Dorothy Jean Ray

Dorothy Jean Ray
Dorothy Tostlebe (later Ray), from a 1937 newspaper
Born
Dorothy Jean Tostlebe

(1919-10-10)October 10, 1919
Cedar Falls, Iowa, U.S.
DiedDecember 12, 2007(2007-12-12) (aged 88)
Port Townsend, Washington, U.S.
OccupationsEthnographer, anthropologist, writer, musician
SpouseVerne F. Ray

Dorothy Jean Tostlebe Ray (October 10, 1919 – December 12, 2007) was an ethnographer, anthropologist, writer, and musician, best known for her study of Native Alaskan art and culture.

Early life and education

Ray was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the daughter of Oscar Tostlebe and Vina Younker Tostlebe. She studied music, and played flute[1] and piccolo.[2] She won first place in a national student contest in 1937.[2] She graduated from Cedar Falls High School in 1937.[3] She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 1941.[4] She pursued further studies in anthropology at Radcliffe College and the University of Washington.[5]

Career

Tostlebe was a teacher as a young woman.[6] She took a two-month bicycle tour of New England in 1940 with a friend,[4] and another bike tour of the Eastern states in 1941.[7] She moved to Alaska in 1945, and played piano in a dance band at Marks Airfield in Nome; she was also an accompanist for the University of Alaska chorus. She prospected for gold, and worked at the Geophysical institute and at the 1953 Alaska Science Conference.[5] She interviewed and photographed traditional ivory carvers in Nome in the 1950s.[8] She taught herself to read Russian to research the 17th- and 18th-century history of the Bering Strait.[9] She collected Alaskan Native art and artifacts in her work, including some 19th century items. She donated her collections with her research and field notes, to the University of Alaska Museum of the North collection in Fairbanks, in 1996.[10]

Ray received honorary doctorates from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and her alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa. Additional honors include the Dorothy Jean Ray Anthropology Scholarship at the University of Northern Iowa.[5]

Publications

In addition to a number of published books, Ray wrote articles and papers published in journals including Alaska History, Alaska Journal, Alaska, American Indian Art, Arctic Anthropology,[11] Names,[12] Journal of the West,[13] The Journal of Presbyterian History,[14] and Pacific Northwest Quarterly. Her final book, A Legacy of Arctic Art (1996), has been described as being both a catalog and a memoir of the author's long career.[15][16]

Books

  • Graphic Arts of the Alaskan Eskimo (1969)[17]
  • Eskimo Masks: Art and Ceremony (1975) ISBN 0-295-95353-5[18]
  • Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska (1977) ISBN 0-295-95518-X[19]
  • Artists of the Tundra and the Sea (1980) ISBN 0-295-95732-8[20]
  • Ethnohistory in the Arctic: The Bering Strait Eskimo (1983) ISBN 0-919642-98-5[21]
  • Aleut and Eskimo Art (1986) ISBN 0-295-96410-3[22]
  • The Eskimos of Bering Strait, 1650-1898 (1992) ISBN 0-295-97122-3[23]
  • A Legacy of Arctic Art (1996, with Aldona Jonaitis) ISBN 0-295-97518-0[15]

Articles

  • "Happy Jack: King of the Ivory Carvers" (1964)[8]
  • "Nineteenth Century Settlement and Subsistence Patterns in Bering Strait" (1964)[11]
  • "Sheldon Jackson and the Reindeer Industry of Alaska" (1965)[14]
  • "Pictographs Near Bering Strait, Alaska" (1966)[24]
  • "Land Tenure and Polity of the Bering Strait Eskimos" (1967)[13]
  • "Eskimo Place Names in Bering Strait and Vicinity" (1971)[12]
  • "Early Maritime Trade with the Eskimo of Bering Strait and the Introduction of Firearms" (1975)[25]
  • "Haapy Jack and His Artistry" (1989)[8]

Essays and poems

In college, Ray was editor of the student literary magazine The Purple Pen,[26] and contributed essays and poems to the publication between 1939 and 1942.

  • "Rudolph" (1939, essay)[27]
  • "Front Page News"[28] and "One Side of the Hill"[29] (1939, poems)
  • "Deception",[30] "My Life",[31] "To the End of Time",[32] "Unknown Valleys",[33] and "Linocut"[34] (1940, poems)
  • "My Friend, Mr. Thoreau" (1941, essay)[35]
  • "I Am Twenty-One" (1942, poem)[36]

Personal life

Tostlebe married to Stanley Thompson in 1942,[6] and had a son, Eric.[5] She married fellow anthropologist and author Verne F. Ray in 1954.[37] Her husband died in 2003,[37] and she died in 2007, at the age of 88, in Port Townsend, Washington.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Dorothy Tostlebe Soloist with Band at Concert May 31". The Courier. May 24, 1940. p. 10. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Piccolo Player from Cedar Falls Wins U.S. Meet; Charles City Girl Second on E Flat Clarinet". The Courier. May 16, 1937. p. 1. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Highly Superior". The Courier. May 17, 1937. p. 24. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 "Cedar Falls Girls Will Leave Monday on Youth Hostel Tour". The Courier. June 2, 1940. p. 22. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Special Collections & University Archives". University of Northern Iowa. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
  6. 1 2 "Becomes Bride". The Courier. May 18, 1942. p. 7. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Cedar Falls Girls to Pedal Thru East". The Courier. June 24, 1941. p. 9. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 3 Chandonnet, Ann (January 20, 1990). "Researcher's efforts brought artist to light". Anchorage Times. pp. E1, E3. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Brennan, Marnie (July 23, 1976). "Author to 'Demolish' Old Folk Tale". Anchorage Times. p. 30. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ McKinney, Debra (October 18, 1996). "Call to Collect; Dorothy Jean Ray's Treasured Native Art Returns to Alaskans". Anchorage Daily News. p. 72. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 Ray, Dorothy Jean (1964). "Nineteenth Century Settlement and Subsistence Patterns in Bering Strait". Arctic Anthropology. 2 (2): 61–94. ISSN 0066-6939.
  12. 1 2 Ray, Dorothy Jean (March 1, 1971). "Eskimo Place-Names in Bering Strait and Vicinity". Names. 19 (1): 1–33. doi:10.1179/nam.1971.19.1.1. ISSN 1756-2279.
  13. 1 2 Ray, Dorothy Jean. "Land tenure and polity of the Bering Strait Eskimos." Journal of the West 6, no. 3 (1967): 371-394.
  14. 1 2 Ray, Dorothy Jean. "Sheldon Jackson and the reindeer industry of Alaska" The Journal of Presbyterian History 43, no. 2 (1965): 71-99.
  15. 1 2 Thomson, Jane Sproull (1998). "Review of A Legacy of Arctic Art". Arctic. 51 (2): 173–174. ISSN 0004-0843.
  16. ↑ Brown, Nancy (September 12, 1996). "Book catalogs Eskimo art, anthropologist's work". The Peninsula Clarion. p. 12. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Ray, Dorothy Jean (1969). "Graphic arts of the Alaskan Eskimo". The Online Books Page. Archived from the original on July 24, 2024. Retrieved May 16, 2026.
  18. ↑ McClellan, Catharine (1968). "Review of Eskimo Masks: Art and Ceremony". Man. 3 (3): 515–515. doi:10.2307/2798934. ISSN 0025-1496.
  19. ↑ Robinson, Bart (1978). "Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska by Dorothy Jean Ray, and: Indian Artists at Work by Ulli Steltzer". Western American Literature. 13 (2): 180–181. doi:10.1353/wal.1978.0097. ISSN 1948-7142.
  20. ↑ Elder, Robert A. (1963). "Review of Artists of the Tundra and the Sea". Art Journal. 22 (4): 264–266. ISSN 0004-3249.
  21. ↑ McCartney, Allen P. (1986). "Review of Ethnohistory in the Arctic: The Bering Strait Eskimo; Atka: An Ethnohistory of the Western Aleutians". Ethnohistory. 33 (1): 104–108. doi:10.2307/482523. ISSN 0014-1801.
  22. ↑ Ewers, John C. (1983). "Review of Aleut and Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in South Alaska". The Western Historical Quarterly. 14 (1): 76–77. doi:10.2307/968441. ISSN 0043-3810.
  23. ↑ Bockstoce, John (1977). "Review of The Eskimos of Bering Strait, 1650-1898". American Indian Quarterly. 3 (2): 170–171. doi:10.2307/1184192. ISSN 0095-182X.
  24. ↑ Ray, Dorothy Jean. "Pictographs near Bering Strait, Alaska." Polar Notes (1986): 35-40.
  25. ↑ Ray, Dorothy Jean (1975). "Early Maritime Trade with the Eskimo of Bering Strait and the Introduction of Firearms". Arctic Anthropology. 12 (1): 1–9. ISSN 0066-6939.
  26. ↑ "Mothers Feted at College". The Courier. May 12, 1940. p. 14. Retrieved May 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "Rudolph" Purple Pen 11(3)(1939): 27-28.
  28. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "Front Page News" The Purple Pen 12(1)(1939).
  29. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "One Side of the Hill" The Purple Pen 11(3)(1939): 20.
  30. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "Deception" The Purple Pen 12(3)(1040): 16.
  31. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "My Life" Purple Pen 12(2)(1940): 29.
  32. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "To the End of Time" Purple Pen 12(3)(1940): 14.
  33. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "Unknown Valleys" The Purple Pen 12(2)(1940).
  34. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "Linocut" Purple Pen 12(2)(1940).
  35. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "My Friend, Mr. Thoreau" Purple Pen 13(3)(1941): 31-32.
  36. ↑ Tostlebe, Dorothy Jean. "I Am Twenty-One" The Purple Pen 13(2)(1941).
  37. 1 2 Seaburg, William R. (2005). "Verne F. Ray (1905-2003)". American Anthropologist. 107 (1): 180–182. ISSN 0002-7294.
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