Archives West Finding Aid

Gertrude Bass Warner was born May 14, 1863 in Chicago, to Clara Foster and Perkins Bass. The Foster family prospered from early investment in Chicago real estate and also maintained an estate in Peterborough, NH. Clara's mother, Nancy Smith Foster, supported the higher education of women and used her substantial wealth to build a women's dormitory at the fledgling University of Chicago. Clara served on the board of the Art Institute of Chicago, helped establish the historical society in Peterborough, and commissioned its building to house Colonial art and a library. One of Gertrude's brothers, Robert Perkins Bass, served as governor of New Hampshire in 1911-13. Another, John Foster Bass, was a noted journalist and war correspondent.

Warner was educated at fashionable schools in Philadelphia and in Paris, where the family maintained an apartment. During Gertrude's teenage years, the house in Peterborough was equipped with a darkroom to support her interest in photography. She attended Vassar, and studied art in Europe. In 1888 she married Dr. George F. Fiske of Chicago and bore three children: Samuel Bass Fiske, George Foster Fiske, and Clara, who died as an infant in 1893. The couple divorced, George staying with his father while Gertrude raised Sam.

Gertrude and Murray Warner boating in AsiaAt the turn of the century, Asia experienced much political and military turmoil, and was forcibly influenced by European cultures. In 1904 Gertrude accompanied her journalist brother, John, to Japan during the Russo-Japanese war. The following year John sent her for safety to Shanghai, recommending an acquaintance with his friend Maj. Murray Warner (1869-1920). Murray Warner, a graduate of Exeter Academy, held a degree from MIT and went to China to establish the engineering department of the American Trading Company. Warner was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Shanghai Volunteers, protecting American citizens during the Boxer Rebellion, a Chinese upraising against foreign imperialism in 1899-1900. Gertrude and Murray were married on Oct. 1, 1905 and took up residence in Shanghai.

Gertrude Bass Warner continued her travels, exploring China, Japan, Korea, and Cambodia from Shanghai. She was an appreciative witness to many religious and cultural traditions that were destroyed in later wars. She experienced political unrest and military conflicts that complicated her travels: in 1924 she was besieged in Beijing and was evacuated on an International Train that came under repeated fire on its journey. [See "Our escape from Peking".] She photographed as she traveled, and also purchased images. Her interest in art expanded to Asia and to Russian icons, and she acquired a reference library to expand her knowledge.

The Warners returned to the United States in December 1909, residing in San Francisco. Murray Warner served as consulting engineer and quartermaster at Camp Dix during World War I. In 1920, he suffered a fatal stroke. Gertrude moved to Eugene to live near her son, a professor of law at the University of Oregon. For the next thirty-one years, Gertrude Bass Warner worked to build and manage a museum to house the collections, and to establish one of the first Asian studies departments, at the University of Oregon. Assisted by Maude Kerns and Mabel Klockars Garner, Warner continued her collecting trips and kept the museum going through the Depression and through political battles on campus.

Sam Bass Warner left the University of Oregon for a term at Syracuse, and then joined the law faculty at Harvard. His brother, George Fiske Jr., became a doctor in Southern California. Gertrude bought property next to Sam's in Belmont, Massachusetts, but continued to travel to visit with family and to work on the museum. Much of her correspondence is on letterhead from hotels and steamships.

Gertrude Bass Warner was an active supporter of the United Nations, a member of the Institute of Pacific Relations, the Meiji Japan Society, the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association of Museums, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Federation of Arts. In addition to her work at the University of Oregon, she established museums at St. Mary's Hall and at the International Institute, both in Shanghai. She provided scholarship assistance, funding the first Japanese full-time woman student at the university in 1935-37; established a statewide essay contest on Asian culture; encouraged fraternities to include foreign students; funded an International Club and residence; and supported the creation of multicultural campus organizations. In 1929 the University of Oregon conferred an honorary degree of master of arts in public service, "in recognition of her scholarly contribution to a better understanding of the art and civilization of Oriental peoples through her discriminating selection and organization of material contained in the Murray Warner Collection, and her tireless efforts in the promotion of international goodwill.\" Gertrude Bass Warner died in 1951 at the family home in Peterborough, NH.