Ann Lane Hedlund – “Mac Schweitzer: A Mid-Century Tucson Artist and Her Southwestern Archaeology Connections”

Artist Mac (Mary Alice Cox) Schweitzer (1921-1962) was well known in the Tucson and Scottsdale art colonies of the mid-twentieth century. Mac’s close friends, mentors and patrons, many of whom were associated with the University of Arizona and anthropology, included Tom Bahti, David and Barbara Breternitz, Alice Carpenter, Ed and Marianne Dozier, Maurice Grossman, Emil Haury, Fred and Alice Kabotie, Lex and Jane Lindsay, Charles and Otellie Loloma, Charles Di Peso, Ned and Roz Spicer, and Joe Ben Wheat.

Mac’s prize-winning watercolors, oil paintings, prints, and sculptures ranged from naturalistic and stylized studies of Sonoran Desert animals to impressionistic landscapes to moody abstractions. A sharp observer of Indigenous life, she sketched and painted scenes of Navajo (Diné), Hopi, Zuni, O’odham, and Yaqui (Yoeme) people and events. She depicted Ancestral Puebloan sites at Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, and Navajo National Monument, and illustrated several books. At least one archaeological monograph contains many humorous as well as informative vignettes.

After her unexpected death in 1962, Mac’s artistic legacy faded from public view, but her artworks and archives, brought together sixty years later, now attest to a once-thriving career. In researching and writing the artist’s biography, Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and Her Art, Ann Hedlund rediscovered a legacy full of intriguing stories, successful shows and honors, and diverse work, much of which the public had never seen. In this richly illustrated talk, Ann will draw from the artist’s letters, photo albums, and published reviews to tell the story of Mac’s creative and adventuresome life in the Southwest, along with some of the Tucson anthropologists and artists whom she knew, from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Speaker Ann Lane Hedlund is the author of Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and Her Art,  was named one of the four “Top Picks” among the 2026 Southwest Books of the Year awards. The book received a subvention grant from AAHS in 2024. Dr. Hedlund is a cultural anthropologist and widely recognized expert on Indigenous textile traditions. Her other books include Navajo Weaving in the Late Twentieth Century, Gloria F. Ross & Modern Tapestry, and an edited volume, Joe Ben Wheat’s Blanket Weaving in the Southwest. A long-time member of AAHS, Hedlund served from 1997 to 2013 as an Arizona State Museum curator, University of Arizona professor, and director of the Gloria F. Ross Center for Tapestry Studies. Now “retired,” Ann lives in Silver City, New Mexico, where she writes, consults, hikes, and gardens.