For years, Dorothy Haslam kept her extensive collection of Native American jewelry, rugs, baskets and dolls pretty much hidden away in her basement. She stacked the rugs in cedar closets, floor to ceiling. The jewelry she stored in a freezer, each piece double-wrapped in Wonder Bread bags.
Her last wish before she died, says her son Steve, was that her children try hard to keep the collection in one piece after her death.
Now the collection has found a permanent home at the Utah Museum of Natural History, which showed off some of the items Tuesday. The entire 666-piece acquisition will be on public display for one day only on Saturday at the museum, 1390 E. Presidents Circle at the University of Utah, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The museum's Collections Council chairwoman, Cynthia Conner, is thrilled about this addition to the museum's ethnographic holdings. Two years ago, she and museum executive director Sarah George lined up to see a Native American exhibit at a museum in New York City, where "half the stuff was from Utah," Conner remembers. Utah, she thought at the time, deserved to have a collection like that.
Haslam's handmade pieces — from Shoshone, Apache, Navajo, Zuni, Ute and other tribes —are largely items sold to tourists from the 1950s through the 1990s. Some of the items are valuable, some less so. "She bought what she liked, so some of it is of low (monetary) value," said George, who added that this makes it perfect for taking around the state to show to schoolchildren.
How Haslam's collection eventually made its way to the Utah Museum of Natural History is the serendipitous story of a garage sale and a savvy shopper named Marjorie Chan.
Chan, a professor and chairwoman of the U.'s department of geology and geophysics, was making her usual early Saturday morning garage sale circuit three years ago when she stumbled upon a box of "Arizona Highway" magazines. As she always does, Chan asked if the family might have any Native American items for sale.
Steve and Kevin Haslam and their sister, Elaine Fetzer, told Chan about the rugs, turquoise jewelry and other pieces their mother had amassed over a 50-year period beginning in the 1950s. "My eyes popped out," Chan remembers. She also knew that the items "were too important for me or another private collector to amass." That's when she alerted museum director George.
Dorothy Haslam became fascinated with Native American articles and history while traveling the Southwest with her husband, a traffic manager with Phillips Petroleum. She eventually was on a first-name basis with all the area's Indian traders, her son, Steve Haslam, explained Tuesday.
"She was astute in American Indian history," he said, and she eventually began lecturing throughout the Western United States. She also dreamed of building a hogan in the back yard of her house near the Salt Lake Country Club, but that never happened.
According to Steve, his mother's collection was appraised at "well over seven figures." After being approached by a museum in Washington, D.C., the family agreed to sell it for $180,000 to the Utah Museum of Natural History. The money was raised by the museum's Collections Council.
E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com