We are glad to share a presentation by Zane Grey West Society Member, Harvey Leake, discussing the real life history that Zane Grey used in his novel, The Vanishing American. Harvey is a great friend to The ONWARD Project and a seasoned researcher of the Southwest and especially of his great grandfather John Wetherill, who owned and […]

Over the past year, Lithuania Denetso, Collaborator with The ONWARD Project, undertook the study of ceramic making in the tradition of Southwest historic pottery. She was inspired to learn these methods in order to originate shapes and designs using the natural clays and pigments available in the canyons of the Four Corners region of the […]

In today’s newsletter we are excited to share with you some behind the scenes moments during the designing and creation of our forthcoming graphic biography about Gertie Austin, Max Littlesalt’s wife.  So much work and energy goes into the making of the biographies from the many family members, writers, editors, artists, beta testers, website developers […]

Jerry Hanson was the Head of Mapping for the 1937 Rainbow Bridge Monument Valley Expedition. We are fortunate to have connected with his granddaughter, Anna Lessenger-Soland, many years ago when she reached out to us. Since then, Jerry’s family members have graciously shared with us many letters, documents, a monograph and a multigenerational recorded conversation […]

What is a lantern slide? Lantern slides were first referenced in 1646 and were originally hand-painted images on glass and projected using a “magic lantern”. When photography was invented in the 1800’s the process changed to developing photographs on glass. Then the glass images were coated with paper and another layer of glass and framed […]

We are immensely saddened to share the news of Jeanne M. Salt’s passing in Tucson, Arizona on July 13th, 2024. Jeanne was the daughter of Max Littlesalt, guide and interpreter for the RBMVExpedition and Lithuania Denetso’s aunt. She was integral to The ONWARD Project in many ways through oral histories, general support and sharing her […]

Recently we received an email from the granddaughter of Expedition member Ernest Paul “Husky” Hunt, an enthusiastic filmmaker on the 1933 Rainbow Bridge Monument Valley Expedition. His granddaughter, Carolyn Bredsteen was introduced to us by our great friend and Native American art collector, Philip Garaway.  In time Husky became a well known collector and dealer […]

We made great progress with Nathan Fairchild as our 2022 summer intern! He wrote a fantastic summary of his summer working with Eric Hanson on our Virtual Reality project. See below… Dear ONWARD Project community,I’m Nathan Fairchild, a graduate student at USC and a student of ONWARD’s VR Specialist and Developer Eric Hanson. This summer […]

This Graphic Narrative takes place during the RBMVE, in the 1930’s, where groups of students, scientific specialists, and artists worked collaboratively to study the region. They relied heavily on the guidance of local Native American people, primarily Navajo and San Juan Paiute, to safely exist in and move through the landscape. We focus on Ray […]

What an inspiring and stimulating summer for The ONWARD Project as we conclude our Intern Program 2021!  We collaborated remotely with our three participants: Carter Smallcanyon, a high school student in Utah; Ethan Kim, a high school student in Northern California; and Leon Cruz, a USC Masters candidate in Southern California. During our first three […]