Free lecture in Mesa on nearly forgotten famous figure

Was he The Greatest Southwesterner or History Challenged?  Charles Lummis, who was among the first and most successful “popularizers” of Southwest culture, will be the subject of a free lecture Monday, Jan. 12 at 4 p.m. at the Arizona Museum of Natural History, 53 N. Macdonald in Mesa.  The Arizona Museum of Natural History Guild is sponsoring the program, which is made possible by the Arizona Humanities Council.

Dick George, a long-time editor and photographer at the Phoenix Zoo with a passion for exploring small towns in the Southwest, will present the lecture about Charles Lummis.  While nearly forgotten today, Lummis was among the most famous figures in America at the beginning of the 20th century.  Lummis was an adventurer, newspaper reporter, magazine editor and self-taught photographer who searched the Southwest for decades with a missionary zeal.  He collected and recast stories, fables, characters, places and scenes that appealed to his sense of a glorious and romantic past.

For more information on the program, contact Arizona Museum of Natural History Curator of Education Kathy Eastman at (480) 644-5662.

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