The
beautiful dioramas seen at Tumacácori National Historical Park (Father
Kino and a Pima friend overlooking the Santa Cruz Valley; Mass being held
inside the San José de Tumacácori Mission church; and the
Pima uprising and massacre at Tubutama) were built by the National Park
Service Western Museum Laboratory, as was the bronze statue of Father
Kino in the "Kino Room" of the Park Visitor
Center.
The
laboratory was located on Fulton Street, next to Edwards Field, in downtown
Berkeley, California, where it operated prior to World War II. Carpentry
work and casting were done at another location farther up on the Berkeley
campus. The labor force consisted of CCC
(Civilian Conservation Corps), PWA
(Public Works Administration), and WPA
(Works Progress Administration) workers. Many of the older National
Parks in the West have dioramas that were made at the "Fulton Laboratory". 
The
ones at Tumacácori were built during the years 1935, 1936 and 1937.
They were finished for the dedication of the new visitor
center that was completed in December of 1937. Since there were
generally about a hundred people employed at the Laboratory at any one
time, and there was also a turnover of people during the years it was in
operation, it would be impossible to name everyone who may have worked
on the Tumacácori dioramas. However, there are some definite
facts about their construction that are of interest.
Much
of the artwork and painting at the Laboratory was done by May Blos, Mary
Healy, Paul Rockwood, and Herbert Collins, all with the PWA. Paul
Rockwood painted the extremely realistic background in the Kino Diorama
in its entirety. Most of the sculpturing and painting of the figures
in the dioramas were done by Bart Frost, Natasha Smith, and Lorenzo Moffet
(PWA), and Leonard Rhodes and Harold Carter (CCC). If you look closely
at the Spanish gentleman in front of the door to the baptistry in the Mass
Diorama, you will see Bart Frost. Not only did he sculpt the figure,
but he used himself as a model. Lorenzo Moffet, shown in the photograph
to the right, was the sculptor of both the bronze Kino statue and the wax
statue in the Kino Diorama.
Compare the soldier on the bottom right - |
with this man, his creator and model. |