Alford Kenneth D. Allied Looting in World War II: Thefts of Art, Manuscripts, Stamps and Jewelry in Europe

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Part II

A Passion for

Lucas Cranach Paintings

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Chapter 4

Donovan Senter’s Early Days

Donovan Senter was born in 1909 in the town of Estancia, New Mexico,

the center of the state, 40 miles southeast of Albuquerque. His father was,

30- year- old Martin Hale Senter; his mother, Florence, was a year older than

her husband. Martin and two of his brothers had homesteaded from Alvarado,

Texas, having come to Estancia as part of the 1891 Homestead Act. This act

allowed any citizen 21 years of age or older to live on 160 acres of land and,

after 18 months, to purchase the land for $1.25 an acre. After ﬁve years, the

homesteader could have the acreage free. Martin met his wife in Estancia; her

family had settled there from Carthage, Missouri. Previously Florence had

attended the University of Chicago.

Donovan was the oldest of three brothers, the middle brother, Cedric

Hale, was born in 1918 and Albert, the youngest, was born a year later. The

family struggled to make a living by dry farming pinto beans, carting ties for

the new railroad, working in construction and operating the ﬁrst telephone

system in Estancia. When Donovan was nine years old his father invested in

a large herd of cattle. During a harsh blizzard, the cattle starved to death, and

Martin had a hard time recovering from this loss. During the Depression

years, Donovan and his brothers remained in Estancia, and Donovan ﬁnished

high school in 1927. Florence earned extra income by teaching school locally,

including schools attended by Cedric and Albert. Like many young men at

that time, Donovan joined the New Mexico National Guard (Troop A, 111th

Cavalry) for three years.

After a year- long absence, Donovan rejoined the same unit in the medical

detachment. This duty consisted of one night a week training and a two-

week summer camp. It supplied much- needed pocket money and, in the late

1920s, the chance of active duty was totally remote. In 1929 Donovan entered

the University of New Mexico and seven years later received his bachelor’s

degree. In 1937 the family moved to Albuquerque, and at about the same

time Donovan left the National Guard. Martin, his father, did construction

contracting, well digging, and house moving. Florence, Cedric, and Albert

all attended the University of New Mexico and Florence received her degree

just before her early death in 1940.

During an interview, Albert told the

author: “My mother always liked Donovan best.”

During his seven years in college Donovan worked for the Mutual Life

Insurance Company of New York and was a car salesman for the Packard dis-

tributorship, both located in Albuquerque. In 1936 Senter obtained a master’s

degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. While obtaining

this degree, he helped with the 1934 restoration of the Old Quarai Spanish

Mission.

As a young man, Senter explored the nearby ruins of the Old Quarai

Mission. He must surely have stared up at the towering walls and thought,

“How did they build this?” “Why is this here?” “What happened here?” After

all, these ruins were only a few miles from his birthplace of Estancia.

In the 1580s, when the ﬁrst Spanish explorers marched through this area,

the Salinas pueblos were already

large villages. The Spanish incor -

porated the Salinas area into

their existing social and admin-

istrative structures: the Roman

Catholic Church and the civil

government. This authority ulti-

mately derived from the king of

Spain, who ruled by “divine

right.”

In 1626, Fray Alonso de

Benavides, the new custodian of

the missionary effort in New

Mexico, decided to send a mis-

sion to a pueblo called Quarai in

the Salinas basin. Fray Benavides

had been in New Mexico only a

short time, having just arrived

from Mexico City on the supply

train that reached New Mexico

in December 1625. To help with

the job of establishing the new

mission, he selected another

newcomer to New Mexico, Fray

Juan Gutiérrez, one of the mis-

sionaries who had traveled north

with Benavides. Gutiérrez rode

34 Part II : A Passion for Lucas Cranach Paintings

A young, handsome Donovan Senter attended

the University of New Mexico in the late

1930s. During World War II, his life, like

many others, was turned upside down by the

war.

into Quarai a few months later with his wagon load of starting tools, equip-

ment, and supplies. The leaders of the pueblo apparently approved of his

intent to convert the Indians of Quarai, because he encountered few of the

problems of opposition or harassment so common to the ﬁrst efforts of con-

version in a new pueblo. Gutiérrez purchased several rooms in the pueblo and

added to them to make a residence for himself. After an examination of the

pueblo and the surrounding land, he selected a mound of ruins left near the

northeast corner of the pueblo as the site of his church and monastery. During

the remainder of 1626–1627 Gutiérrez designed and built the new church

and convent of Quarai with the help of Indian work crews.

The trade to and from a mission was an important part of its life. It

inﬂuenced the planning, construction, activities in, and changes to the

monastery. Throughout the existence of the mission, wagon trains provided

the vital 1,800-mile link between the missions and civil settlements of New

Mexico and the supply and trade centers of New Spain.

In 1669, Fray Juan Bernal remarked on the twin misfortunes that had

caused so much difﬁculty in the province of New Mexico for the previous

three years and threatened to “put it out of existence.” These were the war

with the Apache Indians, which had escalated since the mid–1660s, and crop

failure, which had been causing problems in one part or another of the prov-

ince of New Mexico since 1667. Bernal was prophetic: he was observing the

beginning of the process that put an end to the province of New Mexico. The

twin stresses of famine and Indian insurrection eventually caused the aban-

donment of the Salinas jurisdiction in the late 1670s and contributed to the

loss of the entire province in 1680, barely 100 years after its inception.

During the 1934 excavation of the Old Quarai Mission, which at the

time was under the management of the University of New Mexico, Senter

spent a great deal time learning the German language from one of the pro-

fessors working on this project. The work of shoring up and reinforcing the

walls to the church was done using 20 men which ran from the Civilian Con-

servation Corps (CCC) camp at nearby Manzano. The CCC was a public

work relief program for unemployed men which ran from 1933 to 1942. As

part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the CCC carried out a

broad conservation program involving natural resources on national, state

and municipal lands. Donovan Senter was the student archaeologist on the

job at Quarai.

The mission was located on the side of a bluff with a view of the so-

called Accursed Salt Lakes about 25 miles east. A dry stream bed with large

cottonwoods stood nearby, and these majestic ﬁery- gold giant trees still remain

today. Just south of the ruins there was a large outcrop of red sandstone, its

walls covered with petroglyphs pointing to an ancient shrine outlined by a

4. Donovan Senter’s Early Days 35

great circle of stone slabs farther up on a hill.

It was while working on this

project that Donovan Senter met and married Florence Hawley, who had a

doctorate in archaeology. Their marriage took place on May 25, 1936, in the

rooﬂess, partially restored Old Quarai Mission, which had walls four feet

thick built in the form of a Latin cross; the original stood 60 feet tall. Unusual

for the time, Hawley retained her maiden name; probably because Senter was

a student and his wife was addressed as Dr. Hawley, he was often addressed

as Mr. Hawley. This did not sit well with the sensitive Senter. It is of interest

to note that she had the same ﬁrst name as Donovan’s mother.

Florence Hawley had been born in Cananea, Mexico, on September 17,

1906. During the Mexican Revolution, in 1913, her family moved to Miami,

Arizona. Hawley’s education began at the University of Arizona. She graduated

in 1927, completing a major in English and a minor in anthropology. During

the Depression she decided to use her savings to attend the University of

Chicago. In 1934, she received her Ph.D., using her excavations of Chetro

Ketl, one of the largest pueblos in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, as the basis

for her dissertation. After graduating from the University of Arizona, she was

hired as a professor at the University of New Mexico.

Donovan and Florence studied archaeology together. One of their more

36 Part II : A Passion for Lucas Cranach Paintings

On May 26, 1936, Donovan Senter and Florence Hawley were married in these ruins

of the Old Quarai Spanish Mission, New Mexico. The author stands by the main

entrance of the church, which is today administered by the National Park Service.

famous studies was about Hopi and Navajo child burials. In 1937, they dug

up Hopi and Navajo burial sites. The Hopi burial contained a young infant

that did not have any clothes. The grave was covered with stones, and sticks

were sticking out of the mound, which signiﬁed the Hopi’s “ladder for the

soul.” The Hopi also believed that they needed to have earthly possessions

buried with them when they died. This Hopi infant had an empty Post

Toasties box, some rubber baby pants, and modern glass beads. The Navajo

site contained two Navajo children, both dressed in traditional Navajo cloth-

ing. There was a large stone with a cross engraved on it at the head of the

grave, showing the inﬂuence of Christianity. One child was buried with a

Crackerjacks box and a tin cup, while the other was buried with a piece of

candy and a spoon. The study concluded by Senter and Hawley showed that

these Native American tribes still used some of the rituals of their ancestors.

Hawley said, “There were no rules in those days covering how things should

be excavated.”

Fortunately, after protest from Native Americans, this type of

“grave robbing” was outlawed by the state of New Mexico.

After receiving his master’s degree, Senter was granted a fellowship at

Harvard University, where he commenced working toward his doctoral degree

in the ﬁeld of physical anthropology. After one year at Harvard, he transferred

to the University of Chicago, where he remained for ﬁve years. It was here,

on February 26, 1939, that their daughter, Florence Anita Senter, was born.

She was affectionately nicknamed DonAnita, a combination of her and her

father’s names. In 1940 Senter returned to Albuquerque as a research sociol-

ogist to continue working toward his Ph.D. He was supported by the Indian

Health Service, an agency within the Department of Health and Human

Services, which had provided the University of Chicago with a grant for a

study of the cultural, nutritional, and environmental factors in the lives of

American Indians. Senter decided to make this a lengthy project, working

from Canyon, Taos, 125 miles north of Albuquerque. The town of Taos lies

in the north central region of New Mexico; it is seated on the high desert

mesa at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The word Taos means

“red willow” in the Tiwa (Taos) language.

In a requested report to the University of Chicago regarding his now

two- year project, Senter wrote:

I may be able to ﬁll them out nearly completely, with a little more effort

for the villages of Canyon, Canyada, Ranchos, Manzano and Trampas. Of

course, I couldn’t give you detailed family studies and such. The people are

pretty [in touch with] what people think about what they eat here in the

canyon. They “know” what they should eat like the Americanos, but can’t

afford it. White ﬂour and canned milk, etc., dominate. Frijoles without the

expensive chili still remain favorites despite the fact they are not “anglo.”

4. Donovan Senter’s Early Days 37

Canyon is about as good as I know to show the mess that American store food

has made to their diet.

Florence has considerable information on foods for Zia [Zia Pueblo]. She

even has quantitative data from store. In fact, one of her largest ﬁeld expenses

is buying groceries and clothing for her informant.

Senter and his wife were planning to spend the month of December 1941

in Taos. On Easter Day, 1942, Senter was to be initiated into the Brothers of

the Pious Fraternity of Our Father Jesus the Nazarene, a lay confraternity of

Roman Catholic men active in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.

These men came together in the absence of a priest for the purpose of prayer

and to offer spiritual and social aid to the community.

On December 7, 1941, then 32- year- old Donovan Senter found his aca-

demic career ending with the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. After

that day, whole armies of soldiers and fresh- faced young women converged

on Washington and transformed a sleepy old- style southern town into the

energetic world center of action and power. Eighteen months later, in Sep-

tember 1943, Senter arrived amid a government that produced nothing but

paper—in the form of laws, currency, regulations, and reports. This govern-

ment of paper shufﬂers had recruited an entirely new government to be piled

on top of the old one in order to get tanks and airplanes built; uniforms

made; soldiers assembled, trained, and shipped overseas; and battles fought.

Like many during that time, Senter went into this lucrative job market and

soon got a job with the Ofﬁce of War Information (OWI).

Just prior to Senter’s employment, the OWI had created images that

remain among the most famous documentary photographs ever produced.

Created by a group of U.S. government photographers, the images show

Americans in every part of the nation. The project initially emphasized rural

life and the impact of the Great Depression, farm mechanization, and the

Dust Bowl. Ansel Adams was commissioned to create a photo mural for the

Department of the Interior, from photos taken at the Grand Canyon, Grand

Teton, Kings Canyon, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Yosemite,

Carlsbad Caverns, Glacier, and Zion National Parks; Death Valley, Saguaro,

and Canyon de Chelly. Many of the latter locations, which were well- known

by Senter, show Navajo and Pueblo Indians, their homes and activities.

The core of the OWI collection is made up of about 164,000 black- and-

white photographs. The photographers in time turned their attention to the

mobilization effort for World War II. In addition to patriotic works or photos

playing up a wholesome image of America, OWI photographers covered less

happy occasions. The OWI also documented social change, including the

massive movement of women into the workforce and the advancement of

African Americans in the military.

38 Part II : A Passion for Lucas Cranach Paintings

During his early months in this job, Senter traveled the border states as

a farm labor organizer to recruit, transport, and established camps for Mexican

nationals to grow agricultural products. He was responsible for administration,

pay, and food for the immigrant workers. Six months later, Senter held the

position of regional intelligence ofﬁcer and conducted intensive interviews on

different studies for the OWI, such as attitude surveys among all classes of

people. One of the studies was a survey of racial opinions. On a train trip in

1943 from Dallas, Texas, to the Florida panhandle Senter reported: “Just two

ears listening.” What he heard was a rising din of racial hatred. Whites on

the train expressed raging anger that African Americans had obtained defense

jobs, were receiving decent salaries, and refused to bow to white supremacy.

While working as a civilian with the OWI, Senter earned $420 a month, an

excellent salary during the war years of 1942–1943.

Senter remained with this job until he joined the army on September 22,

1943, as a 6-foot, 175-pound, 34- year- old ﬁrst lieutenant. His enlistment

papers indicated that he had a doctor’s degree from the University of Chicago

with credentials in nutrition, both claims being false. But this gave the impres-

sion that he was a medical doctor. He remained in Washington as director of

personnel training for the coordinator of Inter- American affairs because of his

ﬂuent command of Spanish and extensive knowledge of Latin American affairs.

A particular concern of the coordinator was the elimination of German

inﬂuence in South America, as well as that of other Axis powers. Trade routes

to Europe were disrupted following the fall of France in June 1940, presenting

opportunities to both Germany and the United States, for at that time many

agents or afﬁliates of U.S. ﬁrms operating in Latin America were sympathetic

to the Axis powers. The ofﬁce encouraged a voluntary program of noncoop-

eration with companies and individuals perceived to be anti–American and,

in the process, established a blacklist of companies and individuals. It engaged

in counterintelligence activities and the collection of intelligence, controlling

subordinate ﬁeld ofﬁces in the Canal Zone and in Brazil and operating its

own intercept system to locate possible enemy- agent transmitters throughout

Latin America.

4. Donovan Senter’s Early Days 39