The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

      

PHOENIX, Ariz., Wednesday—The other morning, we went on a short excursin into the outlying countryside and I was surprised to see how many homes are dotted around the desert, almost hiddden from view. Elizabeth Arden has bought one of the most beautifully landscaped places around here, with an expanse of lawn that takes your breath away in this desert region. Of course, one can grow anything here if water is obtainable. All over her lawn are the pipes which bring the water which is the secret of the greend surroundings. As we walked out past the house to the swimming pool, the air was sweet with the smell of orange blossoms.

* * *

The most interesting thing on our trip was a visit to the new center for the Arizona crafsmen, which is established the villege of Scottsdale, only a few miles from Phoenix. Mr. Darlington, the organizer of this particular group, bought an old building an did it over. You come into a charming patio out of which all the different shops open.

At the back is the pottery shop. Mathilde Shaefer, the sculptress is doing some charming ceramics. She had done a pair of horses and a sleeping Indian child that I would gladly have walked away with if I had not been restrained by the thought that I had too many things already and too little space in which to put them.

The next shop we visited was Philip Sanderson's. He is a master wood-carver and designer. As you go through his little display room to his workship, there is a most effective carving on the wall. In it he has used two different kinds of wood which contrast in color and bring out the design. His bowls and plates, made of imported wood, are satisfying both to the eyes and to the touch.

* * *

Our next visit was to Lloyd Kiva, a Cherokee Indian who has a degree from the Arts Institute in Chicago. He also has studied at the University of Chicago, the University of New Mexico and the Oklahoma A. and M. College. And he has taught at the Indian School near here. Now that he is back from his service in the war, he has decided to create an outlet for the young workers who have been trained in the various arts and crafts durng their school years.

He had beautiful specimens of leather work---bags and belts and purses and beanies decorated with Indian silver work. Very expensive, but they would long outlast the average expensive factory-made leather goods. He also had some lovely specimens of weaving---50-inch wide material in the softest and most beautiful colors. Tishanjinnie, a returned soldier, was doing decorative Indian paintings in a little studio room.

* * *

Finally, there was the Indian gift and art shop run by Peggy and Horace Smith, where silver work and baskets and wood carvings and many other Indian crafts were on sale. They also had Mexican glass and some Mexican silverware.

On the whole, I think this will become a place where one can get truly American gifts of real value for those who enjoy crafsmanship and original design.

In the afternoon, I visited what will soon be the city of Phoenix's first boys' clbu. The citizens have gradually awakened to the face that they have ahigh degree of juvenille delinquency and that theer teenage boys are getting into serious trouble. They have high hopes that the boys' club will solve their problem.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Phoenix (Ariz., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 21, 1946

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Syracuse Herald-Journal, , MARCH 21, 1946

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Transcription created from a published My Day column instance. Syracuse Herald-Journal, MARCH 21, 1946, page 27