met through this project, particularly in Washington, DC, New York, Mexico City, London, and Paris. Elizabeth Carmichael’s wonderful letter about the British Museum’s crystal skull led me to the trail of Eugène Boban. I am very grateful to her and Tony Kitzinger for their encouragement, kindness, and friendship. Many people in the British Museum have shared expertise and information. Margaret Sax’s pioneering work dating Mesopotamian cylinder seals introduced me to the use of scanning electron microscopy in the study of tool marks. Ian Freestone, Andrew Rankin, and Nigel Meeks generously shared their expertise. Philippa Glanville, formerly of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and her husband, Gordon Glanville, have for many years offered stimulating conversation, encouragement, and possible sources of information.

During my first visit to Paris, Sally McLendon and her late husband, William Sturtevant, a Smithsonian colleague, introduced me to Marie-France Fauvet-Berthelot at the Musée de l’Homme. She allowed me to examine the Boban/Pinart papers and would later invite me to research Boban’s artifact collection, in particular the French crystal skull. I have worked closely with her ever since and have always been grateful for her generosity and kindness. Marie-France introduced me to anthropologist Eric Taladoire from the Sorbonne, who shared his work on a contemporary of Boban’s, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Fuzier. Christine Lorre, a conservator at the Musée d’archéologie nationale, provided me with photographs that Boban had sent to Gabriel Mortillet. She also told me that Mortillet’s papers were at the Universität de Saarlandes in Germany. Wolfgang Muller from that university later provided me with pdf images of Boban’s correspondence with Mortillet.

A close friend, the late Claude François Baudez, encouraged and advised me, introducing me to a number of important people in France. One of these was Pascal Riviale, who was at the Musée d’Orsay when we first met and is now with the Archives nationales de France in Paris. He has written about Boban’s career and helped me access his correspondence in the Bibliothèque nationale. I am especially grateful to Pascal and his wife, Frédérique, for their enthusiasm and many kindnesses. Claude also put me in contact with other colleagues and friends in France, including the historian and archivist Nadia Prevost Urkidi. Nadia introduced me to Armelle Le-Goff and Christiane Demeulenaere-Douyère of the Archives nationales, and the three of them shared their work on the papers of Colonel Louis Toussaint Doutrelaine. In addition, Christiane provided information she located in public archives on the Boban family, including birth, marriage, and death records. I greatly appreciate her help.

Pascal Riviale later introduced me to Christine Besson, curator at the Musée Pincé in Angers, which holds a small collection donated by Boban in 1869. Christine gave me complete access to the collections and the accompanying archive. She also put me in contact with Sylvain Bertoldi, the director of the municipal archives in Angers. He provided information about Boban’s great-grandparents, grandparents, and aunts, all of whom lived in Angers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

At the Musée du quai Branly I have enjoyed the assistance of a number of colleagues and friends. In particular Fabienne de Pierrebourg, Paz Nuñez Regueiro, Andre Delpuech, Christophe Moulherat, and many others. I have also been fortunate to consult with Thomas Calligaro and Yvan Coquinot of the Louvre’s C2RMF (Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France).

In New York I have used extensively the archives held by the Hispanic Society of America. John O’Neill, the society’s curator of manuscripts and rare books, has been exceedingly kind and helpful, allowing me complete access to Eugène Boban’s papers. I am also indebted to the society’s director, Mitchell A. Codding, and to Sharon Lorenzo, who first informed me of the existence of these papers at the Hispanic Society.

My thanks to Leonardo López Luján, director of the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico City, and his wife, Laura Filloy, conservator at the Museo Nacional de Antropología. They assisted me in myriad ways when I first went to Paris to do research on Boban’s artifact collection, and Laura helped me obtain permission to publish several images from Mexico.

In Mexico City, Leopoldo Batres’s great-granddaughter, Elvira Pruneda, provided me with some of Batres’s correspondence. We had a fascinating conversation about him in Teotihuacan’s restaurant, La Gruta. Teresa Matabuena Peláez and Maria Eugenia Ponce Alcocer of the Universidad Iberoamericana assisted in locating papers in the Porfirio Díaz collection.

In Italy I have been helped by several people who provided information on crystal skulls, including Annamaria Ippolito, Barbara Nepote, Enrica Pagella, Paola Ruffino, and Paola Cordera. Martin Berger in the Research Center for Material Culture in Leiden and Gerard van Bussel in the Welt Museum in Vienna have also been of great assistance.

I am grateful to Norman Hammond of Cambridge University, Adam Sellen of the Universidad de Mérida, and Javier Urcid of Brandeis University for many broad-ranging discussions. Melissa Mead of the University of Rochester provided insights into the career of Henry Ward. I am particularly indebted to Kate Ralston of the Getty Research Library in Los Angeles for access to Boban’s photo albums. Many thanks also to Jacob Wainwright Love, James Hardin, Mary Sykes Wiley, Marie-Christine Bonzom, Basile Baudez, and Brian Jordan for their comments and suggestions.

Having worked at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for more than four decades, I have enjoyed the friendship and invaluable assistance of a large number of people. I want to thank James Diloreto, Deborah Hull-Walski, James Krakker, Paula Fleming, Bruno Frohlich, Dave Rosenthal, Scott Whittaker, Tim Rose, and David Hunt from the National Museum of Natural History. I would like to thank Maggie Dittemore and Leslie Overstreet from the Smithsonian Libraries, as well as Ellen Alers and Pamela Henson of the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Pat Nietfield, formerly the collections manager at the National Museum of the American Indian, was always helpful.