Newly digitized “contemporary” photo collections

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Hannah Abelbeck

During the fall, Photo Archives digitized and posted some select sets of photo material. Additions to our digital collections include:

Dominguez and Escalante

This collection contains exhibition prints created by photographers Siegfried Halus and Greg Mac Gregor, who carried out a rephotography project to document the contemporary changes to the landscape that friars Domínguez and Escalante traversed in on their 1776 expedition. While the friars initially sought to find an overland route connecting Santa Fe with Alta California, Domínguez and Escalante, along with a group of several people, eventually circled what is now known as the Four Corners area and were the first non-Indigenous people to cross the Grand Canyon.

Mac Gregor. “(July 31) Highway 84 Looking North and Chama River Valley, Near Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.” Greg Mac Gregor and Siegfried Halus: In Search of Dominguez and Escalante Photograph Collection. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives. HP.2019.03.01. https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/july-31-highway-84-looking-north-and-chama-river-valley-near-ghost-ranch-new-mexico

Digital Collection: Greg Mac Gregor and Siegfried Halus: In Search of Dominguez and Escalante Photograph Collection

Finding Aid: Greg Mac Gregor and Siegfried Halus: In Search of Dominguez and Escalante exhibition photographs | New Mexico Archives Online

Exhibition: In Search of Domínguez and Escalante: Photographing the 1776 Expedition Through the Southwest – New Mexico History Museum

Pilgrimage to Chimayo

This collection contains prints and audio recordings from a travelling exhibition depicting the annual pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico. Bringing in roughly 300,000 visitors, this site has become one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage centers in the United States. The exhibition was an outcome of a collaborative documentary project including the photographers Sam Howarth, Cary Herz, Miguel Gandert, and Oscar Lozoya and oral historians Enrique Lamadrid and Troy Fernandez. They wanted to better document the annual event through the perspectives of its participants.

Oscar Lozoya. Lowrider. Pilgrimage to Chimayó: A Contemporary Portrait of a Living Tradition Photographs. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, HP.2024.14.25. https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/lowrider-new-mexicoThis

Digital Collection: Pilgrimage to Chimayó: A Contemporary Portrait of a Living Tradition Photographs

Digital Collection: Pilgrimage to Chimayo Audio

Finding Aid: Pilgrimage to Chimayó: A Contemporary Portrait of a Living Tradition Photographs | New Mexico Archives Online

Exhibition: Chimayo A Tradition of Faith – New Mexico History Museum

Douglas Kent Hall

This newly digitized collection consists of a series of prints from photographer Douglas Kent Hall’s estate. These photographs are on a variety of New Mexico and southwestern subjects with a subset on the Los Matachines de Alcalde. Hall’s work in our collection also includes images related to the Border, his “In Prison” work, and a series of portraits of New Mexicans featuring artists and writers.

Digital Collection: Douglas Kent Hall Photograph Collection

Finding Aid: Douglas Kent Hall Photographs | New Mexico Archives Online

CarlanTapp’s A Question of Power

A finding aid was created earlier this year for this documentary photography project around the Navajo Nation, coal mining, and the Desert Rock Power Plant. A digital collection featuring Tapp’s exhibition prints is now available.

Carlan Tapp. Bonnie Gilmore with her mother Alice Gilmore, New Mexico. Carlan Tapp: Doodá Desert Rock Photograph Collection. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, PAAC.0114.012. https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/bonnie-gilmore-and-mother-alice-gilmore-new-mexico

Digital Collection: Carlan Tapp: Doodá Desert Rock Photograph Collection

Finding Aid: Doodá Desert Rock: Naamehnay Project Collection | New Mexico Archives Online

Exhibit: A Question of Power – New Mexico History Museum

Newly digitized sets of historic photographs

Posted on October 31, 2025 by Hannah Abelbeck

Recent digitization work in photo archives has allowed us to post images from our collection that are recently donated and that have been here for decades.

Miguel Otero Photographs

This legacy collection consists of small prints owned by Miguel A. Otero II (October 17, 1859 – August 7, 1944), the 16th Governor of New Mexico Territory from 1897 to 1906. Images are predominately of the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico and its surroundings. Other images include the Taos Ceremony, churches, the Harvey Ranch, and Native Americans.

Busy Scene at Railroad Avenue, Las Vegas, New Mexico. Miguel A. Otero Photograph Collection. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, 009434. https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/busy-scene-railroad-avenue-las-vegas-new-mexico

Digital Collection: Miguel A. Otero Photograph Collection

Finding Aid: Miguel A. Otero Photograph Collection | New Mexico Archives Online

Mills, NM and other postcards

These real photo postcards feature a rare glimpse into Mills, New Mexico during its boom years.

Part of a larger set of postcards presumed to have been collected by William Hokuf (1881-1946), his wife Catherine Sloup, or her previous husband Martin Sloup, who died in 1922, the postcards also show events around the Mexican Revolution and the Mexican Expedition (also called the Pershing – Villa Expedition / Pancho Villa Expedition / Punitive Expedition).

Mess at “Hotel Deluxe” Mills NM. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, HP.2022.15.50. https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/nine-men-table-having-meal-hotel-deluxe-mills-new-mexico

Digital Collection: Mexican Revolution and Mills, NM

Finding Aid: Mexican Revolution and Mills, New Mexico Postcard Collection | New Mexico Archives Online

Robert William Fernie Trip Photo Album

This photo album contains images taken by Robert William Fernie (1856-1958) from a trip to New Mexico, possibly around 1900. Robert William Fernie (1856-1958) was a Kansas rancher originally from England, who had purchased land from the railroad (SFRR). Views include Pecos, Santa Fe, Glorieta, with many uncommon views of the forested areas, including scenes at Winsor Camp and Panchuela.

View of Winsor Camp, Robert William Fernie Southwest Trip Photo Album, Page 30. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, HP.2023.02.P30. https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/robert-william-fernie-southwest-trip-photo-album-page-30

Digital Collection: Robert William Fernie Southwest Trip Photo Album

Finding Aid: Robert William Fernie Southwest Trip Photo Album | New Mexico Archives Online

Helen Cochran Brown Family Trip Album

In 1927, the Brown family, including Helen and her husband Archer Hitchcock Brown traveled to New Mexico, visiting a number of iconic places, including Santa Fe, the Gallup Ceremonial, several Pueblos, and, notably, Tex Austin and the Forked Lightning Ranch.

Brown, Helen Cochran. Harvey detour buses for Santa Fe and Lamy at a train depot. From “Brown Family 1927 Summer Trip Photo Album”. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, HP.2022.05.P1. https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/brown-family-1927-summer-trip-photo-album

Digital Collection: Brown Family 1927 Summer Trip Photo Album

Finding Aid: Brown Family 1927 Summer Trip Photo Album | New Mexico Archives Online

New Finding Aids for Scottish Rite Theatre and Doodá Desert Rock Collections

Posted on July 21, 2025 by Hannah Abelbeck

Jo Whaley Scottish Rite Theatre Exhibition Prints

Santa Fe photographer Jo Whaley’s stunning images from her documentation of the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple have been processed and are now available. Built in 1912, the Masonic Temple is an iconic feature in Santa Fe. The scenic backdrops still preserved in the historical theater were used by the Masons for degree productions and were the height of dramatic innovation when they were created by M. C. Lilley & Co. and installed in the theater.

theatre backdrop evoking a cathedral — Jo Whaley. Raising the backdrop in the Cathedral scene, 2014. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives HP.2024.01.16.

Finding Aid: Jo Whaley: Scenes from the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple Theatre Photograph Collection | New Mexico Archives Online

Digital Collection: Jo Whaley: Scenes from the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple Theatre | NMHM Digital Collections

Related Book: The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple | Museum of New Mexico Press

Doodá Desert Rock: Naamehnay Project

This recently described collection contains the work of photographer Carlan Tapp related to the Doodá Desert Rock initiative, a movement begun by Diné (Navajo) elders and activists to resist the development of the proposed building of the Desert Rock Power Plant in the Four Corners region of the Navajo Nation. Tapp documented the effects of coal-burning electrical power plants on the Diné people and the landscape of the Navajo Nation, as well as Diné resistance to the plants, between 2005 and 2013.

Jim Mason. Diné (Navajo) Medicine Man, Burnham, NM, 2006. Courtesy of Carlan Tapp

Capp exhibited images from this body of work under the title “A Question of Power.” A version of this exhibition will appear at the New Mexico History Museum in 2027.

Finding Aid: Doodá Desert Rock: Naamehnay Project Collection | New Mexico Archives Online

Digital Collection: Carlan Tapp: Doodá Desert Rock Photograph Collection

Exhibit: A Question of Power – New Mexico History Museum

Finding Aid Available for the Mark Nohl Collection

Posted on May 28, 2025 by Hannah Abelbeck

Mark Nohl’s donated set of film negatives and positives has been processed and is now available for researchers. From 1973 to 1998, Nohl worked for the New Mexico Department of Economic Development and Tourism as an Information Specialist and as staff photographer for New Mexico Magazine. In addition to his work for the State of New Mexico, Nohl served as an instructor in landscape photography for the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops from 1990 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance commercial photographer for various advertising agencies, private galleries, and publications.

Mark Nohl. Santa Fe Trail wagon ruts near Fort Union National Monument, New Mexico. From the New Mexico Magazine Collection, HP.2007.20.1079.

Like the New Mexico Magazine collection, Nohl’s collection includes many portraits of New Mexico people; images of art, artisans, and artists; and landscapes and places, from cities and towns to parks, lands, and monuments. The new finding aid makes many of Nohl’s folders keyword searchable to help anyone find relevant material, whether those photographs are of the Very Large Array, Helen Cordero, or Albuquerque.

Finding Aid: Mark Nohl Photograph Collection | New Mexico Archives Online

Adventurous photograph collection now open to researchers at the New Mexico History Museum

Posted on May 10, 2025 by Hannah Abelbeck

Photographs of New Mexico outdoor recreation, ghost towns, sporting events, and other Southwest scenes are now available for browsing online in the newly digitized Karl Kernberger Photograph Collection at the New Mexico History Museum. The project supports the History Museum’s ongoing goal of making physical photo collections increasingly accessible and reusable.

“We were looking for a smart way to provide access to a large collection that previously had no digital presence,” said Hannah Abelbeck, Curator of Photographs and Archival Collections. “When we uploaded the contact sheets, I saw images of ghost towns, but I also spotted images I didn’t expect, including photographs from a local press conference on prison conditions. I hope others uncover images they find interesting, engaging, or relevant.”

Karl Kernberger with camera sitting on an excavator — Karl Kernberger, up for the shot. Courtesy of Carolyn Kernberger.

Image of La Gente Headquarters prison conditions press conference — Karl Kernberger, up for the shot. Courtesy of Carolyn Kernberger.

After working as a staff photographer at the Museum of New Mexico, Karl Kernberger (1938-1997) became an award-winning photographer and filmmaker active in New Mexico, Mexico, and the west. His photographic collection at the New Mexico History Museum (NMHM) covers subjects including social and environmental concerns, Indigenous communities in New Mexico and the Southwest, rock art, music, ghost towns, cultural and sporting events, and the increasing popularity of outdoor recreation, among other topics. Kernberger also collaborated with his childhood friend J. Michael Jenkinson on three books, Ghost Towns of New Mexico, Land of Clear Light, and Wild Rivers of North America, which showcased his photographs.

NMHM received a grant from the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board to improve the care of and access to Kernberger’s collection. The collection contains approximately 24,000 negatives, 1,625 contact sheets, 155 prints, and 64 reels of moving image film. As an outcome of the grant, project archivist Hall Frost also digitized and posted Kernberger’s contact sheets, making it easier for researchers to preview images from the collection. Frost will give a presentation, “Out There Adventure: The Photographs of Karl Kernberger,” during a Late-Night Friday event on May 16, 2025, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

More information about the Karl Kernberger Photograph Collection can be found at https://nmarchives.unm.edu/repositories/20/resources/4415. Browsable contact sheets from the Karl Kernberger Photograph Collection can be found at https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/karl-kernberger-photograph-collection.

Groundbreaking New Mexico history collection of Edgar L. Hewett digitized for easy public viewing at New Mexico History Museum

Posted on March 21, 2025 by Hannah Abelbeck

A person stands next to a table sorting black and white photos from a file box. — Hewett project photo archivist Hall Frost looks for a photo in the collection.

A significant collection of manuscripts and photographs from Museum of New Mexico founder Edgar L. Hewett (1865-1946) are now browsable online thanks to a major grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC). The newly digitized collection expands New Mexico History Museum’s (NMHM) mission to offer statewide educational resources to anyone interested in learning about the diverse history of the state and its connections to the rest of the world.

Previously viewable only by appointment, the Hewett Collection is NMHM’s most consulted document collection. Members of the public are now able to see more than 63,000 pages and more than 2000 additional photographs online 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a new digital interface.

Hewett was at the forefront of modern Southwestern archaeology during his time. He trained a new generation of archaeologists, including women, and advocated for the United States Antiquities Act (1906). He led the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Archaeology (today known as the School for Advanced Research) and was integral to the cultural preservation of many New Mexican historical and archaeological sites.

Hewett Project Archivist Sarah Rounsville saw firsthand the sheer number of people, organizations, projects, and events that appear in the Hewett collection as she digitized each document. Rounsville observes that many topics in culture, the arts, politics, history, rights, and cultural conflict still fascinate researchers.

A person’s arms and hands are placing a document under a digital scanner with a computer screen showing the scan. — Hewett project archivist Sarah Rounsville digitizes a letter from the collection on the library’s new book scanner.

While digitizing the collection, archivists were able to collaborate and make connections across papers and photographs. Rounsville and Hewett Project Photo Archivist Hall Frost were able to identify Native American laborers in photographs by consulting payroll documents about archaeological excavations. Rounsville says that the efforts they put into the digital project creates new opportunities for more people to find, interact with, and interpret the material.

“By making Hewett’s papers widely available, researchers can grapple with the history of Southwestern archaeology and the methods and systems Hewett built as he elevated the Southwest’s culture on the world stage,” said Hewett digitization project manager Heather McClure, Librarian and Archivist at the Museum’s Fray Angelico Chavez History Library.

The Hewett collection is the first digitization project for NMHM’s new Digital Asset Management System, and the next project is already underway. NMHM anticipates publishing significant portions of New Mexico artist Gustave Baumann’s archival collection in 2025.

More information about the Hewett Collection can be found at:

Edgar L. Hewett Digitized Collections
https://archives.newmexicoculture.org/edgar-l-hewett-collection

Edgar L. Hewett Collection finding aid
https://nmarchives.unm.edu/repositories/10/resources/413

Edgar L. Hewett Photographs and Ephemera Collection finding aid
https://nmarchives.unm.edu/repositories/20/resources/5055

New Mexico History Museum Digital Collections landing page
https://archives.newmexicoculture.org

Local favorites

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Hannah Abelbeck

US Post Office and Emilio Cordova General Store, Cordova, NM, circa 1928. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives # HP.1975.51.42

What’s your favorite New Mexico small business?

Were you the owner? Did your family run one for decades and decades? Did you work for one? Or did you just frequent a favorite shop around the corner?

The New Mexico History Museum is researching historic and modern small businesses to explore for a possible exhibition in the future.

New Mexico has many memorable and iconic establishments that would help to tell this story. In particular, we’d like to focus on sole-proprietor operations and family-owned businesses that sold goods or provided services to local communities in every part of the state.

(We’d like to avoid national chains and franchises.)

We’re looking for corner stores, tienditas, general stores, barber shops, moms & pops, cobblers, meat markets, bookstores, record stores, radio stores, repair shops, feed stores, trading posts, very small restaurants and cafes, tailors and seamstresses, laundries, bicycle shops, and so on, that were unique, characteristic, or served as anchors in their neighborhood or town.

Here’s a very simple form where you can add ideas from anywhere in the state.

https://forms.gle/wmuUvhfkVBjoyaBSA

Thanks for your help! Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested.

Pride Ignites in New Mexico

Posted on June 28, 2020 by Hannah Abelbeck

The Stonewall riots began in Greenwich Village after 1 am on June 28, 1969, and they continued with varied levels of intensity through July 3rd. For those who witnessed or heard about the events, the rebellion sparked a sense of urgency for change. Stonewall’s aftermath inspired new organizations and new tactics, in New York City and across the country.

This pressing desire for action resonated in New Mexico too; organizers in Albuquerque attempted to form a chapter of the Gay Liberation Front at UNM in 1970. By 1975, activist energy in Albuquerque coalesced around two organizations, a local group called Juniper and the Metropolitan Community Church, both of which focused on community, support, and self-acceptance in the face of mainstream prejudice. In 1976, these organizations co-hosted the first Pride march in Albuquerque with about 25 participants, no permit, and no media attention.

100+ marchers from the MCC, the Gay Co-op, and Lambdas de Santa Fe again celebrated “Christopher Street Resistance” in Albuquerque in 1977, chanting “Out of the closets, into the streets.” The featured speaker that year was Mattachine Society founder (and New Mexico resident) Harry Hay, who called for a “coalition among all scapegoat minorities—Indians, Chicanos, Blacks, women in the women’s movement, and gays.” The marchers’ cars were egged, they were booed and heckled (but also cheered), and a local church passed out “Gay No More” pamphlets. Undaunted, one woman told a reporter for the alternative newspaper Seers Rio Grande Weekly that “The homophobes and hatemongers will just have to look out ‘cause we’re coming out and we’re not going back.”

By 1981, when this Lesbian & Gay Pride Week program was created, Pride was organized by the Gay Co-op. Around that time, 1980 or 1981, one woman marched with a paper bag over her head, a compromise since she wanted to be a part of the public demonstration but was worried that being out could cause her to lose her job or her son.

These early parades might have been the first time that Albuquerque locals could see how many gay people, often talked about in the abstract or singly, were members of the community: neighbors, friends, family, coworkers, and teachers. But, it is important to note, these celebrations and demonstrations weren’t for the straights, they were for the gay community and for liberation.

Albuquerque Pride gave us permission to post their copy of this 1981 program, signed by the artist, Ray Sandoval.

1981 Albuquerque Lesbian & Gay Pride week event schedule. Published by Common Bond

Happy Pride! May we roller disco again soon!

On Juneteenth

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Hannah Abelbeck

Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, formerly enslaved, engraving by Barry Moser (Pennyroyal Press, 2020)

Slavery was formerly abolished (again) in New Mexico by a Congressional act on June 19, 1862, which prohibited slavery in current and future US territories. This was prior to the more famous Emancipation Proclamation (issued September 22, 1862, enacted January 1, 1863), which was supposed to free the enslaved in ten Confederate states. And it was three years to the day before the first Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, when news of the Proclamation reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.

While in theory the 13th Amendment of 1865 and the Anti-Peonage Act of 1867 (which names New Mexico specifically) effectively made slavery and servitude illegal in the US, social and legal systems of discrimination, such as the Jim Crow laws, continued to oppress African Americans (and many other historically marginalized people). These systems only began to shift in response to the successes of the Civil Rights movements and the Great Society legislation of the 1960s.

New Mexico’s antislavery history is complex and centuries long. As part of the Spanish colonial empire, slavery was abolished here in 1512 and again in 1543, although African and Indigenous people continued to be widely enslaved throughout the Americas. In 1829, Mexico abolished slavery in its states and territories, including New Mexico (but excluding Texas). American occupation reopened these debates.

Historic Emancipation Day and Juneteenth celebrations have taken place in Roswell, Clovis, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque since at least the 1890s and include music, food, games, sports, and pageantry with attendees dressed in their finest clothes. Juneteenth has been a New Mexico state holiday since 2006, and it helps make visible our African American communities while celebrating the end of one phase of a significant part of our national history.

For more on this holiday and African American history in New Mexico, check out this 2019 episode from KUNM’s “Let’s Talk New Mexico.”

New Mexico History Museum Blog

Get Into it!

Author Archives: Hannah Abelbeck