Dates

• Existence: 1860 - 1946

Biographical Note

Ernest Thompson Seton was born Ernest Evan Thompson on August 14, 1860 in South Shield, Durham, England. His parents were Joseph and Alice Thompson. Seton immigrated to Canada with his family in 1866 and legally changed his name to Seton—an old family name—in 1883. Later, Seton immigrated to the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen on November 6, 1931. He attended the Ontario College of Art from 1877-1879, the Royal Academy School of Painting and Sculpture in 1881, the Art Students’ League in 1884, and the Academie Julian in 1891. Seton married Grace Gallatin in 1896; the two had one child, Ann, and were divorced in 1935. That same year, Seton married his second wife, Julia Ross Buttree, with whom he also adopted a second daughter, Dee. Seton died on October 23, 1946.

Seton had a diverse career as an artist (often using the pseudonym BlackWolf), naturalist, lecturer, illustrator, and author. He worked as an artist for the lithographic publishers Wilhelms and Betzig in New York from 1883-1884 and as an illustrator for The Century Dictionary—also in New York—in 1886. From 1887-1890, Seton served as a resort manager at Lake Ontario, and then became a naturalist for the government of Manitoba after 1892. “In 1898 Seton published his first book of animal stories, Wild Animals I Have Known, telling the stories of Lobo, King of Currumpaw; Silverspot, the crow; and Raggylug, the cottontail rabbit, from the animals' points of view. Lavishly illustrated with Seton's unique drawings and paintings, the book was an instant success, and Seton went on tour telling his stories and showing slides of his illustrations. For the next ten years he turned out at least one book of stories annually, including The Biography of a Grizzly; Lives of the Hunted; Monarch, the Big Bear of Tallac; Woodmyth and Fable; and Animal Heroes.”

“In 1902 Seton organized the Woodcraft Indians [which later became the Woodcraft League] for boys in order to encourage outdoor activities, and in 1904 he presented a copy of his Birchbark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians to Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the hero of the siege of Mafeking, South Africa, asking him to help popularize Woodcraft summer camps in England. Instead, Baden-Powell introduced his own organization--the Boy Scouts--into England in 1908, incorporating most of the games and activities Seton had included in the Birchbark Roll. When it appeared that Baden-Powell intended to move the Boy Scout organization into the United States, Seton joined forces with other youth leaders to form the Boy Scouts of America in 1910.” He served as the chairman of the founding committee and also became the first Chief Scout. In December 1915, “he resigned in protest to Theodore Roosevelt's idea that the scouts should be ‘trained to arms.’ Scouting for Seton had less to do with uniforms and mottoes than with camping, woodcraft, and Indian lore.” Indeed, in a quote from this manuscript, Seton states “I was more and more convinced that the military methods and ideals would result in a Prussianization of our young people […]. In 1915, they abolished the office of Chief Scout, which meant the end of my direct connection with the Board. The manual was rewritten, excluding many things which I considered of paramount importance.”

In 1930 Seton settled near Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he and his second wife Julia founded “the Seton College of Indian Wisdom (later the Seton Institute of Indian Lore). For the next ten years they conducted summer courses in arts and crafts, outdoor activities, and leadership skills. Seton published his autobiography in 1940 and his last animal story book, Santana, the Hero Dog of France, in 1945. He continued to write and lecture until two months before his death on October 23, 1946.”

During his lifetime, Seton received numerous awards, including various scholarships and apprenticeships, the Camp-Fire Gold Medal in 1909 for his text Life-Histories of Northern Animals: An Account of the Mammals of Manitoba, the Societe d’Acclimation de France Medal in 1918, the National Institute of Science Elliot Gold Medal in 1927, the John Burroughs Memorial Society’s Bronze Medal in 1928, and the David Girou medal in 1930.

Seton’s work with the development of the Boy Scouts of America and his knowledge of and dedication to Native American lore are where his ties to Springfield College can be found. At various times in his life, Seton—who was often referred to as “Chief”—was a colleague of and/or correspondent with men like Robert Baden-Powell, Daniel C. Beard, Gordon L. Foster, Charles B. Horton, Edgar M. Robinson, and Luther Halsey Gulick. Additionally, when Robinson was helping to develop the College’s Freshman Camp in the late 1920s, he consulted with Seton, who designed the blueprints and illustrations for Pukwana Lodge and the Pueblo of the Seven Fires. Robinson—who was known to Seton as “Gitchi Saka”—also wrote about his friendship with Seton in his own manuscript "Ernest Thompson Seton: An Unforgettable Personality.”

Bibliogrpahy Used:

Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2010. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

"Ernest Thompson Seton." Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1974. Biography In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/BT2310003737/BIC?u=mlin_w_brunton&sid=BIC&xid=0f311adc. Accessed Jan. 2019.

"Ernest Thompson Seton." Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998. Biography In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1631005971/BIC?u=mlin_w_brunton&sid=BIC&xid=77a95d20. Accessed Jan. 2019.

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