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Muriel Thayer Painter Collection 1939-1975

MS 18

Biographical Note

Muriel Thayer was born in Minneapolis in 1892. She attended University of Minnesota and graduated from Wellesley in 1916 with a degree in social work. During 1938-39, Bronislaw Malinowski was a guest lecturer at the University of Arizona, Department of Anthropology. Muriel Thayer Painter joined Malinowski in observing the Yaqui Easter ceremony in Spring, 1939.

From the beginning, Muriel Painter's commitment to study the Easter ceremony, and eventually the entire ceremonial cycle, grew. Each year from 1939 through 1954 she attended most of the Holy Week observances and the processions during Lent. Her extensive notes documenting these observations were supplemented by interviews with Yaquis over a period of years from 1948 to 1975. Mrs. Painter was appointed chairperson of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce "Yaqui Committee" in 1942. In 1950, the Tucson Chamber of Commerce published her pamphlet on the Yaqui Easter Ceremony at Pascua, which was later updated and reprinted by the University of Arizona Press.

Since 1944, Muriel Painter was a research associate at the Arizona State Museum. She was program chairperson for the Tucson Festival Society which began organizing the annual San Xavier Fiesta in 1952. During the 1960s, she was chairperson of the Pascua Yaqui Association which sought to improve housing in Pascua Pueblo. The work of this Association eventually gained recognition of the Yaquis as a tribe and funds for establishing New Pascua Pueblo.

When she died in 1975, Muriel Painter left her papers, including her unpublished manuscript, to the Arizona State Museum. Dr. Edward Spicer of the Department of Anthropology and Wilma Kaemlein, emeritus staff member of ASM, revised the manuscript and in 1986 it was published as With Good Heart by the University of Arizona Press.

Scope and Content

This collection relates to the years from 1939 to 1975 when Muriel Painter was active in the Pascua Yaqui community. Her papers include field notes on Pascua and San Xavier and materials relating to her community activities with the Tucson Festival Society and Pascua Yaqui Association.

Subgroup 1 is field notes, 1939-71; subgroup 2 is publication; subgroup 3 is the Refugio Savala papers; and subgroup 4 is community and professional activities.

Refugio Savala's manuscripts for Autobiography of a Yaqui Poet and other Savala papers are included in the Painter Collection because he was an important Yaqui contributor to her work. Mrs. Painter encouraged Refugio to start his autobiographical journal describing Yaqui customs as they were in his lifetime.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Conditions Governing Access

None

Conditions Governing Use

The Arizona State Museum may not own copyright to all parts of this collection. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for the University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.

Controlled Access Terms

Administrative Information

Custodial History

The Painter Collection came to the Arizona State Museum at Muriel Thayer Painter's death in 1975 except for several drafts of her Yaqui manuscript, which were at the University of Arizona Press or in the Spicer residence. These drafts were given to the Archives by Mrs. Spicer in 1987.

Preferred Citation

Muriel Thayer Painter Collection. Arizona State Museum Archives.

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