The familiar howl of not-too-distant coyotes welcomed nearly 200 guests to a special Alta Journal event held in partnership with San Marino’s Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.
The after-hours event was a celebration of Alta Issue 29: Reckoning with the West and presented Huntington fans and local Alta readers with a curated evening of conversation, historical imagery, and engaging lectures.
Held at Rothenberg Hall, the program kicked off with remarks from Susan Juster, the W.M. Keck Foundation director of research at the Huntington, and William Deverell, a noted historian and the codirector and founding director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW), who had served as the special issue’s guest editor. The evening’s MC, Alta editorial director Blaise Zerega, explained that the goal of both the issue and this event was to “shed new light on the ever-evolving story of the history of California and the West.” The program brought the magazine pages to life, transforming them into an interactive experience. This cultivation of community is a cornerstone of Alta’s work, bringing together interested and interesting people.
The evening featured a discussion on “Reckonings of the Past and Present” with historian Laura Dominguez and writer Lynell George, whose dramatically different articles in Alta focus on racial reckoning and the evolution of the minority experience on the West Coast. Historian Lois Rosson and professor Peter Westwick transported us into the depths of space for a staggering, visually driven “Reckoning with the Universe.” Westwick, director of ICW’s Aerospace History Project and Alta contributor, joined Rosson for a look at a “planetary and interstellar view of the American West,” drawing a comparison to “space as a new frontier.”
Shifting to representations of the West in popular culture, Deverell returned to the stage with chief historian of the USDA Forest Service, Lincoln Bramwell. Using the history and symbolism of Smokey Bear as an example, the pair explored “Perceptions of the West” through a conversation that included, among many other things, Bramwell’s amusing recollection of wearing a (sweltering) Smokey Bear costume during a Fourth of July parade early on in his career.
The evening concluded with a reflection on another familiar Western icon, the Oregon Trail. Mary Melton, Alta’s editor at large, delved into Katie Hickman’s immersive story with a series of images from the Huntington’s archives to demonstrate the famous trail’s impact on Indigenous communities. In their closing remarks, Zerega and Deverell reminded the rapt crowd that “reckoning with the American West is a journey that has no end.”
The evening’s expansive scope attracted people from a variety of backgrounds, including Alta contributor Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, who was drawn to Rosson’s work on scientific illustrators. “Writing about art is what I do professionally,” she said, “and I did not know about this entire area of art history. It’s always interesting for me to find there’s a whole vein of art coverage I know nothing about.”
Donna Bojarsky, an Alta member from Hollywood, came to support her friends Deverell and Melton. “It was so delicious to read this issue,” she remarked. Bojarsky was particularly excited by George’s coverage of Destination Crenshaw, a community project she has long supported, describing it as “one of the best examples of what L.A. can do.” The event inspired Bojarsky to “keep thinking more and more about our past and how it has to define our future as well—environmentally, sociologically, politically.”
The Reckoning with the West gathering provided a sample of the rich perspectives and stirring narratives from Issue 29. Make sure you don’t miss the next Alta event by signing up for our newsletter—and grab your copy of Issue 29 in the Alta Store, or by joining us as a member today.•
