Hand Tinted Portraits of Molly Nelson (pair)

Molly Nelson, born 1903, was a Native American dancer of the Penobscot nation with the show name Molly Spotted Elk who captivated audiences in Paris, France in the 30’s.

She was also a prolific writer, and story teller and often gave lectures in salons and museums. She fell in love and had a child with French journalist Jean Archembaud.

In 1939 she was offered to publish a book of Penobscot folktales, but the project was shelved by the Nazi occupation of France. She and her daughter were able to escape through the Pyrenees into Spain with the aide of American philanthropist Anne Morgan, but her husband was not able to secure a visa to the US and she later learned of his death in a refugee camp in 1941. She spent the rest of her life in Penobscot Maine, and died in 1977.

Nelson’s long delayed book was finally published in 2009. “Wigwam”s Tale of the Abenaki Tribe” included a dictionary of terms with French and English translations.  At the time, most indigenous stories were passed orally from a storyteller to a white historian or anthropologist, making Nelson a rare example of a Indigenous documentarian.