Museum of Sonoma County | Art · History | Collections Spotlight: Spring in California, 1903, John Marshall Gamble

John Marshall Gamble was born in Morristown, New Jersey on November 25, 1863. When he was a teenager, he moved with his family to Auckland, New Zealand. Gamble contributed significantly to the early California art scene. His paintings of lush hillsides decorated with vibrant lupines, poppies, mustard, lilacs, sage, and buckwheat have come to symbolize a bucolic picture of the California landscape at the turn of the century.

At age 20, Gamble traveled to San Francisco, where he began his art training at the San Francisco School of Design, but, in 1890, he left San Francisco to pursue portrait and figure studies in Paris.

In 1893, Gamble returned to San Francisco. Well versed in both American and European traditions, he opened a studio and embarked on a career as a professional artist. For over thirteen years, he maintained national popularity and a modest income as a painter of wildflowers. He regularly had works on display at the San Francisco Art Association as well as the Philadelphia Art Club and the American Watercolor Society in New York City.

On April 16, 1906, Gamble’s career hit a turning point with the massive San Francisco earthquake and the resulting fires. Although Gamble was unharmed, his studio completely burned to the ground, including all of its contents. According to his inventory, only three paintings that were out on loan to an art dealer survived.

For several years, Gamble had been making annual sketching trips to Southern California. With no studio or inventory left in San Francisco, he ultimately decided to move to Los Angeles, During his trip south, Gamble made a fateful stop in Santa Barbara on Christmas Eve. Astonished by the beauty of the region and its Mediterranean climate, he altered his arrangements and settled permanently in the “American Riviera.”

By the 1920s, he was enjoying national success and even became known as the “Dean of Santa Barbara Artists.” In 1929, he joined the faculty of the Santa Barbara School of the Arts as teacher of advanced landscape and sketching. In his later years, his eyesight began to fail, forcing him to paint less often and postpone his annual sketching trips. On April 7, 1957, he died from a brief illness at the age of 93.

"Spring in California" was most recently shown in the 2020 exhibition, Landscape: Awe to Activism.

While the album and scrapbook don’t go back that far-after all, photography was just being born- they do reveal multiple generations of the Carrillo family in Sonoma County in later years. One image shows Marta Carrillo, daughter of Maria, and two of her children in the 1890s. She and her husband, Joaquin, maintained a house on Fourth Street in Santa Rosa that provided a gathering place for many members of the Carrillo family, including those living in Sebastopol. Joaquin ran cattle, much like the Californio ranchers of the past. His cattle brand can still be found in the records of the County Recorder. Marta and Joaquin had ten children. Their son Juan, also in the picture, went to Mexico, became a successful businessman and helped support the family. Marta died in 1905.

Like many towns in California, Santa Rosa once had a Chinese section of the city. Most Chinese businesses in Santa Rosa were concentrated on Second Street by the 1890s, but two medicinal herb shops were among the exceptions. Both located on Fourth Street, the success of the shops demonstrated the ability of Chinese herbalists to find customers among the non-Asian community, even in times of overt anti-Chinese bigotry. Fong Poy (later known as Fong Wan), the proprietor of one of the shops, would go on to become one of the most influential Chinese herbalists in the United States and fought against discrimination against his businesses.

In Santa Rosa, the Fong and Lee Herb Company was established in 1913 at 209 Fourth Street. The founders were Fong Poy and Lee Fun Kai. The business succeeded and a steady stream of testimonials from non-Chinese customers provided content for advertising in the Press Democrat newspaper. Fong Poy would later move to Oakland and opened another herb shop where he went by the name Fong Wan. There he faced regular attacks from the state and US Government, including a charge of mail fraud in 1932. Fong Wan’s advertisements, featuring bold updates on his legal battles, gained him widespread notoriety for his defiance and defense of his business. Chinese businesses so often faced prejudicial treatment that Fong Wan’s advertising campaign became a form of activism against unequal treatment under the law. Arrested dozens of times, Fong Wan remained resilient, relying on the testimonials of customers as his defense. He eventually published a highly influential book on Chinese herb lore.

As you read this, February 12 just passed, marking the beginning of the Lunar New Year, commonly referred to as Chinese New Year, and the Year of the Ox. While we contemplate what lies ahead in this new year, let us also take a moment to look back at the past and remember Santa Rosa’s very own Chinatown.

The Chinese community of Santa Rosa came together in the area of Second and D Streets in downtown Santa Rosa in the years between 1890 and 1910 and established businesses and built homes. This area became known as Santa Rosa’s Chinatown. This was a small and tight-knit community, and it is here that Song Wong Bourbeau, beloved local restaurateur and philanthropist, grew up. Much of what we know about Chinatown and what life was like there comes from Song herself in an oral history interview with Gaye LeBaron, excerpts of which you can view here. Santa Rosa’s Chinatown thrived in downtown, a few short blocks away from city hall, until the 1930s and 1940s when businesses were gradually sold off and the residents moved away. But the legacy of Chinatown, and more importantly the people of Chinatown, live on through Song’s words and memories and through the tremendous collection of artifacts that she gifted to the Museum of Sonoma County.

These beautiful statues, now in the Museum’s collection, once guarded the temple that was at the heart of life in Santa Rosa’s Chinatown. Known in English as Fu or Foo Dogs, these statues are not dogs at all. They are Chinese guardian lions, and a pair of them would traditionally guard the entrances to buildings. The pair of guardians includes a male and a female lion. The male, on the right in the image, leans on a ball, and the female holds back a little lion cub. Guardian lions like these two have their origins in Chinese Buddhism and can be seen at the entrance or in front of buildings all over the world, from the palaces in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, to the homes and businesses of Chinese emigrants and their descendants. These statues came to the Museum from Song. She and her family were the caretakers of the Chinese temple in Santa Rosa, and she took in these statues after Chinatown was sold off. Decades later, she entrusted them to the Museum along with her story.

May the Year of the Ox bring us all health, wealth, and double happiness, and let’s thank Song Wong Bourbeau for preserving and sharing her community’s legacy with all of us.

More from the Song Wong Bourbeau Collection

The Topaz Room was THE special occasion restaurant in Santa Rosa for four decades, a place to see and be seen. It was built during World War II and occupied an important place on Courthouse Square until the 1980s. Not only was it the place for a special night out, its location right next to city hall and the courthouse meant that it was also the ultimate spot for a business lunch or a political dinner. We can only imagine how many deals were made over the tables and at the bar of the Topaz Room!

When I stumbled on this 1944 menu and postcard of the Topaz Room, they positively dripped with mid-century glamour. It is just the kind of place where I can imagine Don and Betty Draper enjoying a night out. Perhaps taking some inspiration from “where the finest people meet” is just what my holiday celebrations need this year, a little glitz and style from the past for my holiday menu. “Broiled live lobster” and “chicken, a la Kiev” may be a little bit beyond my cooking skills, but the “chicken sauté, a la Topaz” sounds delightful and the “soufflé potatoes” are a must! And the “cherries flambee au Kirsh” may be just right to add some excitement to a two-person New Year’s Eve.

A fire in 1936 badly damaged the “old Rosenberg’s” building which it shared with the Santa Rosa Hotel, and a new location was built. This time at 4th and D Streets, the new Rosenberg’s was built in the finest Art Deco style. There, Rosenberg’s stayed until 1988. It was purchased by Bill McNeany in 1951, and he and his family ran the business until it closed in 1988, at one point selling it to a conglomerate, but buying it back in the early 1980s. Today, you can still see the building that used to be Rosenberg’s, it houses Barnes and Noble in downtown Santa Rosa.

The way that the postal service acted as the connective tissue within a community and across the country is sometimes hard to fathom in the age of cell phones, social media and instant communication. Innovations like rural free delivery in 1896 and parcel post, allowing for items heavier than a letter, in 1913, helped bring rural residents into the mainstream. The Postal Service was- and is-vital.

In 1920 the Post Office's busiest day of the year in Santa Rosa was the release of Luther Burbank’s seed catalog which mailed out internationally. The famous horticulturalist’s catalog connected Santa Rosa to the world, partly through the United States Postal Service.

Or consider the importance of mail during wartime. Members of the armed forces can feel isolated while deployed overseas. It is the postal service, augmented by the Department of Defense, that allows for a tangible connection between military personnel and home.

There are numerous examples of military mail in the Museum’s collection, but perhaps none so striking as a coconut mailed by A. Paroli of Santa Rosa, back to his hometown from an unnamed location. Paroli was a member of the Construction Battalion Maintenace Unit 511 during World War II, which was active on the islands of Efate and Tongabatu in 1943 and ‘44- both islands with coconuts.

The return address indicates that the coconut was sent by naval ship, care of Fleet P.O. in San Francisco. Eventually, the giant seed pod found its way to the Post Office in Santa Rosa, destined for F. Rochetti on Phillips Avenue.

The coconut and the Burbank seed catalog are unusual examples of the importance of the postal service. But the USPS has provided a remarkable service that has stood the test of time, delivering letters, hallmark cards, voting ballots, gifts, and, yes, even coconuts. The US Postal Service has helped keep us united and connected for nearly two and a half centuries.

Collections Care During Closure

Your History, Your Art, Your Cultural Heritage

Megan Kane, Collections Registrar

May 5, 2020

While our galleries may be closed to visitors, the Museum of Sonoma County continues our important and vital work of caring for our shared history and artistic heritage. We currently steward a collection of over 18,000 objects of historical, artistic, and cultural importance, not to mention the more than 125 additional items on loan from other cultural institutions and members of the public. It is our job as a museum and a collecting institution to ensure that these objects are protected and cared for so that they are available to share with you for generations to come.

One of the most important aspects of caring for a museum collection is creating and maintaining an environment that ensures the long-term preservation of our objects. Unstable temperatures and excessive light can cause permanent damage, and even destruction, to some of the fragile objects in our collection. We carefully and constantly monitor the temperature, relative humidity, and light levels in our collections storage facilities and our exhibition galleries. This means that we must run our thermostats all day, every day to guarantee that our collection and the objects in our care are safe. This of course not only takes power, but also people to monitor the environment in real time and to maintain our heating and cooling units.

Pests are another potential threat to our collection. Silverfish, moths, and carpet beetles all find parts of our collection absolutely irresistible, from the paper of our archives and records, to the fabric of historic clothing and furniture and canvas of paintings. To combat these threats, we carefully monitor our storage facilities and galleries and deploy a variety of pest traps and specialized baits. These traps and baits must be replaced every few months to be effective and a trained staff member must examine these traps on a regular basis to evaluate how safe our collections are.

Aside from keeping pests out and humidity changes at bay, the Museum ensures that no degrading elements are introduced to our collections. We use specialized tissue paper, plastics, and even special cardboard boxes to house and store the collection. Normal packaging materials often contain acids and other chemicals that can be released as the materials breakdown and harm, or even destroy, fragile objects. For instance, acids in some papers and glues will discolor and eat away at photographs, losing the image forever. Even our specialized housing materials do not last forever and must be refreshed over time to continue to safeguard our unique collection for the long-term.

Caring for a museum collection may seem like a passive task, but it is in fact an active verb that takes many people and many more hours to do, and right now we need your help. Being closed has a significant financial impact on our organization. Help us continue to care for our collections by making a donation today. You have entrusted us, the Museum of Sonoma County, with your history, your art, and your cultural heritage, and that is a great responsibility that we endeavor to fulfill every day. Our doors may be closed at the moment, but the trained staff members at your Museum are still hard at work caring for the collection so that we can share it with you now online, soon in our galleries, and for many, many years to come.