maeve thursday june 29th: the wild umlauff hunt comes to a close

I spent all of Thursday attempting to track any record of Umlauff and Gordon's discussion of the purchase of the African collection in 1912. I searched Gordon's letter books from 1911-1913 and read every piece of their exchange, everything in which Gordon planned his 1912 trip to Europe, and every relevant thing I could find in between those years--including all of Gordon's letters to Oldman as well. This turned up....nothing. Practically nothing. There is no mention of Umlauff before the collection was purchased--their first exchange deals with how the collection will be shipped to the U.S. I finally found something from Gordon's secretary at home to Gordon's secretary in London while he was there on a conference in the summer of 1912. Some Mr. Savage had written about an auction house in Germany with a large African collection, and she sent the letter to London so that Gordon could go there. I searched his entire box of "S" correspondence, and the file for M. F. Savage, the man who tipped him off, but that particular note no longer seems to exist.

I also contacted the church whose mission may have sent the bound figure and am waiting to hear what they might have in their archives.