Seton Castle Restoration Progress Report

April 2004

The Sleeping Wolf, painted by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1891.

Beginning in September 2003, Academy personnel and a group of volunteers began the process of archiving Seton’s collection of paintings, sketches, artifacts and books. To date we have archived over 250 artifacts and over 2,000 books, including dozens of books written by Seton, a collection of books dating back to the 1600’s, and an extensive collection of Native American and Southwest History.

Some of the treasures we have archived include Seton’s own wildlife paintings and sketches, a first edition Boy Scout Manual authored by Seton, a 1910 edition of President Theodore Roosevelt’s “African Game Trails” dedicated to Seton by Roosevelt, and Helen Keller’s autobiography, “The Story of My Life” with a letter to Seton signed by Helen Keller, and Maria Pots and other pottery given to Seton by the renowned potter Maria Martinez.

We have had a wonderful group of volunteers helping us with this daunting task of clearing out the contents of the castle so that the restoration can begin by late summer. We cannot thank them enough for their hard work and wonderful attitudes. We intend to have a few more volunteer clean-up events in May and June.

Currently, we are beginning to forge relationships with local art historians and curators to help us determine how to best work with and restore Seton’s collection. We have commissioned a researcher to investigate the history and background of the collection, as well as the history of the building, and stories of Seton’s life and work there. Working closely with Dee Seton Barber, Ernest Thompson’s youngest daughter and the previous owner of the Castle, we hope to compile a written document that will preserve both the history of the collection and the intention that Seton brought to his many lectures and summer schools that he ran at the Castle.

In January, we appointed the Santa Fe firm of Spears Architects to direct and design the restoration of the Castle. We are in the process of researching the original Castle plans and determining how best to restore the building so as to preserve the historic structure and remain true to the original design, whilst at the same time updating the property to incorporate modern environmental innovations and enabling it to be used for our educational mission.