Emy Digrappa (00:00):

Hello, my name is Emy Digrappa. Each week we bring you stories asking our guests the question why? We learn about passion, purpose and the human experience brought to you by Wyoming Humanities with the generous support of the Wyoming Community Foundation, this is What's Your Why. Today we are talking to Morgan Jaouen, she is the executive director of the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum. Welcome Morgan.

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (00:40):

Hi, Emy thanks for having me.

Emy Digrappa (00:42):

Well, of course I've been wanting to talk to you for a long time so I'm glad I finally got connected with you, and really excited about the Spark grant that the Wyoming Humanities gave to the Jackson Hole Historical Society Museum called Mountains to Manuscripts: Women's Writing in Wyoming From 1900-1950 Virtual Exhibit. I love that it became a virtual exhibit and first I want you just to talk about how this became a reality? What was your idea?

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (01:12):

Yep. Yeah, definitely. The idea obviously started as a physical exhibit and it has been installed in the museum, but Mountains to Manuscripts really first kind of came to be because we at the Historical Society and Museum, our staff were brainstorming how do we honor and celebrate and educate people around some really important historical anniversaries, and those anniversaries are obviously the women's suffrage in Wyoming that passed in 1869. So, this incredible [inaudible 00:01:48] just a little territory before Wyoming was even a state to pass women's suffrage, and recognize women's inherent right to vote.

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (01:57):

So that was a big kind of historic moment that in 2019 it was 150 years after the fact. So this really great part of women's history and related to Wyoming into how we got our name as the equality state, and then a few other anniversaries in 2020 that also really tie into this theme are women's suffrage in 1920 and August 1920 that was passed for the entire country. Then also locally here in Jackson, in May 1920 Jackson, Wyoming elected and all women's Town Council. So it just seemed like the time was really right to focus on women's history, and there were a lot of ideas that got bounced around and one way would just be to focus on these specific events, but we wanted to be a little more creative because those stories do get told in 10 different avenues and in different ways, and we wanted to kind of find a unique way to look at women throughout history, and we just thought it was really interesting to hear... to look at women authors.

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (03:04):

As the Historical Society we have an archive of historical documents and photographs, the primary sources that really bring history to life. We're always trying to figure out how do we do that in an exhibit, and so what better way to think about history than from the actual words of these women who were writing 100 years ago and we're lucky enough to be published. So it's kind of tangential obviously to the very specific anniversaries but still related, and that's kind of what we wanted to do to bring something new to the table and just as an opportunity to expand on this topic, and educate people about additional things and women's history and women's rights. So that's kind of how the idea came to be and then we slowly assembled a team, and we were... the anniversaries obviously spurred this on but also we... over the last couple of years at the museum we have dedicated a portion of our museum gallery to rotating exhibits, and we've kind of labeled this part of the exhibit gallery as our history cooperative corner.

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (04:10):

So when it started we committed to okay this corner is for us to bring in fresh new topics, but also to work with partners to co-curate and create new exhibits with us. So that it's not just we as the Historical Society Museum deciding who and how to tell history, but actually looking to people in our community to say what's important to them and how should we tell this story? So all of these things came together, we had this space, we had these moments, these anniversaries we wanted to celebrate and we landed on this Mountains to Manuscripts idea, and then really assembled the team and looked to the community for partners and it was really organic as Christy Smirl has been involved with the Historical Society in the past.

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (04:58):

She sits on our board and is very involved with the community and obviously has a passion and interest in skill set in literature and books and history, and so she was just a natural fit to bring in as kind of a lead curator. Then as the idea formed more and trying to understand how to make this into a really interesting multimedia exhibit, that's where Katy Ann and then Jenna Mahaffie got pulled in as well.

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (05:28):

So we spent... it's a quick turnaround for us when we're rotating exhibits, because we're open in the summer and winter and kind of take the off season to put together the exhibit. So in a couple of months we hit this topic hard and did a lot of work and it all came together, and so it was installed in December 2019 and we had a really great opening reception and a lot of interest from our local community which was really great. Then unfortunately COVID and the pandemic hit the world and hit Wyoming and hit Jackson Hall and so the museum closed earlier than we thought for the winter season, and that just... Based on all of the positive feedback we had been hearing about the exhibit, and now knowing that it was being cut short we just kind of acted quickly to say, "Man, how do we make this live on forever and give people an opportunity beyond just the last couple of months to see this information." And so we're so grateful to Wyoming Humanities for making that possible for us to turn this into a really cool online exhibit that will be up probably for an indefinite time as of right now which is really exciting.

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (06:43):

I think that's really important too because I think history... when we think about important anniversaries and these milestones from history, it's really easy to just think okay we're celebrating this year but these stories of women's rights and women's histories, and women's voices throughout time are important for everyone to know every year. So we're really happy to be able to keep this going and have it as a topic for people to study and learn from beyond just 2020.

Emy Digrappa (07:18):

Morgan-

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (07:19):

I think I long [windedly 00:07:20] answered your question.

Emy Digrappa (07:22):

No, you're very thorough actually but when does it open? When is it going to be online?

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (07:29):

We are finishing the final touches and one fun thing that's come together in the last couple of weeks is we're actually... we were adding some audio to the online exhibit because right now the physical experience relies really heavily on displaying quotes and paintings, and it's this visual experience and it is a little hard to translate that into a small screen that people will be looking at either on their computer or their phone. So we realized a couple of weeks we decided to actually find some local women to read some of the quotes that are in the exhibit, and some of the passages from the books that are highlighted in the exhibit so that we can include that audio as you scroll through the online exhibit. So that's delayed it a little bit but I think we are hoping to have it launched the first... either next week kind of the first or second week of July.

Emy Digrappa (08:29):

Oh, okay. Okay, well I'll look out for that and-

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (08:33):

I'll let you know so-

Emy Digrappa (08:34):

Yeah, I know you'll send me a reminder but anyway Morgan it has been so great talking to you, thank you so much for your time.

Morgan Albertson Jaouen (08:42):

Thanks Emy.

Emy Digrappa (08:54):

Today, we're talking to Christy Smirl, she is a private librarian and rare book seller. She owns Foxtail Books and Library Services. In collaboration with Jackson Hole Historical Society Museum she is curating a special exhibit titled Mountains to Manuscripts: Women's Writing in Wyoming. Welcome Christy.

Christy Smirl (09:16):

Thank you Emy, it's good to be here.

Emy Digrappa (09:18):

What is a private librarian?

Christy Smirl (09:21):

That is a great question. Not very many people have heard of my job, not very many of us in the country. A private librarian is a librarian that helps people with books in their home in a lot of different ways. So the same way that a librarian at a public library or school library or university helps gather and curate books and information, and also help people find things and sometimes takes care of books and archives I do that for people's private collections in their homes around the country. So sometimes I build collections, sometimes I help people organize their books, sometimes I help people upgrade their books or get rid of them. It's really all over the place.

Emy Digrappa (10:05):

Well, it is like a rare kind of a job and it says that you first worked in a public library and then you pursued the world of private libraries, collectors and rare and antiquarian books. I didn't know that that was... I guess it's like collecting art, right?

Christy Smirl (10:24):

Yes, it's very much like collecting art or antiques. It's also... some people collect books because they're rare or historically important, and some people collect books because they're just avid readers and like so many of us they've amassed a collection of hundreds of novels throughout their lives.

Emy Digrappa (10:43):

How did this become your passion?

Christy Smirl (10:46):

I became a librarian for... I became a public library after going to graduate school for library science and knowing that I liked helping people solve problems, I liked organizing information, I liked helping people with research and teaching them but also working on projects myself. For many years I worked in public libraries and in Colorado and then in Jackson Hole at Teton County Library, and eventually I decided that I wanted to work for myself and I knew that there were people who had too many books more than they knew what to do with, or who wanted help building collections for a home or help taking care of very old and special books and I really love history, I really love design and those were things that I wasn't... skill set I wasn't using as much in my public library work, so I decided to make my own job and that's how Foxtail Books & Library Services started.

Emy Digrappa (11:48):

How do people find out about you?

Christy Smirl (11:50):

Usually word of mouth and the internet. I have clients in New York City and in LA and sort of everywhere in between. There aren't that many people who need the service, but they're out there and they track me down when they have a problem to be solved.

Emy Digrappa (12:08):

I think that is so interesting and just because-

Christy Smirl (12:11):

I think yeah.

Emy Digrappa (12:12):

It is a rare kind of job and you've built your own career, and did you grow up loving a book? Loving to read?

Christy Smirl (12:22):

Oh, yes. I grew up... My mom took us to the public library all the time and we would always come home with an armload of books, and that was the first place that I would go on my own when I first had a driver's license and I'm an avid reader. I am not great at finishing books because I get too excited about new ones and start more and put one down and leave it for too long and start another, but I love them as objects, I love content and learning and literature. I'm a book person, I have to be [inaudible 00:12:57]

Emy Digrappa (12:58):

Yes, I think you do. I mean I love books too but there's something special about the feel of a book, and just like looking through its pages even if you're not reading it.

Christy Smirl (13:10):

Yeah, I know absolutely. It's true and it's different for all of us, it's so interesting the things that... the way that people... that books affect our lives or the ways that different people are attached to them.

Emy Digrappa (13:23):

Yeah, because even though everything is on the internet they do all their paper and reading and make all their calendar appointments on the internet, I cannot do that I love my pencil and my paper.

Christy Smirl (13:40):

Okay, I'm with you. I agree and it's interesting studies have shown recently that millennials prefer paper books... prefer the physical over an ebook still. The technology of this pen and ink bound together then that object is...its doing just fine, it's going strong we just love them. There's something about books and humans that I don't think the computer is ever going to supersede them.

Emy Digrappa (14:11):

So, tell me about the exhibit Mountains to Manuscripts: Women's Writing in Wyoming 1900-1950. Why did you choose that period of time and what is special about this exhibit?

Christy Smirl (14:24):

I'm so excited about this exhibit and it's fun to talk about. The way that I came to Mountains and Manuscripts is the executive director of the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum Morgan Jaouen, and I had talked through the years about the voices in Wyoming and the books particularly written in about Wyoming by women who are... they're few and far between the books and sometimes they didn't get as much attention as the books by their male counterparts, and sometimes they didn't last as long in public memory even though they were just as good if not better, and some of them are just sort of little secret treasures that once you find them they're just delightful, and it was part of Wyoming history that I felt like more people should know about, that more people could read about and I also find that books about our surroundings, about our geography, our mountains and our landscape people are so attached to their words and we can relate to them uniquely because that landscape is still all around us, it's hardly changed since people settled here in the 19th century.

Christy Smirl (15:38):

So it's just fun to read a story by a woman who maybe like you in some way or maybe not, but it's fun to read the words of someone who is looking at the same mountains that you are, that knows the flowers you know or walks trails like you walk trails, and to see your own life and to see history as it has been and also as it's developing in our own time. So, Morgan and I sort of came to this idea that we should make an exhibit about women's writing in Wyoming and that is an enormous topic. In some ways it's an enormous topic and in some ways it's a very small topic because we are a young state. We are also not a very popular state there have never been that many people here, and not that many books have been published about Wyoming in general by anyone through its history.

Christy Smirl (16:32):

So there are books by women but we sort of had to know where to start, and do we tell the whole story of women writing in the west or the region? Do we tell the story of one woman's book and pick one, or pick her story and try to tell its story? Eventually we sort of... we narrowed it down to four who we thought could represent just the early 20th century, just the early 1900s in Wyoming and who might be able to represent different types of writing, and also different lifestyles and experiences in Wyoming and that's how it came to these four ladies, these four books and the words that are in them and I think that it really paints a nice picture of what it's like to be a woman in the West, what it has been like and what it still is like today.

Emy Digrappa (17:22):

So what is it going to be like when you do a virtual exhibit? How are you going to draw people in? What are they going to find intriguing and interesting?

Christy Smirl (17:33):

So the exhibit of course was originally and is now a physical exhibit, it's on the walls at the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum but once we had a pandemic and the museum had to close, and so this exhibit was actually scheduled to come down in April but not that many people got to see it at the end of its life because the museum was closed and we were all socially distancing at home. So the museum was so happy to get this grant to turn it into a virtual exhibit and yes of course I think we've all seen things that have been turned into online versions lately, whether it's our Zoom meetings or our shopping experience, or just all sorts of different things that have had to go online and it was challenging to figure out how to duplicate this and tell these women's story on your screen, and with the same emotion without it just being sort of dull website, just a page of images and text.

Christy Smirl (18:35):

So I'm delighted that we had graphic designer Jenna Mahaffie to build us this exhibit online, to sort of put it into a format that could mimic the experience inside of a museum and also that we could use Katy Ann Fox's paintings. Katy Ann is... she's a painter and an artist and we used four of her paintings in the... this is a physical exhibit that were made specifically to go with these books. So contemporary artwork paintings that could evoke these women's words and now the paintings are online, they're on your screen. When you look at this digital exhibit it will bring together in a unique, beautiful way this visual artwork that shows our landscape along with these women's words and their stories. Their photos of who they... what they looked like, of their faces and also their stories of how they found [theirselves 00:35:18] here, and what they were up to when they were writing these books.

Emy Digrappa (19:35):

So what do you find most intriguing about Wyoming?

Christy Smirl (19:39):

What do I find most intriguing?

Emy Digrappa (19:41):

Yep.

Christy Smirl (19:42):

I think the... it is such an unusual crossroads of people, I think between our complicated history and the different things that people come here for, whether they are adventurous and explorers, they're tourists, maybe they're here to learn, maybe they're here to escape something, maybe they're here to research or study something I think it's such an interesting... Yeah, just a crossroads of people in nature and that creates a really interesting culture beside the nature.

Emy Digrappa (20:21):

The women that you feature in your Mountains to Manuscripts, where did they live in Wyoming?

Christy Smirl (20:27):

Three of these women their writing is about the Teton area not all of them lived here full time, and one of the four women live down in southwestern Wyoming almost to the Utah border down past Rock Springs. These women were chosen not just for what they wrote, but sort of because they juxtaposed one another so we labeled them... we kind of gave them little titles, one is called the visitor, one is called the resident, the storyteller and the naturalist. Those titles' sort of reflects both what they wrote and also what they were doing here. So as you can imagine the visitor was just a tourist, she was an early tourist she was on a hunting trip with her husband in the Tetons, but she didn't live here she was from the east coast. Elinore Pruitt Stewart is the one that we called the resident and she... her book is probably the best known of the four in Wyoming. She wrote letters with a woman homesteader and talked about her homesteading experience coming from Denver over to that Rock Springs area.

Christy Smirl (21:33):

The storyteller is the title that we gave to Katharine Newlin Burt, she was a novelist and she lived here on a Dude ranch with her husband and was another person that lived in other places, she did not grow up here, she did not end up spending the rest of her life here but she loved the Tetons and ran a business, ran the famous Dude ranch, the Bar BC right at the base of the Tetons and her husband was an incredibly famous writer but she was actually the more prolific of the two. She wrote more books and those books actually stayed [inaudible 00:22:05] much longer than his did. Finally, Sally Carrighar is the author that we call the naturalist and she wrote a book called One Day at Teton Marsh that was very popular nationally, and she was someone that... she was a nature writer and she had done that in other places.

Christy Smirl (22:20):

She wrote a book about Yosemite and later on she writes books about Alaska and other places, and she would go to a place and study the nature and live there and watch things through the seasons day by day so that she could write a story that sort of tells you the story of animals in a place. For two of these women to live here and the other two to be passing through that's actually pretty typical Wyoming. So many... we have so many people who are... their families have been here for generations and then we also have people who are here for a time of their life or who only pass through for a summer and fall in love with it.

Emy Digrappa (22:56):

I'm just really curious like how did you discover these women? How did you discover these books? How did you... What was your research?

Christy Smirl (23:06):

It's part of my job to both identify and track down interesting books about Wyoming and also about other topics, and when I say that I'm a rare bookseller I'm a private librarian but I also sell rare and antiquarian books. A rare Book is... some people think of it as a very expensive first edition of The Great Gatsby, but a rare book can be as simple as a book that is about a topic that... if the book is a little more obscure, if it is special, if it is hard to come by and tells a certain story about a place, about a person, about a subject rarity is relative. So these were women and these are books that I had sort of come by through the years when I've poked around little Wyoming bookstores, when I've talked to historians about their collections and helped them identify the books that they have that are more rare or more special, when I've researched for myself just what I want to read next about this area or what piece of history I'm missing.

Christy Smirl (24:13):

Each of these women sort of came to me through that process and I... also just in conversation with other book lovers who would say, "Oh, have you heard of [inaudible 00:24:22] her story of hunting and fishing with her husband in the Tetons is so delightful and her illustrations are so great," and I would tuck that away in my memory and try to hunt the book down later. So I've come by them through the book trade interestingly, it's such a fun part of my job I really love it. It's all still developing history is... the history of Wyoming and the history of Jackson I suppose it will always be developing, but we are always learning something new or... whether it's about a new book or a new fact that we didn't know about what was happening in Wyoming 100 years ago. That's what I love about history is that it's alive and it's changing as we study it.

Emy Digrappa (25:04):

Well, let me ask you one more question now that you brought that up. What other communities have you worked in Wyoming?

Christy Smirl (25:13):

Most of my work is here in the Teton area. My projects with books otherwise have been out of state. So, almost entirely within 100 miles of Jackson.

Emy Digrappa (25:26):

Well, its been great talking to you Christy thank you so much for your time.

Christy Smirl (25:30):

[inaudible 00:25:30] thank you for having me Emy.

Emy Digrappa (25:43):

Today, we are talking to Wyoming artist and art professional Katy Ann Fox. Welcome Katy.

Katy Fox (25:49):

Hey, how are you? I'm glad to be here.

Emy Digrappa (25:52):

What was your journey to Wyoming? Where did you grow up?

Katy Fox (25:55):

I grew up in northern Idaho or north central Idaho and then I went to University of Idaho and studied business and economics with an art minor, and realize that art was more of a focus of my life and so I traveled to San Francisco and went to the Academy of Art University to get my master's degree in painting, and then I looked around San Francisco and I was in awe of the city that I was in no means a city kid. So I looked for a place that had a thriving art community but also a stronger relationship to nature, and Jackson Hole was the place for me.

Emy Digrappa (26:31):

How did you get involved in the exhibits Mountains and Manuscripts?

Katy Fox (26:37):

I've just been painting as much as possible in this town and Christy Smirl became aware of my work, and then we've overlapped some in our lives and she approached me and we went to a picnic and started talking about this project, and I was totally thrilled about what she was stirring up and then the fact that she approached me and I loved school so this is like an assignment that I thought I would just be the best. I was kind of bogged down and doing just a ton of stuff but there was just no way to say no to this product, because it had so much potential and it was such an all star roster of women to get to work with.

Emy Digrappa (27:17):

So what did you... what have you been learning about the women? What have you been learning about them and their lives and how do you capture that in a painting?

Katy Fox (27:27):

This were strong women and we today are still shaped by the landscape that we live in, and we make decisions in our daily lives how we want to go forward because of the landscape and so were these women. It was really interesting before... I thought Christy did a wonderful job of choosing four different kinds of women, and there were similarities of how strong the landscape influenced their decisions and their lives. Then there was just... there were poor people and young people and older people and women that came from privilege and women that had literally nothing but just believed in themselves. There was something to relate to in each one of the women who the stories were about, three were like stories about people and then one was more just like... actually about the landscape and about animals who roamed one day at Teton Marsh. So, it was empowering and wonderful and I could relate and I was just really inspired.

Emy Digrappa (28:24):

Well, learning and being inspired I mean really [crosstalk 00:28:28] Well, you learn about something when something inspires you. So I think that-

Katy Fox (28:35):

Yeah.

Emy Digrappa (28:36):

So, what is your medium?

Katy Fox (28:40):

So I studied traditional oil painting and then I've just been painting... I love painting landscapes and so that was what Christy was familiar with, and so she really said I could paint whatever I wanted which was awesome. So, I read the books and then I cruised around the area, and also went through my archives to try to find places that I thought were close enough and would help with being accurate and also a bit stylized in each one of my paintings. I painted these in my own style which is kind of like a... it's a high key oil painting impression of style maybe, if you had to start labeling stuff. I have some favorite colors that usually come into most of my paintings that people are kind of calling me out on but I... and I tend to have a bit of a feminine appeal in my pieces.

Emy Digrappa (29:37):

When people look at the Mountains and Manuscripts exhibit, what do you want them to take away from that?

Katy Fox (29:46):

I want them to understand how important it is to tell a story whether that's through words or painting imagery, and that everybody's life as they go through it has so much interesting stuff and it's worth recording and valuing, and we can learn from each other and be empowered from each other. So I think you walk in and it's just these different takes on life and... yeah, and Wyoming is important.

Emy Digrappa (30:15):

And why do you say that? Why is Wyoming important?

Katy Fox (30:18):

It changed every single one of these women's lives like it was this amazing natural place, it was this ultimate challenge, it was the only place this one woman knew and it was like the promised land for one woman.

Emy Digrappa (30:33):

Oh, that's really interesting.

Katy Fox (30:36):

Yeah, I really... I mean I guess if you have to say one thing like a simple thing that I wish people would walk away from, all of these books are like under 100 pages or right around 100 pages. I think I read them all in a week and it was a really good week of my life.

Emy Digrappa (30:50):

Well, that's really great to hear and I'm so happy to talk to you Katy, thank you so much for your time.

Katy Fox (30:56):

Oh, it was my pleasure.

Emy Digrappa (30:58):

Today we are talking to Jenna Mahaffie, she is a graphic designer and writer. Welcome, Jenna.

Jenna Mahaffie (31:16):

Thank you for having me.

Emy Digrappa (31:19):

Jenna how did you become involved with Mountains to Manuscripts? What was your inspiration to get involved with that project?

Jenna Mahaffie (31:25):

Yeah, so I do a lot of work for the Historical Society as a contractor for them doing design work, and that means mostly making... marketing assets and I also helped with the Home for History campaign during the said election in 2019. When this kind of came up as an opportunity I thought wow, this is so great because not only is this something that I'm interested in designing, but also this is something that I relate to as a female writer in the west, and not that I have any novels in the works or anything but I think it's a really awesome thing to shed light on authors that kind of grew into themselves and into their careers in the early 1900s, which was a really tough time for women to get published as is. The fact that these four authors have their works out and in paper is pretty remarkable in itself.

Jenna Mahaffie (32:27):

So, when Morgan who is the executive director of the Historical Society asked me if I wanted to become involved and help design the exhibit, I said, "Absolutely." It's actually kind of funny like I've never done any kind of like big wall templating before, but we kind of just made it work. While there were a little bit... there was some issue with the printer that we used, and obviously I needed to make sure that all my measurements were right and how are we going to place it on the wall? It's kind of this pretty cool thing that I realized like wow this is something that I'd love to continue to do in the future, because I really think that at the end of the day graphic design is... a lot of people just associate it with creating logos and making art on a computer, but it really does go to show that design path can be kind of translated into a whole bunch of different mediums, whether it's like I said a logo or a museum exhibit. Yeah, and that's sort of the story with that.

Emy Digrappa (33:34):

What do you think you learned about these women that has inspired you since you've been working on this project?

Jenna Mahaffie (33:40):

I think it's really just kind of what I was going back and saying was that like this is such a... it was such a big accomplishment for them to have their work published during the early 1900s, and I think it's pretty cool to think that wow... I'm not saying that I would necessarily would love to publish a book per se but like... I think as a writer and really anyone in their creative industry there's so many odd to overcome and what this "making it" really mean. So I think hearing about their stories and kind of continually reading the text that Christy Smirl had written with Foxtail Books about all four of this women it is just like... I mean yes it's an inspiring thing and it sounds cliche and these four authors are exemplary of that.

Emy Digrappa (34:38):

Well, it's been great talking to you thank you so much for your insight. Thank you for joining us for this episode of What's Your Why? Brought to you by Wyoming Humanities with support from Wyoming Community Foundation and generous supporters like you. To learn more go to thinkwy.org, subscribe and never miss a show.

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