Drawing by Frank Blackwell Mayer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Nathaniel Smith: Black Pioneer of the Mendocino Coast

People are often surprised to learn that an African American was one of the first non-indiginious settlers on the Mendocino Coast. While details are often contested, it’s widely agreed that Nathaniel Smith settled on a coastal bluff roughly six miles south of the Navarro River and just north of present day Elk sometime between 1851 and 1854. Other than a…

Sight, Unseen: Color Photographs 1940 to 1960

Sight, Unseen: Color Photographs 1940 to 1960

By Jo Mazelis Because these photographs are both “found” and ‘anonymous,”  and furthermore, because they date from a time when the “art” photograph was almost invariably in black and white, it is easy for the viewer to assume a more  “innocent” process at work in the mind of their creator. In other words, there is…