These important historical artifacts, produced by Ansel Hall during the 1930s, were digitized by the Center in 2019 through a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board.
SCHEDULE - March 15 (W), 6:30 - 8:00 PM
Screening: Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition film footage
Jack Turner: Jack Turner is Ansel Hall’s grandson and a world traveler, speaker, and television commentator. His book, Landscapes on Glass, won first place in the Colorado Book Awards for its pictorial documentation of historic lantern slides and overview of Ansel Hall’s Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition.
The ONWARD Project (Elizabeth Kahn and Madi Fair): The ONWARD Project is dedicated to amplifying Native voices to inspire new understandings of history and place in the American Southwest. They work to tell stories of the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition, interrogating its historic implications through art, technology, and other diverse perspectives.
Lithuania and Louise Denetso: Lithuania Denetso is a researcher for the ONWARD Project and the granddaughter of Max Littlesalt, Navajo guide and interpreter for the Rainbow Bridge Monument Valley Expedition. Lithuania was born on the Navajo Reservation and lived there until her parents moved the family to Tucson, Arizona in 1985. Her family continues to visit Tsegi Canyon to help shear sheep and for other family obligations.
SCHEDULE - March 16 (TH), 6:30 - 8:00 PM
Screening: Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition film footage
Nik Kendziorski: Nik Kendziorski, Archives Manager at the Center of Southwest Studies, spearheaded conservation efforts for the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition documentary films. Nik has worked in the public history, museum, and archives fields for twenty-five years and joined the Center of Southwest Studies in 2000. He holds an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Wyoming.
Arnold Clifford: Arnold Clifford is a botanist and geologist who focuses on plant species from the Four Corners area of the Colorado Plateau and, in particular, the Navajo Nation. He weaves his traditional Navajo understanding of nature and science with Western scientific methods to construct a fuller story of the region and change the mainstream scientific narrative by adding what academia often leaves out.
FLC Student and Alumni Panel: Shenay Atene and Elise Boulanger provideD Indigenous interpretations of the documentary footage.
About Ansel Hall
Ansel Franklin Hall was director of the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition and played a foundational role in the development of interpretive work at the National Park Service (N.P.S.). Hall earned a degree in forestry from the University of California Berkeley in 1917, one year after Congress authorized the establishment of the National Park Service. After graduation, he was hired as a backcountry ranger and assigned to Sequoia National Park before joining the U.S. Army during World War I. Upon returning from the war in 1919, he was reassigned to Yosemite and rose quickly through the ranks, serving as chief naturalist of the National Park Service from 1923 to 1930, senior naturalist and chief forester from 1930 to 1933, and chief of the Field Division from 1933 to 1937. Hall also established the Educational Division of the Park Service in 1925 and was a founding member of the Yosemite Museum Association, which raised funds for the first Park Service museum in Yosemite. Hall left the Park Service in 1938 to run a family concessions business at Mesa Verde National Park and develop private interpretive programs.
SPECIAL THANKS: This program was made possible through the Ballantine Family Fund, City of Durango Lodgers’ Tax: Arts and Culture funding, and donations to the Center of Southwest Studies Archives Fund. Digitization and preservation of the films were supported by grants from the National Film Preservation Foundation and an award from the Colorado Historical Records Advisory Board, through funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, National Archives Records Administration.