Ernest Thompson Seton | |
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.jpg) Ernest Thompson Seton in 1901 | |
| Born | Ernest Evan Thompson (1860-08-14)August 14, 1860 South Shields, County Durham, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | October 23, 1946(1946-10-23) (aged 86) Seton Village, New Mexico, United States |
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| Occupation(s) | Author, wildlife artist |
| Known for | Founder of theWoodcraft Indians and founding pioneer of theBoy Scouts of America |
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Ernest Thompson Seton (bornErnest Evan Thompson;[1] August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was a Canadian and American author, wildlife artist, founder of theWoodcraft Indians in 1902 (renamed Woodcraft League of America), and one of the founding pioneers of theBoy Scouts of America (BSA) in 1910.
Seton also influencedLord Baden-Powell, the founder of theScouting movement. His writings were published in the United Kingdom, Canada, the US, and the USSR; his notable books related to Scouting includeThe Birch Bark Roll and theBoy Scout Handbook. He incorporated what he believed to beAmerican Indian elements into the traditions of the BSA.
Seton was born inSouth Shields, County Durham, England to Scottish parents. His family emigrated toBritish North America in 1866. After settling inLindsay,Canada West Seton spent most (after 1870) of his childhood inToronto, and the family is known to have lived at 6 Aberdeen Avenue inCabbagetown. As a youth, he retreated to the woods of theDon River to draw and study animals as a way of avoiding his abusive father.[2] He attended theOntario College of Art in 1879, studying with John Colin Forbes, then won a scholarship in art to theRoyal Academy in London, England in 1880.[3] He went out into the field, sometimes accompanied by William "Willie" Brodie jr., the son of the naturalist Dr.William Brodie. The death of Willie in a canoeing accident was a blow to Seton. In the 1890s, he studied at theAcadémie Julian in Paris[4] In 1893-4, he was elected an associate member of theRoyal Canadian Academy of Arts.[5]
On Seton's21st birthday his father presented him with an invoice for all of the expenses connected with his childhood and youth, including the fee charged by the doctor who delivered him. According to one writer, he paid the bill, but never spoke to his father again.[6][7] In his autobiography,Trail of An Artist-naturalist: The Autobiography of Ernest Thompson Seton, he discusses the incident in detail, but, since he hadn't "a cent of money," he could not pay his father. He went immediately to work and used the money he made to leave the household.[8]
In 1882, he joined his brother on a homestead outsideCarberry, Manitoba, where he began to write. In 1891, he publishedThe Birds of Manitoba and was appointed Provincial Naturalist by the government ofManitoba.[9] He continued to publish books about Manitoba for decades to come, includingThe Life Histories of Northern Animals: An Account of the Mammals of Manitoba and lived in Manitoba, before moving to New York and Connecticut. In 1930, when he moved toSanta Fe, New Mexico.
He changed his name to Ernest Thompson Seton (after initially changing it to Ernest Seton-Thompson), believing thatSeton had been an important family name. He became successful as a writer, artist, and naturalist, and moved toNew York City to further his career. Seton later lived at Wyndygoul,[10] an estate that he built inCos Cob, a section ofGreenwich,Connecticut. After experiencing vandalism by the local youth, Seton invited them to his estate for a weekend where he told them what he claimed were stories of theAmerican Indians and of nature.[11] Seton was an early and influential member of theCamp-Fire Club of America, hosting several of the club's earliest official events at his Wyndygoul estate.[12]
He formed theWoodcraft Indians in 1902 and invited the local youth to join. Despite the name, the group was made up of non-native boys and girls. The stories became a series of articles written for theLadies Home Journal, and were eventually collected inThe Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians in 1906. Shortly after, the Woodcraft Indians evolved into the Woodcraft Rangers, which was established as a non-profit organization for youth programming in 1922.
Since 1922, Woodcraft Rangers has served Los Angeles youth with Seton's model of character building, which encompasses service, truth, fortitude, and beauty.[13] Since then, Woodcraft Rangers youth have been received in a safe environment to encourage the discovery of their own talents. Today the Woodcraft Rangers organization serves over 15,000 youth in the Los Angeles county by helping them find pathways to purposeful lives. They offer expanded learning opportunities to youth from kindergarten to twelfth grade. Youth participants are encouraged to discover their natural talents and are embraced daily with the belief that all children are innately good.
Seton metScouting's founder,Lord Baden-Powell, in 1906. Baden-Powell had read Seton's bookThe Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians and was greatly intrigued by it. The pair met and shared ideas. Baden-Powell went on to found the Scouting movement worldwide and Seton became the president of the committee that founded theBoy Scouts of America (BSA) and was its first (and only) Chief Scout. Seton'sWoodcraft Indians (a youth organization) combined with the early attempts at Scouting from theYMCA and other organizations and withDaniel Carter Beard'sSons of Daniel Boone, to form the BSA.[14] The work of Seton and Beard is in large part the basis of theTraditional Scouting movement.[15]
Seton served as Chief Scout of the BSA from 1910 to 1915 and incorporated what he believed to beAmerican Indian elements into the traditions of the BSA. He had significant personality and philosophical clashes with Beard andJames E. West.
In addition to disputes about the content of Seton's contributions to the Boy Scout Handbook, conflicts also arose about thesuffragist activities of his wife,Grace Gallatin Seton Thompson, and his British citizenship. The citizenship issue arose partly because of his high position within the BSA and the federal charter West was attempting to obtain for the BSA requiring its board members to be United States citizens. Seton drafted his written resignation on January 29, 1915, but did not send it to the BSA until May.[16] The position of Chief Scout was eliminated and the position "Chief Scout Executive" was taken on by James West. In 1931, Seton became a United States citizen.
British by birth, Seton was not naturalized asCanadian (as status did not legally exist until 1947; he thus remained a British subject) and became anAmerican in 1931. He was married twice. His first marriage was toGrace Gallatin in 1896. Their only daughter, Ann (1904–1990), later known asAnya Seton, became a best-selling author of historical and biographical novels. According to Ann's introduction to the novelGreen Darkness, Grace was a practicingTheosophist.
Ernest and Grace divorced in 1935, and Ernest soon married Julia Moss Buttree. Julia wrote works by herself and with Ernest. They did not have any biological children, but in the 1930s they sought to adopt Moss Buttree's niece, Leila Moss, who lived with them for years in New Mexico.[17] In 1938, they adopted an infant daughter, Beulah (Dee) Seton (later Dee Seton Barber). Dee Seton Barber, a talented embroiderer of articles for synagogues such as Torah mantles, died in 2006.[18]
Seton called his father, Joseph Logan Thompson, "the most selfish man I ever knew, or heard of, in history or in fiction." He cut off ties completely after being made to pay off an itemized list of all expenses he had cost his father, up to and including the doctor's fee for his delivery, a total of $537.50.[19]
Seton's parents lived out their lives in Toronto, as did brother John Enoch Thompson (abt. 1846–1932).
Two brothers, Joseph Logan Thompson (1849–1922) and Charles Seton Thompson (1851–1925), moved to British Columbia. Besides Seton, George Seton Thompson (1854–1944) moved to Illinois and died there.
Seton was an early pioneer of the modern school ofanimal fiction writing, his most popular work beingWild Animals I Have Known (1898), which contains the story of his killing of the wolfLobo. Four stories from this collection would be republished asLobo, Rag, and Vixen (1900). He later became involved in a literary debate known as thenature fakers controversy, afterJohn Burroughs published an article in 1903 in theAtlantic Monthly attacking writers of sentimental animal stories. The controversy lasted for four years and included important American environmental and political figures of the day, including PresidentTheodore Roosevelt.[20]
For his work,Lives of Game Animals Volume 4, Seton was awarded theDaniel Giraud Elliot Medal from theNational Academy of Sciences in 1928.[21] In 1931, he became aUnited States citizen. Seton was associated with the Santa Fe arts and literary community during the mid-1930s and early 1940s, which was a group of artists and authors, including author and artistAlfred Morang, sculptor and potterClem Hull, painterGeorgia O'Keeffe, painter Randall Davey, painterRaymond Jonson, leader of the Transcendental Painters Group and artist Eliseo Rodriguez.[22] He was made a member of theRoyal Canadian Academy of Arts.[23]
In 1933, Seton purchased 100 acres (40 ha) inSanta Fe County, New Mexico, United States. Seton ran training camps for youth leaders and had a small publisher named Seton Village Press that closed in 1943 due toWorld War II. The tract eventually grew to 2,500 acres (1,000 ha).Seton Village was established as anunincorporated community.
Seton designed and built his castle as a 32-room, 6,900-square-foot (640 m2) multi-level building with a flat-roof and rough hewn stone wall exterior. The interior had oak floors and plaster walls with the ceilings supported by log rafters. The castle was built on a hill at an elevation of 7,000 ft (2,100 m). It is designated aNational Historic Landmark and a New Mexico State Cultural Property. The castle burned down while being restored in 2005. TheAcademy for the Love of Learning, which owns the property, has decided to preserve the castle ruins as a "contemplative garden".[24]
He died inSeton Village,New Mexico, at the age of 86. Seton was cremated inAlbuquerque, New Mexico. In 1960, in honor of his 100th birthday and the 350th anniversary of Santa Fe, his daughter, Dee and his grandson, Seton Cottier (son of Anya), scattered the ashes over Seton Village from anairplane.[25]
ThePhilmont Scout Ranch houses theSeton Memorial Library and Museum. Seton Castle in Santa Fe, built by Seton as his last residence, housed many of his other items. Seton Castle burned down in 2005 during an attempt at restoration, but all the artwork, manuscripts, books, etc., had been removed to storage before renovation was to have begun.[26]
TheAcademy for the Love of Learning, an educational organization in Santa Fe, acquired Seton Castle and its contents in 2003. The new Academy Center that opened in 2011 includes a gallery and archives featuring artwork and other materials as part of its Seton Legacy Project. The Seton Legacy Project organized a major exhibition on Seton opening at theNew Mexico History Museum on May 23, 2010, the catalog published asErnest Thompson Seton: The Life and Legacy of an Artist and Conservationist by David L. Witt.
Roger Tory Peterson drew inspiration for his field guide from the simple diagram of ducks that Seton included inTwo Little Savages.[27]
Seton is honored by theErnest Thompson Seton Scout Reservation inGreenwich, Connecticut, and with theE.T. Seton Park inToronto, Ontario. Obtained in the early 1960's as the site of the futureMetro Toronto Zoo, the land was later used to establish parkland and home to theOntario Science Centre. A plaque is found on the front wall of 6 Aberdeen Avenue in Toronto, where Seton had lived as a child.
Monarch: The Big Bear of Tallac (Japanese:シートン動物記 くまの子ジャッキー,Seton Doubutsuki: Kuma no Ko Jacky) was a 26-episodeanime television series based on Seton's novel of the same name, and was first broadcast in 1977.
In 1979, a 26-episode anime series based on Seton's 1922 bookBannertail: The Story of a Gray Squirrel was produced inJapan byNippon Animation, calledBannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel (シートン動物記 りすのバナー,Shīton Dōbutsuki Risu no Banā).
In 1989–1990,Eiken releasedSeton Dōbutsuki (シートン動物記, 'Seton Animal Chronicles'), a 45-episode anime TV series adapted from themangaSeton's Wild Animals (シートン動物記), depicting the different literary works of Seton, including his 1898Wild Animals I Have Known. "Lobo, the King of Currumpaw" (episodes 17 and 18) was a notable episode of the show which many viewers later learned of when the storyline was plotted into a popular 2009 TV documentary entitledThe Wolf That Changed America. The cartoon was dubbed in German and Arabic and saw an emerging popularity among Arabs in the early 1990s asMokhles Sadik ul Hayawaan (Arabic:مخلص صديق الحيوان, 'Mokhles, Animals' Friend').
"Chink, the Development of a Pup" was adapted into a cartoon in Russian in 1992.[28]
In October 2015, the Comedy Central showDrunk History gave a short, drunk history lesson by Mike Still (season 3, episode 10, second act) in which Seton is portrayed byColin Hanks. It mostly concentrates on thestory of Lobo, but also mentions the roots of the Boy Scouts and helping out troubled teens.[29]
The five-volumemangaSeton's Wild Animals (シートン動物記) bySanpei Shirato, published between 1961 and 1965, portrayed the various literary works of Seton. Kenji Uchiyama translated Seton's work for the manga from English into Japanese.
In 1988,Yury Iosifovich Koval published a short novel calledШамайка (Shamayka), a retelling ofThe Slum Cat.
In a 1993 issue of the Japanese mangaDiamond is Unbreakable, the characterJotaro Kujo references Seton's quote "there is no animal that cannot be tracked".[30]
Several of Seton's works are written from the perspective of a predator and were an influence uponRobert T. Bakker'sRaptor Red (1995).[31]
From 2004–2006,manga artistJiro Taniguchi and scenarist Yoshiharu Imaizumi publishedShīton (Japanese:シートン), a four-volume manga romanticizing the life of Seton. These manga were not translated into English, but appeared in French, Italian and Spanish. The French titles are:
Seton's appearance inspired the design of the character Shiton Anehata, a scholar andzoophile who is one of theAbashiri convicts in the mangaGolden Kamui.
Seton is also mentioned inPhilip Roth's 2010 novel,Nemesis, where he is credited for having introducedIndian lore to the American camping movement.[32]
There is an Ernest Thompson Seton fonds at Library and Archives Canada. It is archival reference number R7616 and former archival reference number MG29-D108. The fonds consists of 6.2 metres of textual records, 1,220 photographs, 118 drawings, and other media.[36]
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