Michael Munk

The Diaries of Helen Lawrence Walters

Three days after arriving in Portland on September 7, 1912, twenty-four-year-old Helen Lawrence married Carl Walters, her fellow student at the Minneapolis Art Institute, who had also just arrived in town. Although her diaries do not mention the subject, it is clear that one reason she moved west from Minneapolis was to marry Carl, who had been teaching that summer in Vancouver, B.C. For his part, Carl's only public explanation for his odyssey to Portland was that it was "where all the beautiful scenery was at hand."¹ Over the next seven years, until they left Portland for New York in June 1919, Helen would record their daily lives in her diary.²

Helen and Carl Walters became part of Portland's Bohemia, that creative community of artists, writers, and political activists who Honoré de Balzac described as "the cauldron where all new ideas would be cooked." Marie Louise Feldenheimer, a young sculptor in Portland and later a student of Carl Walters's in New York, recalled that Helen was considered "common" by Portland society, perhaps because she was "one of the first women in Portland to bob her hair and smoke publicly."³ As a progressive woman with educated, artistic sensibilities, partial to contemporary art, socialism, and local radicals, impatient with social conventions, and attentive to the city's art, theater, and music, she offers a valuable — and very personal — window on the local cultural scene in the early years of the twentieth century. Often, Helen's judgments about the talents and traits of the local "creative class" — as today's Bohemia and its patrons are called — are acerbic, but she was also a wife who put her husband's artistic career above her own.

Helen did not write every day, and we are missing her diaries from 1917–1918 — the years when the nation went to war and Carl became one of Portland's prominent painters — and substantial parts of other years. But the diaries that have survived give us a compelling, if idiosyncratic, picture of Portland's cultural life in the 1910s. Helen's observations of personalities and activities take us into Portland's "art scene," and we learn about her political interests and the Walterses' always precarious family finances. Her descriptions are drawn from succinct notes that she set down while her impressions were fresh and her emotions very much engaged.

Helen and Carl probably sat for this photograph at Carl's show at the Little Club on Salmon Street in 1917. They posed, she wrote on the back, "a la the Civil War tintypes."

Courtesy of Woodstock Artists Association Archive

For this article, the diaries have been selectively edited into topical narratives that follow a theme or episode chronologically, and an attempt has been made to group the narratives coherently rather than chronologically. Direct quotes from the diaries are printed in italics; and when the full names of the people she writes about are known, they are provided in brackets in the text or in footnotes.

The Art Scene

Helen and Carl Walters celebrated their wedding together with their painter friend Floyd Wilson^* by camping along the Columbia River, where Helen admired Mt Adams, floating above the mists — Mt Hood, silver and sparkling in the early rising sun. Clouds drifting and eddying in the crevices of the foothills. A glorious golden poplar. They first rented rooms at 517 Southwest 11th Avenue in Portland and soon moved a few blocks uptown to 529 Southwest 13th, where Helen was amused by a neighbor who sure must be a "real west" one for she said to me in the hall, "Sister, have you seen a broom. I can't rustle one nowhere."

In April 1914, the couple established a studio and home on the fourth floor of the Labbe building at Southwest 1st and Washington, which they kept until they left town.⁴ Using streetcars and interurban electrics, they explored the city by visiting The Oaks (today's Oaks Amusement Park) —Quite a lovely place, such a beautiful grove of trees— and Linton, Sellwood, and Reed College, to see the folk dances. They often took the Vancouver car to Charles C. McKim's^* place near the Columbia Slough and explored Willamette Heights, although despite its fine view over the river, Helen didn't care much for it as a place to paint.

Helen's first impression of local artists, who she first met at a December 2, 1912, meeting of the Society of Oregon Artists at George C. Christiansen's,^† was that they were a dreadful bunch of old fogies!⁵ A few months later, on April 20, however, another meeting held out hope that Carl Walters might become its president:

Exciting meeting of the Oregon artists this evening. McKim had said so many times that he would not take it [the presidency] again, that was a big surprise when he made no attempt to get out of it. Miss R went down prepared to elect Walters but the McKim element, i.e., sign painters — was too strong. Mr. Wentz seemed to feel the same way about it. Mrs. Weister^§ dropped in long enough to vote and never tried to speak to Miss R. — or us. Guess she's given up at last....

November 17, 1913: The meetings of the SOA are such jokes. Mr. McKim, as president, presides chewing gum and never letting anyone know what business there is. So at the end it is all a muddle.

But these meetings were not the main social centers of Portland's art community. That revolved around the Portland Art Museum, founded in 1895 at Southwest 5th and Taylor, and the faculty and students of its Art School, which had opened in 1909. The Art Museum sponsored many exhibits of local artists' work, and the third-floor rotunda at the new Central Library hosted shows of the soa as well as those of the Mutual Arts Association.⁶ Toward the end of 1913, the soa organized an exhibit at the library, and Helen took part in the jury deliberations in late November:

In the summer of 1915, the Walterses took a picnic dinner on the streetcar to Oaks Park. Helen considered it "quite a lovely place, such a beautiful grove of trees."

OHS neg., OrHi 084659

Jury met this afternoon and had a good time turning down some of awful things but didn't ditch enough of them.... Mr. Wentz and Miss [Mary Hortense] Webster are good at it but Miss [Jeanne] Stewart is a disgrace — luckily she didn't dare say much. The next day, Hanging committee started work today — Miss Sloane(ltore) wades in like a man. It's going took fine, better even than we had expected and the evening light is very good. The opening reception on December 1 was decidedly a success. The pictures were fine and Mr. [C.E.S.] Wood gave a splendid little talk. Mrs [Susie] Pipes and George, Mrs. [Edele] Reed, the [E.A.] Wylds, Wade Speir, Mr. and Mrs Montecillo, the Brecks were there.^* Mrs. Weister whose two frights were rejected, was quite peevish.

On its third day, Helen stayed at the library nearly all day. About 300 people up. One old man was much disgusted. "Most discouraging lot" he said, "they'll have to do better than that." Mrs Weister up — fell all over me — but she was mad to find us there.

Soon after the show closed, Helen's first contribution to Portland's public debate about art was published. It expressed her sharp reaction to a letter that appeared in the December 9, 1913, Oregonian, critical of the SOA show and deploring the excessive impressionism and lack of detail, which, with the help of the "gentle art," I am endeavoring to answer. Finished my article as best I could and rushed it over to the paper, without waiting for my enthusiasm to cool off.⁷ Helen's letter was published the next day: Letter appeared in the morning paper. Mr.C[ristiansen] and Mr. McKim most enthusiastic. Be fun to stir up a little agitation.

Evidently encouraged, on December 12, Helen sat up until 2 a.m. writing an article on the exhibition. If I had more time it would be better. Of course, all the phrases of criticism are Walter's. Once again, the paper published her submission the next day: Oregonian printed my article in full with fine big headings. Expect all who jumped at the exhibition will have it in for me. And by December 14, Mr. Wire^* was in Christiansen's bright and early this morning, quite excited because of his roast in the criticism. This is an affair Whistler would enjoy. December 15: Wentz thought needful to write letter to paper disclaiming any connection with letters: Ha ha!

Helen's participation in the soa exhibit may explain why, although she visited the PAM show earlier, she made only one reference to its famous exhibit of the Armory's Show's star cubist painting, Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2, which opened in late November and caused headlines in the Portland press.⁸ On December 5, Helen took Luwina Ainsworth down to see the [SOA] exhibition this afternoon and had a minute at the museum so she saw "The Nude" before it closed. Remembered how queer things looked to me, so I suppose they did to her.

She was not generous to the rival Mutual Arts Association, which had opened a show on May 6, 1913: Tonight the Mutual Art Exhibit opens. It's a sight. Really worse than I even expected. A year later, on May 13, 1914, she was still disparaging the MAA: Went out in the morning to see the circus going up. Miss Hunt and Miss Gittlinger, who are staying in Miss Isom's house,^† came along with Bunker and we had a great time discussing Mrs Weister and the Mutual Artists.⁹ Miss Gittlinger has the people at the beach last summer sized up about the way we have.^§

Her diaries monitor Carl's career more carefully than her own, noting on February 26, 1914, that Carl sent a picture to the "Pacific Coast" exhibit, which opens next week" and on April 4 that Carl is painting a "circus picture" 17 by 20 for that fine new frame.¹⁰ On April 13, Carl sent paintings to a juried exhibit at the Pan Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, with Helen's hopes that they would go safely thru the jury. In October, she reported: An "Exhibition Ticket" to the exhibition arrived today from Philadelphia, so the pictures must have been accepted.¹¹

Charles C. McKim was president of the Oregon Society of Artists in 1912.

OHS neg., OrHi 012586

Helen rather reluctantly accepted a commission for her own painting, which resulted in an experience so painful that she recorded none of her other projects in Portland. March 17, 1913: Woman wants a picture painted for over her mantle. Some critic she is. "Perfect trees" is her ideal. She never heard of Corot. But on seeing his reproductions said they were "far too heavy" and by no means perfect. Soon she named the patron and explained why, despite their disparate artistic sensibilities, she agreed to the proposal:

March 23: Started on Mrs Adams's picture. She selected a photograph out of Burr-McIntosh and it's all pretty awful. But if it takes us to the beach this summer, we can easily forget that part. March 31: Mrs Adams came down to see "her picture." All the part we thot awful, she thot fine. April 1: Rode out on the Oregon Electric to see a picture belonging to a friend of Mrs. Adams. A horrible affair, but she thinks fine. April 6: working all afternoon on Mrs. Adam's masterpiece. It is certainly awful enough to suit her now. Mr. McKim tries to tell her things in nature weren't "smooth" so "smooth painting" is false. She said she liked it that way, anyway.

Helen's effort to please her patron evidently failed, because Mrs. Adams was reluctant to pay for Helen's finished picture. On June 19, she got a lawyer to write our dear Mrs Adams. Wonder if that will have any effect. The issue was finally settled on July 16, when she received a letter from the lawyer, saying Mrs Adams had come thru with $40 — $10 for the lawyer and another $10 for hers. Too good for anything. She did sell an earlier painting on May 18, when Mr [Fred A.] Jacobs bought "my" picture with the white house on the hillside, painted out at Minnetonka^* a long time ago.

January 1, 1915: New Year's afternoon we had tea at Mrs. Wortman's.^† Her Monticelli has gone to San Francisco for the loan exhibit,^§ so we couldn't see that — and none of her other pictures are especially interesting — but she has some fine brass and copper kettles and candlesticks besides many reproductions and two Matisse drawings.

The Walterses had been in Portland about sixteen months when they suddenly were offered a job hanging pictures for $80 a month at the Pan Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. Helen was excited: We are flying around. Mr. Teal and Mr Adams were lovely about helping us with the money to go.¹² Louise^** came down and made me a black corduroy cap to wear on the boat. In June, Judge Carey^†† sent the Walterses forty dollars, which they used to book passage home from San Francisco on the Yosemite, ten dollars cheaper than the Beaver, which they had taken down.

Folger Johnson, Sawyers, Salvatore^§§ and Mr. Wentz came to tea in January 1916. Salvatore is so funny — so quiet and acts almost embarrassed. Sawyers and Johnsons are more interesting people to show pictures than the average because although knowing no more they are franker and more anxious to find out.

Regular events in Portland's Bohemia included costume performances and parties in which the participants dressed as famous artists. In April 1913, Helen borrowed a dress from Mrs. Christiansen as a basis for my Rembrandt costume and Carl performed as Van Gogh. They went with McKim to the C[hristiansens'] for dinner and afterwards worked on our costumes and had a rehearsal. Mr. McKim will be Hal's Laughing Cavalier. The performance came off fine. May 1: There was such a crowd. They were standing on chairs on the sidewalk.

A similar performance was presented on May 10 by the students of the Museum Art School, when artists and students acted out "living pictures." Carl was asked to do his Van Gogh act, Mrs. Harry Corbett^*** posed as "Batrice d'Vinvi," and Harry Wentz did Rembrandt's "Man With the Fur Cap."¹³ Helen met Helen McIver and her mother at the reception at the museum. Pictures went off very well and Col. Wood gave a little talk.¹⁴ But oh! The exhibit of students' work! But when McIver invited the Walterses in November, it was a very tedious way of spending the evening. The art students performed again on May 25: We went to see the pantomime play the art students at the museum put on — Bluebeard.

That fall, as Helen wrote on October 30, Carl has been asked to take part in one of the plays the Drama League is putting on, "Helen's Husband." Almost a year later, on September 17, 1915, they attended a Party at the Art Club.... Dent Mowrey^* played and it was very pleasant.

On the last day of January 1916, Mr. Wentz asked us to go to the Art School party next Saturday night, so we are trying to think up costumes. Mr. Wentz is so funny — he likes to think he is very rude when he couldn't think of being. On February 11, she wrote, it turned out to be a pretty party. Carl was a lovely Arab; Mr. Wentz looked fine. On May 26: the art students at the Museum are getting up their annual play. Dorothy Gilbert wrote it and is general manager.^† She has asked us to be in it. Helen called it "the Aztec play," for which there was a dress rehearsal tonight. Our costumes are all done. I have lovely blue head decorations. Things are going pretty well but rehearsals get awfully tedious.

Nearly all the next day was spent at the museum. Had to be there at 2:30 to make up for the performance at 3:30 and then it's so hard to get the brown grease paint off we stayed for supper. After the performance, Mr. Burkhart^§ took some pictures of the stage and dances.... Too bad he didn't get all the people on the stage. It's so much better. January 28, 1916: Party at the Little Club tonight. Mrs Metzger sang very well. Two days later, Helen was in charge of a tea for Harry Wentz at the Little Club: Tea went off very successfully although it snowed and was cold. About 20 people there. Went to the Johnsons for supper afterwards: Mr. Wentz, Mrs. Sawyer, Rex and his wife and the Mowreys. So after supper Rex, Carl and Mr. Mowrey got into a most interesting discussion of Art.

In February 1914, Helen wanted Carl to enter a painting in a competition in Minneapolis, but express charges are so high we are thinking of pulling off some kind of a joke on the museum by sending in a cubist picture under another name ... and see if they'll hang it or what. Fisher^** sent a Cezanne catalogue, also Matisse, with lots of reproductions. Fisher said he was going to send [Carl's] watercolors to the spring exhibit — didn't say when that was.

A new exhibit opened at the Portland Art Museum in March 1914, but Helen did not think it looks nearly as good as the one in the library. Class of stuff is about the same, but it isn't hung nearly as well, in my opinion.¹⁵ At about the same time, Mr Christiansen (who sent Mrs. Ravenscroft's monotypes up without any glass, quite unconcernedly) actually shut up his shop! ... he has rented a room in the Empress theater building and says he isn't going to do any more framing, except perhaps some high priced affairs, but just sell pictures — is ordering some pot-boilers from the east. Wonder how long this will last.

Helen documented the interest in and sale of her husband's work in the spring of 1914. The Circus, she wrote, is quite a success ... although Mrs Adams said "I can't see the circus that way" and "all the painters are using that blue haze so much now." Portland people must all wear smoked glasses for our robust nature has no bright colors for them. As to The Circus, well, they think it must be some of that cubist stuff. Mr. Wentz came up and took the Street Scene away with him. Carl is starting on a new circus — an interior this time — 14 × 24 long panel showing two rings with two girls riding two white horses.

Soon after the new year 1915 Judge Carey was at last persuaded to come up to the studio, and he turned out to be very intelligent on the subject of art He took the Autumn Street Scene with the big tree in it. The judge paid the money for the picture this afternoon, so we had a pleasant hour or two shopping.

Helen first walked by CES Wood's house,^* surrounded by a hedge on May Day, 1914. But it was not until September that Miss Ravenscroft took us over to see C.E.S. Wood's, to see his house and pictures. A little disappointing. House full of beautiful things, but too full, cluttered up. None of his pictures much either — lots of Hassans. Soon after, C.E.S. Wood bought a sketch of Wilson's and one of Miss Ravencroft's today. Early in 1916, Mr. Wood came in today with Kitty Beck.^† She must have liked the paintings because a few days later Beck sent Helen a red tulip for Valentines' Day and Wood bought the Oakland Shipyard for her. He took us to tea in Chinatown and bought me a pound of tea and a fine bamboo stool.

Carl and Harry Wentz shared a rooftop studio at the Worcester building in Portland, shown here in a photograph taken by Minor White.

OHS neg., OrHi 9336

Before leaving for the Pan Pacific, Helen learned that Roswell Dosch was giving up his art class at Pacific University in nearby Forest Grove and promised to recommend Carl to replace him. But he hasn't gone yet, so today we wrote a letter to see if we can't hurry it up a bit. After they return, we drove out to the Dosch's for tea. We have been envious to see the house. Roswell wrote an article on "The War and Modern Art." Poor fellow. Most bombastic style. And she caught up with the local art scene:

Miss Ravenscroft and Lewina Ainsworth came down to the studio today and they are coming again Thursday so Lewina can pose. Yesterday Miss Ravenscroft and [Floyd] Wilson painted Miss Patterson. Miss R. gets awful portraits. Last night, Mrs Burke is very interesting ... said she went through the rotunda at the library to a committee meeting and was "perfectly petrified" at the pictures. There was a long write-up in the paper. Favorite expressions: "soft," "natural colorings," "shades."

Victor Salvatore, a young sculptor from New York, is visiting Mrs. Wortman. He has an exhibition at the Museum, and they had a reception for him so we saw lots of people. On October 4, 1915, another exhibit opened this afternoon at the museum. Rex [Lampman] was to write it up for the Journal, but he was scared and got Louise to do it.¹⁶ Glad he did, he has pretty bad taste.

Oct. 27: Party at the Art Club for Mr. Salvatore. He is funny — finds it hard to make conversation. Carl and Mr. Wentz took Anne Goldthwaites'^* etchings over for the walls, and sold four. Three to Dr. [Charles] Sears and one to Mrs. Wortman. November 11: Anne Goldthwaite wants her etchings back. She sold so many and hasn't got time to print more. November 27: Carl went up to the logging camp today. Says it is too spread out and uninteresting for sketching. On December 8, Helen posed for an art class at the museum.

April 1916 was especially busy. On April 6, after appreciating Henri and Bellows at the Portland Art Museum, Helen spent the afternoon at the Little Theater. They are having a hard time getting good color for their sets, for backgrounds. Went to Miss Catlin's^† for supper. April 14: Went to call on Mrs. Wortman with Mr. Wentz. She has a set of Jerome Myers' etchings only Carl and Mr. Wentz are sure they're not etchings. Also a chalk drawing of herself. A horrid thing but she finds something in it. April 15: Isabel Percy, an artist from California, friend of Jean Wold, is here visiting Mrs. Curry gave a tea for her. April 24: Mrs Reed gave a supper for 64 people and then we all went from there to the Cotton Ball. Had quite a lot of fun because decided to dance anyway, whether I could or not. April 27: Mrs Sears^§ is most anxious we should move in at the Club. So are we but can't very well without some friends. We want to have a gay post-impressionistic tea room. Paul has a table we can have. April 28: Mrs Curry, Miss Percy and Cora Wold here for tea.^** Miss P. seemed quite keen about some of the water colors. Said Trask asked her to send four special things to the Expo — and she spent about $10 hunting them up and then they only took a extra one she sent from home. April 30: worked on the post-impressionist room all morning. In the evening went to the Wolds, like Cora best of the family, I think.

John Trullinger painted this oil portrait of Louise Bryant, the wife of his cousin Paul Trillinger, in 1913.

OHS neg., OrHi 13358

That summer, Miss Breyman^* was much disappointed with her show at the club. Light was frightfully bad. Although the day was spent mainly making candles, Helen noted that a young chap Mr. Cirie introduced Carl to, and said he was "an artist," came to the studio and after Carl had shown him several things and he said they had "nice effects," he asked if Carl had any "Venetian scenes." Walked up to the Burkhart's this evening. He has been taking pictures for the Society Movies, ones to be used for advertising. Said the Pathe man says Ford Tapley, Barbara Bartlett and Shirley Eastham are as good as professionals.¹⁷ Miss Crocker is going to send some reproductions to the Int. Studio, so Mr. Burkhart is going to take them tomorrow.

The last social event that Helen and Carl attended in Portland was the annual Museum Art School party on May 17, 1919. Never without a sharp comment, Helen described it as a very nice one, except for too many onlookers of the Curry, Failing, etc. typ. On June 4, after Mrs. Burkhart asked the Brats, "Dean" Harry, Edith [Johnson], Susie Smith,^† Ms. Crocker and Miss Knowlton and a few more for tea. Then we had dinner at the Italian restaurant and Mary Louise [Feldenheimer] took us to the train. Harry presented us with George Moore's Modern Art —pathetically inscribed. After almost seven years, the Walterses left Portland for New York for good.

POLITICS

Helen considered herself a progressive artist with a serious interest in socialism, and she related to the working class from the perspective of a cultural Bohemian.¹⁸ This political and cultural movement raised its voice in The Masses, a monthly magazine that famously represented a conflux of radical politics, art, and literature. Carl Walters and Louise Bryant were its local subscription agents, and its contributors included John Reed, C.E.S. Wood, poet Hazel Hall, and, eventually, Louise.

Helen gave the first hint of her political interests in her diary when she wrote that she attended a lecture by Joseph Ettorin^* in March 1913: A fine talk he gave, Has a fine voice, full of quality. Helen often commented on lectures at Portland theaters on a variety of subjects — travel, history, literature, and philosophy — but she seemed to have been most interested in politics. On May 16, at the Pantages, for example, she was impressed by a man who was in San Quentin 16 years depicting the horrors of prison life. So much good could be done through the medium of the stage if they only would. On September 4, 1915: We went this evening to hear Jim Larkin^†— he has a very wonderful personality. Strong and vigorous, with a powerful face.

Helen probably considered herself a "free thinker" and was critical of organized religion. She was shocked when a visitor asked me what church we belonged to! In December 1913, she heard an interesting lecture by Dr. Chapman on the infidels, "The Evolution of Free Thought."¹⁹ But the next month, she complained that Chapman was getting sentimental over Jesus. That's the only part I don't care about. Helen had a similar problem with their friend, artist Floyd Wilson, who — evidently from reading Tolstoi —has turned from one who hated to hear the name of Jesus mentioned ... to a defender of Christianity. But she enjoyed the Sunday night series at the Industrial Socialist League Hall, where Fitzgerald is not affected in the same way. In early May 1914, Chapman evidently redeemed himself: Heard fine talks on the foolishness of war by Dr. Chapman and Col. Wood.

On December 21, 1913, as Robert Tyler describes it, "forty disheveled Wobblies marched into the Meves restaurant at Sixth and Washington and demanded food," telling the skeptical manager "Mayor Albee will pay for it." Twenty policemen ejected them from the restaurant as a crowd of 500 spectators gathered.... "²⁰ Similar "eat ins" — called "restaurant rushing" — occurred at other restaurants over the Christmas holidays. To show her support for the arrested Wobblies, Helen went down to see the farce at the Municipal Court this A.M. Three men were given 15 days [on the Rocky Butte rockpile] for getting a free meal at a restaurant. On Dr. Equi's^* protesting, the judge gave her five days for contempt. Later she was let off for apologizing — the paper said. Don't believe it.

In addition to parties and dinners, lectures, the theater, and concerts provided the venues for Portland's Bohemian social intercourse. Helen's first recorded social encounter with the center of that world, C.E.S. Wood, occurred a few days after that lecture when Col. Wood, Judge Burke and Mrs. Burke were at Cantrell's lecture, and Col. Wood asked us to go down to the Hofbrau [restaurant] afterwards and have some beer.

Wood may have introduced Carl and Helen Walters to John Reed at Emma Goldman's lecture at the Central Library on July 21, 1914, where her topic was "Intellectual Proletarians."²¹ A year later, on August 10, 1915, Helen noted that Emma lectured tonight on "The Shame of Culture," and she was there for Goldman's trial for advocating birth control on August 13: Emma's trial came off this morning.... Case was dismissed — Judge [William M.] Gatens tried it — and it was very amusing, especially Mrs. De Vore Johnson, the complainant and the prosecuting attorney.

Helen also attended another lecture on birth control that resulted in a scandalous local trial. On June 19, 1916, Margaret Sanger spoke tonight at the Helig. Had a pretty good house. Just as the audience was going out three men who were selling Family Limitation were arrested. Mr. Anderson and Dr. Equi then jumped up on a table and gave a lot away.

Her only reference to electoral politics corresponded to her first opportunity, when she was twenty-five, to vote. After four failed attempts since 1902 to achieve the vote for Oregon women, the measure finally passed in 1912. The first election where women could exercise their new right was the 1913 municipal election, and on May 24 Helen attended a political rally. This evening spent listening to boosters for Mayor Rushlight.^† Some humorous. On June 2, election day, she recorded only one, but very significant, word: Voted.

This view of downtown Portland in about 1918 looks over the downtown toward the Willamette River and the city's east side.

OHS neg., CN 020150

In the summer of 1915, Helen Walters and Louise Bryant began making visits to the women's jail.

August 11: Louise and I went to the jail. The matrons are a sickening lot. They are very interested in getting the girls to do all sorts of embroidery for them. December 1: Rev. Howard asked Louise to take a woman to jail this afternoon. Said she was a widow from the East who had had a great sorrow and wanted to forget it. She looked more as though she belonged in the jail and not very sorrowful. December 4: Went to the jail with Louise in the P.M. Mrs. Jacobs there and wanted a "silence." We didn't look inspired and she landed on us. The girls must have enjoyed it. December 14: Louise and I went up to the jail today and the girls were so pleased to see us — said "Are those other women coming? I hope not!" March 24, 1916: Had dinner at Mrs Reed's and later we went down to the Seamens' Institute. Mr. [Rev.] Howard came in and I asked him who was going now to the jail, and he said no one since that unfortunate occurrence between Mrs T[rullinger] and Mrs. Jacobs.

After Louise ran away to New York with John Reed at the end of 1915, Helen's next meeting with her took place almost four years later, on March 31, 1919: Louise [Bryant] came today^*— she seems exactly the same as ever. I can't see a particle of change, except that she has had all kinds of adventures and experiences. She had to submit her speech to the City Council, which is hard as she isn't used to speaking that way.

Helen frequently made judgments on the political sophistication — or lack of it — among her friends and acquaintances. During her first summer at Nehalem in 1913, she met Mary Frances Isom, who is very anxious to discuss socialism with the boys. She is quite the nicest yet. Helen condescendingly observed that their friend, musician Dent Mowrey, is quite bright and understands the German approach but doesn't grasp the labor question. Mrs. Reed has quite radical tendencies — we were surprised. Got into quite a discussion around the fire. Miss Catlin doesn't seem to have as good a knowledge of things as Miss Isom, but the two men, Mr R[eed]^* and a Mr. Weston were quite the most ignorant and intolerant. On another occasion at the Reeds', Helen didn't think so well of Miss Best. She believes in shooting the Japs and hates Alex. Berkman. Even the feminist Clara Wold did not escape Helen's critical observations. She was here most all afternoon telling us that society people in Portland are stupid, but in other places they have some brains. If anyone needs to get away from here, she does — badly!

Helen missed the news. From Yachats, where the Walterses spent much of the summer of 1916, Helen celebrated when Paul sent a Sunday Journal from Newport. First paper we have seen for a month. Rail Road strike is called off. Congress voted for the 8-hour day.

FINANCES

The simple lack of money was a constant concern for Helen. On June 16, 1913, she wrote: Mr. Christiansen has the colossal nerve. After W[alter] made the frame for the sketch out of Wilson's molding, he is mad because we wanted to keep the money — after he had been giving out 50 cents a day. In fact he is mad because the sketch was sold at all. Is he crazy? June 18: Mr. C. apologized, but he didn't hand out any money, which is more important. Wonder how he thinks we can eat and pay rent, gas and laundry. June 27: Mr C doesn't make the slightest effort to get us any money. Perfectly willing to have kinds of work done for him but highly insulted if he is asked for any pay.

By September 22, Helen worried: Funds are decidedly at a standstill. With Christiansen both unwilling and unable to give any aid. Found a vegetarian restaurant where we can get a feed for 15 cents. Baked sweet potato, milk, egg sandwich, salad etc all 5 cents a piece. And in October: We hope someone will buy one of [Carl's] pictures. That would help out some of the dreadful expense. Mr. Wood said he would speak to people. Evidently, they had no running water in their rooms. When printing her photographs later that year, Helen had to go over to Wilson's, with his running water it is just the place.

In January 1914, Helen wrote: Times are hard with us, at the beginning of the year, but so they were at this time. Mrs. Clark says not to worry about the rent. She certainly is exceptional in her position for good heartedness. Worst is that Walters made dicker with Mr. Labbe^* to trade room rent for pictures and we have the room picked out but we can't raise the money to furnish it and move. I have answered several ads but nothing turns out. C. has been all over and there is nothing. So much good time lost.

By February, she noted a slight lightening of the economic pressure by getting two posters and three cards to do for the Carlton Hotel — payment in meals. Of course we could have made the money go farther. In March, she celebrated a fine new boarding place — three good meals, $10 a week to be paid in pictures and lessons to a crippled girl. There was also good news: After a long struggle with [Joseph] Shumansky, the Eastern Outfitting man, Carl finally dragged a suit out of him in exchange for two horrible water-colors that he shined up the other day for that purpose. They were terrors, but no suit was forthcoming from anything at all good. And the suit was very necessary.

Finally, on April 12, 1914, we are moved to the Labbe building. After painting, lighting and other work, it will look pretty good. Saturday the landlady and Miss Fay and sisters and brothers came down to pick out a picture. Our meal ticket runs out Tuesday so we'll have to hunt another. C[arl] persuaded [J.K.] Gill to let him have some paint and things. April 27: Mr. G said, "If you can pay for it, all right, but if you can't I'll see about taking a picture." "Fraid we won't be able to pay for it."

In May, they found a new place to eat. It isn't as classy as the Gladstone but the food is good and the landlady believes in helping people out.^† C. found a milliner who is crazy to have a decorative panel painted, so I rushed up and picked out a Panama hat, $8 one, and tomorrow I can get it. Call that luck. She is going to try to get a Panama for C. too, and then there will be plenty left from the $50 for a winter hat next fall. Almost too good to be true. This has been a lucky week.

That July, Portland experienced a heat wave, and Carl's training in metal and electrical work came in handy: Carl made an electric fan out an aluminum pie plate and our massage. It works! I don't know what we should have done without it. And the art-for-food barter continued: The Rosebud Lady came up and took a watercolor for $15 worth of meals. That fall, Mrs. Moltzner^* came in this morning and took two pictures for a month's meals.

Returning from a visit to the Lake Oswego area, Helen was careful to note: we walked back to the five cent limit, and then took the ferry across and came back on the Oregon City car. Another art-for-food barter expired on November 1: Last meal at Dorothy Dainty's. A few days before Christmas, the Walterses went shopping down on Fourth street to the Japanese and Chinese stores there and found some lovely small grey bowls for 5 cents a piece and a glazed blue bowl for my narcissus.

January 12, 1916: Carl wants to paint now but is downhearted because no money in sight. Two days later, Mr Fleischner^† came up and bought a picture. He really didn't want it, just a little charity. However, he took the first snow scene Carl had painted, which Carl didn't think anything about and he took the frame for $8. Two months later, Mr. Fleischner brought his daughter in the morning to choose a picture in place of the one he got some time ago. She liked the first circus one best, so he gave Carl $25 more for it. Carl gave Mr. Fleischner the little sketch he did of Chinatown a short time ago and his daughter made an appointment for tomorrow morning. She has a friend who has $15 to spend on a picture.²²

That winter was a cold one. Helen wrote: Mr. Wentz and Carl went out to the Columbia Slough sketching. First melting day we have had, fine and sunny. Perhaps cold is over. Hope so, takes so much coal — used a sack every three days while it was cold. Shanna Cumming said she would come over with Leslie Smith this afternoon, but they didn't come.^§ Colder again and more snow. We burn so much coal when it is cold! In February, Broke again — familiar days. Carl got $5 more in paint from Mr. Gill. Mr. G. said "I hate to do this," and Carl said "I don't blame you." Carl is getting quite desperate — can't seem to raise any money and he has run ins against fools. I telephoned Mrs. [Frances] Burke, at last, as she has spoken of buying something several times, and she said she would come down and sent $5.

March 15, 1916: The reception and musical with the Bleward [?]^**mural comes off. Dent Mowrey played. They intended to have Mr. Wheelwright^†† make a speech about the paintings to arouse interest for the auction, but forgot it. Carl's brought $20 (from Judge Carey), Mr. Wentz $25. Judge Carey got up and made a speech and said he got it for a song. April 13: Quite broke again. Carl says, back to normal condition. He is painting a new Chinatown, 11 1/2 × 13 1/2, much richer color than the other one. A few weeks later: Mr. Teal^* came up today and rescued us from this spell — which occurs so regularly but is just as depressing each time. Teal is the best-hearted old duck in town. We are really and truly going to move to the Club tomorrow, so tonight was the last dinner at the studio. The next day, May 10, 1916, Got a good gas stove from Joost for $4. Oven wasn't in working order for dinner tonight, but it is a job to be able to boil potatoes without their becoming watersoaked and to cook more than one thing at a time.

That summer, June 5, 1916: Mrs Johnson, her aunt Miss Humanson, a guest, Miss Boyman from Cal. And Mr. Cluweehill came down to the studio.... Mrs Johnson has a bet with Folger that she can sell Mr. C a picture but I don't know. Miss Breyman is going to have an exhibition here Sunday. She came in and ordered two frames from Carl, so that relieves our periodic and episodic bustedness a little in the way of food. But am beginning to doubt there ever will be any shoes and stockings and summer clothes. Irene Failing came today and bought the Three Poplar Trees for her fiancé's birthday.²³ Wish all the prospective brides would do that. Miss Crocker is going to send some reproductions to the Int. Studio, so Mrs. [Mabel] Burkhart is going to take them tomorrow. The Fentons^† will take care of the kitty. Carl got the Wheelwrights to come look at his pictures. But Mr. W. didn't have any money and pictures were a luxury. While the Associated Charities had so many starving people he wasn't going to do anything else. These people are so stupid. Mr. W. said he didn't know the difference between oil and watercolor, and Mrs. W. said "Oh don't you? Well I do." But she kept asking if all sorts of unmistakable ones were oils. Carl said he called on Mr. Goode and the old man said no "I don't want to discourage you, but I don't like any your pictures!" Ha Ha. Mr. Wheelwright finally did take the Chinatown so now I guess we can plan to go away someplace.

In the summer of 1916, Carl discovered a method of making "Venetian Candles," and Helen carefully noted that he sold some to a decorator, Mrs. Stuart, and others to Mrs. Biddle and Mrs. Curry. Mrs. [Florence] Knowlton, of the Arts and Crafts Society, thinks she can sell a lot — especially at Christmas time. On May 22, 1919: Delivered 44 pairs of candles to Meier & Frank, 24 to Babcock and 37 to Mrs. Knowlton. Got Northwest Steel check ($165).

Early in 1919, Helen began promoting Carl's well-known World War I shipyard lithographs. After a dinner at Mrs. Wortman's, when she talks as if they might buy a lithograph. We brought them over (Feb. 5) and it would make a fine wall over the cases. Sold litho to Pacific Ports Mrs Lawrence says Carl's shipyard lithos are better than Pennel's.^* In March, Carl hears he has won a prize for black and white for The Riggers in Seattle. $25. Mr. Deveraux bought two lithos in April and Lincoln High School is considering buying a set of 10 lithos.²⁴ Part of the committee came this afternoon to see them. By May Mrs Wortman thinks Lincoln HS will finally buy the set even if it does take them a long time. Mrs. Wortman was right. But it was September 30 in New York when she wrote one of the last entries in these diaries: Rest of Lincoln HS money arrived, put it in for rent. We sold the first candles.

In their final months in Portland, Helen wrote:

March 3, 1919: Found an old brass coffee mill down on Front St for 50 cents. It looks about 100 years old and is very primitive but interesting. May Day: Spring! Helped Carl finish up his picture of the Italian restaurant — it doesn't look so bad for a pot-boiler. Madam and the chef want it so much it's a shame not to get the meals. Madam and her husband came to see the picture. Like it fine, except that Madam wasn't quite pleased with herself — not dressed up enough. They were great fun. May 3: Began to eat up the picture. Lunch and dinner there will cut down our expenses considerably for the rest of our time in Portland. May 21: Took the Springs and Larry Barnes (just back) to dinner. We still had the luxury to eat up the picture.

The Walterses ran into difficulties when selling Carl's paintings. In October 1915: Mr. Teal came up, bringing a friend from Seattle, a Mr. Pierce, who bought a picture for $15. Mr. Teal asked the price of "Chinatown," misunderstood, and thot Carl said $50, and so was quite angry and thot he was doing I don't know what. Dreadfully sorry to have any mistakes occur. November 11, 1915: A dealer from N.Y. saw the picture "The Willows" at the Museum and wants to buy it for $50. Awfully cheap but might lead to something else. The next day: The N.Y. man, Mr. Holly, telegraphed us $50 for the picture and wants us to send it to an address in Brooklyn. Seems queer, but Helen sent it the same day: hate to see it go.

But then Mr. Holly telegraphed that we sent the wrong picture. Turns out he was the horrible creature Mrs. King brought up here. He really wanted "The Houseboats," but didn't remember what it looked like at all and alluded to it as "three trees" and said it was to the left of Mr. Wentz's at the museum so of course everyone immediately thot he meant the one with the willows.²⁵ Would not have sold it so cheap to that freak and certainly won't let him have "Houseboats" for $50. He can't get back the money as it is mostly gone. George Pipes [lawyer] says not to receive the picture if he sends it back. Another letter from Mr. Holly. Says he is a cold hard businessman and wants his money or the other picture. Mr. Holly wants his money back but fear he can not get it. January 8, 1916: Mr. Holly from New York is here. Thought he was going to buy the "Houseboats" but Carl was determined he wasn't. He stayed two hours. They were so polite to each other but nothing came of it. At the last he said Carl ought to split the difference with him and make it $75. Carl didn't pay any attention to him. He wants it pretty badly, that's easy to see. He must think we know nothing about prices on pictures. He is a perfect ignoramus — doesn't even know names of the French impressionists or anything about these American painters except Fisher and Christy: He was most complimentary, said Carl's things were all fine. If we really thought he would think something is the matter with them but he wasn't so impressed. Now, all his words were directed toward getting the "Houseboats" for $50.

Helen Walters's diaries entertain with her sharply personal sketches of Portland's cultural personalities, but she also conveys a sense of the quality and pace of the couple's daily social life — a life that emphasized the gulf that existed between the artists and their local patrons, and the wider community. The times that inspired Helen's outlook included a challenge to the art world from the social reality-based Ashcan School, which reflected the more militant and radical political movements with which the Walterses were associated. In a sense, Helen's diaries provide a portrait of Portland's own encounter with the controversies that engaged the nation's cultural attention in the years before World War I.

Notes

^* Floyd Wilson (1887–1974) was on his way to Pendleton, where he painted for several months. He studied in Minneapolis and New York and settled in Portland with the Walterses. After marrying Dorothy Gilbert, he went on to New York with them.

^* Charles C. McKim (1872–1939) was "Oregon's quintessential impressionist" painter. See Allen and Klevit, Oregon Painters, 232.

^† George C. Christiansen was the proprietor of The Art Company, Pictures and Frames, located in the Masonic Temple and later on Stark Street.

^§ Miss R was Ellen Ravenscroft (1885–1949), a painter and art teacher at St. Helens Hall from 1911 to 1914. She moved to New York in 1917. Mr. Wentz was Harry Wentz (1875–1965), a prominent artist and first teacher at the Portland Art Museum art school. He was a close friend of Carl Walters and in 1918 shared a studio with him on the roof of the Worcester Building. Mrs. Weister was Alice Aubrey Weister (1862–1936), a photographer who also taught art at Portland University until 1900.

^* George Pipes was a lawyer and brother of the architect Richard. E.A. Wyld was president of the First Security Bank. French teacher Edele Reed tried to teach French to this author, circa 1948. Evangeline Breck was the French teacher at St. Helens Hall. Her father, the Rev W.A.M. Breck, was the school's chaplain.

^* Rev. Melville T. Wire (1877–1966) was a Methodist pastor was a well-known artist in Oregon.

^† Louise Hunt was an assistant to head Central Librarian Mary Isom.

^§ Helen's reference to the beach is to the summer of 1913, when she and Carl lived in tents at Nehalem and Floyd Wilson had a job at Mrs. Weister's boarding house.

^* This painting is probably Helen's White House in Sunlight at Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota.

^† Helen Wortman was the wife of Harry of the Olds, Wortman and King Department Store.

^§ The San Francisco exhibit was the Panama-Pacific Exhibition.

^** Louise Bryant, Helen's closest friend in Portland, later married John Reed.

^†† The Judge was Charles Carey, for whom the annual Carey Prize of the Art School is named.

^§§ Folger Johnson was an architect. The Sawyers were Harold, a lawyer, and his wife, Eleanor. Hector Salvatore was a young sculptor visiting from New York.

^*** Helen Ladd Corbett was the widow of Henry J., who had died at the age of thirty-five.

^* Dent Mowrey was a music teacher in Portland.

^† Gilbert was an art student at the time. She later married Floyd Wilson.

^§ John Burkhart was a photographer.

^** Fisher was evidently a New York dealer.

^* Wood's house was where the Portland Garden Club is today on Southwest Vista, just north of the Vista Bridge.

^† Well educated and from a wealthy background, Kathryn Seaman Beck was Wood's legal secretary and mistress. She organized support for the Wobblies in Portland and later lived with IWW attorney George Vanderveer. She committed suicide in their home near Seattle in 1924.

^* Ann Goldthwaite was a New York artist who was visiting in connection with her show at PAM.

^† Ruth Catlin was the politically radical founder of Miss Catlin's School for girls, now Catlin Gable School.

^§ Mrs. Sears was the wife of Dr. Charles Sears.

^** Cora Wold was a teacher at Washington High School and Clara Wold's sister. She would later be a suffrage leader in the East.

^* Edna Brayman (1881–1918) was in the first class at the Museum Art School and showed in the Oregon room of the Pan-Pacific exhibition. She died of peritonitis at the age of thirty-seven.

^† Susie Smith was a music critic of the Oregon Journal.

^* Joseph Ettorin March (1885–1948) was a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World's Portland lumber mill strike of 1907.

^† Jim Larkin (1885–1948) visited the U.S. in 1914–1915 to speak against the war and raise money for the Irish Citizens Army.

^* Dr. Marie Equi (1868–1950) was a physician and a well-known Portland activist who, despite a defense by C.E.S. Wood, was sentenced to two years in San Quentin for opposing U.S. entry into World War I.

^† Allan G. Rushlight, an eastside plumbing contractor and Republican city councilman, was mayor from 1911–1913. He was defeated for re-election by H.Russell Albee.

^* Louise was on a speaking tour against U.S. intervention in the Russian Civil War that drew 4,000 at the new Civic Auditorium.

^* George Reed was an engineer for the Portland schools.

^* Henri C. Labbe was a lawyer, French consul, and owner of the Labbe Block between 1st and 2nd and Washington.

^† The mother of food guru James Beard owned and named the Gladstone hotel in the late 1890s.

^* Harriet Moltzner was proprietor of a restaurant at 204 1/2 Northwest Broadway.

^† Issac Fleishner and his brother, Marcus, were dry-goods merchants.

^§ Shanna Cunning was an artist and daughter of W.A. Cunning, a dentist. Leslie Smith was sister of Alta Smith, who later married Elliot Corbett. Leslie later became Leslie Miller of Gearhart.

^** This may be Wade H. Blewins ( –1943); see Allen and Klevit, Oregon Painters, 119.

^†† William D. Wheelwright was a lawyer.

^* Joseph N. Teal was a lawyer.

^† The Fentons were Horace, M.D., and Lela Goddard.

^* Joseph Pennel was appointed artist for the Philadelphia shipyards.

^1. See Michael Munk, "The 'Portland Period' of Artist Carl Walters," Oregon Historical Quarterly 101:2 (Summer 2000): 134–61; and William I. Homer, "Carl Walters, Ceramic Sculptor," Art in America (Fall 1956): 42–65.

^2. The original diaries are held in the Carl Walters Papers (Reel #2007) at the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. For more information on most of the artists noted here, see Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit, Oregon Painters: The First Hundred Years (1859–1959) (Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1999). The author is grateful and indebted to Jim Kopp, director, and Doug Erickson, head of Special Collections, of the Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College for their invaluable assistance in accessing the diaries from microfilm.

^3. Quoted by Arthur Spencer, interview July 12, 1996. Also see Feldenheimer's interview by Julia Ruuttila Godman, May 11, 1970. MSS 250–2. Research Library, Oregon Historical Society, Portland.

^4. They passed the apartment on to Harry R. Burke, an editor at the Telegram and the Oregon Journal whose wife Frances was a pianist and allegedly a mistress of C.E.S. Wood. Burke was later music critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

^5. According to Allen and Klevit, Oregon Painters, 72, the Society of Oregon Artists existed only briefly in 1912–1913. Officers were Charles C. McKim, George C. Christiansen, and Harry Wentz. Although the SOA is said to have disbanded by 1913, at the end of 1915 (December 4) Helen writes that Mr. [Harry] Wentz said Mr. McKim came and asked him to be on the jury for the Oregon Society of Artists [founded in 1926], then later he said there wouldn't be any jury because there were not any pictures.

^6. The Mutual Arts Association existed in 1914–1915 and included Eliza Barchus, Aimee Gorham, Clyde Keller, Alice Weister, Melville Wire, and other "foremost" Portland artists. It held shows at the Public Library. See Allen and Klevit, Oregon Painters, 66.

^7. The letter, signed by "An Admirer of Art," complained that "the impressionist school seems to have taken too strong a hold on the work in general to allow the talent of many of the painters exhibiting there to show to the best advantage." More specifically, the writer charges that impressionists tend to "weaken their work by the excessive use of color and quantity of paint" and that, "when their pictures are viewed from more than 20 feet away, it is difficult to discern their subjects." Oregonian, December 9, 1913.

^8. See Prudence Roberts, Pioneering Modernism: Anna B. Crocker and Early Exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum, brochure, Portland Art Museum, c. 2002.

^9. Louise Hunt was forced to resign under pressure, despite Isom's defense, for refusing to buy World War I bonds. See Annette Bartholomae, "A Conscientious Objector: Oregon, 1918," Oregon Historical Quarterly 71:3 (September 1970): 213–45.

^10. The painting, The Wharfs, was accepted by Portland Art Museum curator Anna Belle Crocker for its first annual "Artists of the Pacific Northwest" exhibit in March.

^11. Only Harry Wentz and Floyd Wilson made it into the official international exhibit at the Pan Pacific. Carl Walters's paintings were shown in the Oregon Building's Art Room. See Robert Lundberg, "The Art Room in the Oregon Building: Oregon Arts and Crafts in 1915," Oregon Historical Quarterly 101:2 (Summer 2000): 214–27. His Wharf Scene was included in the American Federation of the Arts exhibit in Philadelphia and later traveled to New York and Washington, D.C.

^12. Joseph N. Teal was one of the group organized to purchase a Hassan for the Portland Art Museum. Mrs. Teal lent his Boats and Mrs. C.E.S. Wood lent Snowy Roofs. PAM has not shown any of Walters's painting since its 1924 loan exhibit, but four lithographs were shown earlier this year.

^13. After her husband died, Helen Corbett is believed to have taken up with C.E.S. Wood. See Robert Hamburger, Two Rooms: The Life of Charles Erskine Scott Wood (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), 115, 198.

^14. Wood spoke on "The Right Conception of Art." Oregonian, May 11, 1913.

^15. The museum included four Walters oils in the annual "Exhibit of Artists of the Portland Vicinity."

^16. Louise Bryant Trullinger's substitute review for the "scared" Rex Lampman appeared on October 9. She wrote that Walters's Houseboats "portrays them in a way that should bring joy to anyone's heart."

^17. Many years later, Barbara Bartlett Hartwell wrote a reminiscence of Portland society, The Wood Household. Copy courtesy of Marion Wood Kolisch.

^18. One of Louise Bryant's biographers asserts that Louise considered the Carl and Helen Walters to be politically naïve and "of the most idealistic sort." See Mary Dearborn, Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996), 143.

^19. C.H. Chapman's lectures were at the YMCA and the Central Library.

^20. C.F. Howard, a Wobbly, was the leader of the first "eat in." For an account of the "eat ins," see Robert L. Tyler, Rebels of the Woods: The IWW in the Pacific Northwest (Eugene: University of Oregon Books, 1967), 50–51.

^21. See Michael Munk, The Portland Years of John Reed and Louise Bryant, 3d ed. (Portland: Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, 2003).

^22. These are probably paintings still in the possession of Mr. Fleischner's granddaughter, Elizabeth Cohen, of Portland. See her letter, Oregon Historical Quarterly 102:1 (Spring 2001): 119.

^23. According to Elizabeth Brewster Rochia, the painting of three poplar trees was purchased directly from the artist by her father. See Munk, "The 'Portland Period' of Artist Carl Walters," 139.

^24. These may be part of the collection donated to the Oregon Historical Society in 1985 by its late curator, Robert Stark.

^25.Houseboats was Carl's painting of the Oregon Yacht Club that the Oregon Journal (August 16, 1914) used to illustrate John Reed's article about the artist. Reed described it as "a bit of the upper river in the sun, with a little colony of houseboats resting on it, with a background of a yellow hill and bright sky. It glows, this picture, with its own light — like a jewel."

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