Nuttall, Zelia, 1858-1933

Zelia Maria Magdalena Nuttall was born to an Irish father, Dr. Robert Kennedy Nuttall, and a Mexican-American mother, Magdalena Parrott Nuttall, in San Francisco on September 6, 1857. Raised in Europe, Nuttall acquired her education in France, Germany, Italy, and England, where she studied at Bedford College, London. In 1876 when Zelia was nineteen, the Nuttall family returned to San Francisco. Four years later, she married French anthropologist Alphonse Louis Pinart, whom she lived with in the West Indies, France, and Spain until 1882 when they returned to San Francisco and their only child Nadine was born. The Pinarts separated in 1884 and were divorced in 1888.

Nuttall first went to Mexico for five months in 1884 with her mother, younger brother, sister, and daughter. During this time she worked for the National Museum and collected terracotta heads from San Juan Teotihuacan. After living in Baltimore for a year, she moved to Dresden, Germany, were she resided until 1899. During this period she made trips to California, Europe, and Russia. With the support of Curator F.W. Putnam, Nuttall was an Honorary Assistant in Mexican Archaeology at the Peabody Museum from 1886 until her death in 1933. In 1888 her work "Standard or Head-Dress? An Historical Essay on a Relic of Ancient Mexico" was published as the first monograph in the first volume of the Peabody Museum Papers series. In 1902 Nuttall settled permanently in Mexico and twice visited the ruins of Yucatan. During the same year she purchased her home, Casa Alvarado, where she pursued her archaeological studies as well as her interests in Mexican gardens and botany.

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