Category Archives: New Mexico History

Marking NM’s Historic Women: Dr. Meta L. Christy

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Photo Credit: https://www.nmhistoricwomen.org/location/meta-l-christy/

Dr. Meta L. Christy (1895–1968)

Meta L. Christy, DO, is recognized by the American Osteopathic Association as the first black osteopath. Dr. Christy graduated in 1921 from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine as its first black graduate. The College gives an annual award in her name. She established her lifelong private practice with quiet dignity when there were no women physicians or osteopaths in local hospitals and few blacks in Las Vegas.

Roadside Marker Location: San Miguel County, Las Vegas, 727 Grand Avenue

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: Harvey Girls & Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter

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Harvey Girls and Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter (1869–1958)

(SIDE 1) In 1883, the Fred Harvey Company hired women to serve in its diners and hotels along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Thousands of respectable, intelligent women were recruited from the Midwest and East Coast to come west. Known as Harvey Girls, many of these women stayed and became founding members of their adopted communities, forever changing the cultural landscape of the Wild West.

Mary Colter (r) showing blueprint to Mrs Ickes (wife of secretary of interior.) Circa 1935. NPS: https://www.nps.gov/articles/marycolter.htm

 (SIDE 2) In 1902, the Fred Harvey Company hired Mary Colter as interior designer of the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque. She was an architect for the company when few women worked in the field. She designed many famous resorts and inns, including the hotel interiors of La Fonda in Santa Fe. In 1987, four of her buildings in Grand Canyon National Park were designated a National Historic Landmark.

We have several videos related to the Harvey Girls and Mary Colter in our Fred Harvey Company video playlist on YouTube.

Roadside Marker Location: Bernalillo County, Albuquerque, 1st St and Gold Ave

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: Esther Martinez, P’oe Tsawa

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Photo Credit: Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.

Esther Martinez, P’oe Tsawa (1912–2006), Ohkay Owingeh

Esther Martinez served her community as an educator, linguist and storyteller. Her foremost contributions to our state are documenting and preserving the Tewa language and the art of storytelling. Esther was named a National Heritage Fellow in 2006 by the National Endowment of the Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artists.

Preserving the Language, Preserving the Culture – A National Endowment of the Arts article on Esther Martinez, P’oe Tsawa.

Roadside Marker Location: Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo; Rio Arriba County, US Hwy 68

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert

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Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert in kitchen
Negative Number 148467

Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert (1895–1991)

Raised on a ranch at La Liendre, Fabiola received a degree from New Mexico Normal School. She worked as a rural teacher and an agricultural Home Extension agent. In the 1930s, she became a charter member of La Sociedad Folklorica. An author and teacher, she dedicated her life to preserving Hispanic traditions. In 1954, she wrote “We Fed Them Cactus,” a book about growing up at La Liendre.

La Sociedad Folklorica de Nuevamexico ten year jubilee celebration at La Fonda, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Date: 1945
Negative Number 009928
Notes: Includes Fabiola C de Baca Gilbert (second from left) and Cleofas Martinez (third from right)

Roadside Marker Location: La Liendre Community, San Miguel County, NM Highway 67 at junction with NM Highway 104

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: St. Francis Women’s Club

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Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
San Francisco de Asis church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
Photographer: Edward Kemp
Date: 1920 – 1930?
Negative Number HP.2014.45.15

The St. Francis Women’s Club was instrumental in raising funds to rebuild San Francisco de Asís Church, which had been condemned and demolished in about 1960. Their main fundraiser was the annual Fourth of July ceremonial, featuring dances of Nambé and participating Pueblos. By 1974, the group raised enough money to rebuild the church, and, in the process, helped to renew cultural traditions at Nambé.

Roadside Marker Location: Pueblo of Nambé; Santa Fe County, NM Hwy 4

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: Sadie Orchard

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Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
(The notorious) Mrs. Sadie Orchard on right, in front of Ocean Grove Hotel, Hillsboro, New Mexico
Photographer: George T. Miller (?)
Date: 1895 – 1902?
Negative Number 076560

Sadie Orchard (1860-1943)

Arriving in the silver mining boomtown of Kingston in 1886, Sadie Jane Creech Orchard is arguably the most colorful woman in New Mexico history. Sadie opened brothels, worked as a prostitute, built and operated hotels and restaurants, and co-owned and drove for a regional stagecoach line. During World War I she tended to the less fortunate, and in the 1918 flu pandemic nursed children and cared for the sick and dying. New Mexico writer Erna Fergusson wrote of her, “For a bad woman, Sadie was one of the best.”

Roadside Marker Location: Hillsboro, SierraCounty, NM Hwy 152

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: Kewa Women’s Co-op

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Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Santo Domingo Indian Trading Post, Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico
Creator: New Mexico Department of Tourism
Date: 1954?
Negative Number 059349

Kewa Women’s Co-op, Santo Domingo Pueblo

According to oral and recorded history, the Santo Domingo people have always made and traded jewelry. From prehistoric times heishi, drilled and ground shell beads, have been strung into necklaces. Generations of Santo Domingo women have passed down this art. Recent descendants have formed the Kewa Women’s Co-op to retain heishi and other traditions including pottery, embroidery, weaving, and Pueblo foods.

Roadside Marker Location: Pueblo of Santo Domingo; Sandoval County, US Hwy 22

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: María de la Luz Beaubien Maxwell

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Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Lucien Maxwell house, Cimarron, New Mexico
Photographer: Edward A. Troutman
Date: 1909
Negative Number 014621

María de la Luz Beaubien Maxwell, 1829-1900 / Maxwell Land Grant

(SIDE 1) María de la Luz Beaubien, age 13, wed fur-trapper Lucien Maxwell in 1844, forever linking her to the history of the Maxwell Land Grant and New Mexico. She was born in 1829 to Charles H. Beaubien and María Pabla Lobato. Upon the death of her father in 1864, she inherited a share of her father’s portion of the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant. Luz and her husband purchased the remaining Beaubien parcels as well as the Miranda lands, thereby owning the entire expansive tract that became known as the Maxwell Land Grant. (SIDE 2) The Maxwell Land Grant was the largest privately owned contiguous tract of land in the United States, comprising 1,714,765 acres in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado. It originated from the 1841 Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant that Governor Manuel Armijo made to Charles Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda. After Beaubien’s death in 1864, his son-in-law, Lucien Maxwell, and daughter, María de la Luz, acquired the grant through inheritance and purchase. Maxwell was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in New Mexico. The Maxwells sold the land to an English company in 1870. Later disputes between settlers and grant owners characterized the history of northeastern New Mexico in the late 19th century and precipitated the Colfax County War.

Roadside Marker Location: Colfax County, US Hwy 21

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: Maria Ramita Simbola Martinez, Cora Durand, and Virginia Duran

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Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Picurís Pueblo pottery exhibit at the first “Indian Fair,” Armory building, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Date: 1922
Negative Number 000738

Maria Ramita Simbola Martinez “Summer Harvest” (1884–1969), Cora Durand (1904–1981), and Virginia Duran (1904–1998), Picuris Pueblo

Maria Ramita Simbola Martinez, Cora Durand, and Virginia Duran helped to preserve the distinctive micaceous pottery tradition that is important in Picuris and other nearby pueblos. Made with locally mined mica-rich clay, these unusual pots have a glittery sheen. They are fired at a low temperature which makes them ideal for cooking. While valued for their utility, these pots are also now considered works of art.

Roadside Marker Location: Pueblo of Picuris; Taos County, US Hwy 75/ Indian Road, Mile Marker 11.5

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Marking NM’s Historic Women: Maria Montoya Martinez

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Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Maria Martinez polishing pottery, San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico
Photographer: Wyatt Davis
Date: 1938
Negative Number: 044192

Maria Montoya Martinez, Povika, “Pond Lily” (ca. 1886–1980)

Maria Martinez was a self-taught potter who helped elevate Pueblo pottery to a respected art form. She and her husband Julian were successful polychrome potters and together revived black pottery. Their work improved the economic conditions of the community. Recognized internationally, Maria was an innovator with strong spiritual and cultural awareness. Her skills and techniques have been carried on successfully by subsequent generations.

Roadside Marker Location: Pueblo of San Ildefonso; Rio Arriba County, US Hwy 502, Mile Marker 12.537

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division