María Gutiérrez Spencer (1919-1992) “Advocate for Social Justice”
Punished for not speaking English in school, María Gutiérrez Spencer devoted her life to validating the Indo-Hispano experience. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley and New Mexico State University, she pioneered bilingual and bicultural education in New Mexico, founding BOLD: Bicultural Orientation and Language Development in Silver City. Maria battled cancer for 50 years, but traveled worldwide to train teachers. She was honored by the Wonder Woman Foundation with Rosa Parks in 1981.
Roadside Marker Location: Doña Ana County, Las Cruces, NM Highway 138
You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.
Immortalized in literature and film, Kentucky native Carlotta Thurmond was the inspiration for Miss Kitty on television’s “Gunsmoke.” Having toured Europe’s best gambling houses as a child with her father, in Texas she called herself “Lottie Deno,” a play on “lotta dinero.” Fellow gamblers said she had ice water in her veins, yet when she moved to Kingston, New Mexico, she left many belongings for the needy. She gave up gambling upon moving in 1882 from Silver City to Deming where she co-founded St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
Roadside Marker Location: Luna County, US Hwy 180/62, Mile Marker 144.7
You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.
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.
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.
(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.
Who could use an extra cup of coffee this morning?
Shapleigh Coffee Co. tin canister used in the Dietrich family in Santa Fe during the late 19th century. Established in 1796 in Boston, MA, the former Allen, Shapleigh, & Co. coffee manufacturer was well-known on the East Coast for their “mocha java” blend. While we’re not certain how this canister came to New Mexico – either via wagon train or on the rails – the Dietrichs may have used this canister to store other goods long after the Shapleigh coffee ran out.
This yellow, orange, and gray painted canister measures 19.75” high and 16.75” wide with a depth of 15.75.”
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.
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.
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.
Just off the press, The Press at the Palace of the Governors is pleased to announce the release of ERNIE O’MALLEY & DOROTHY STEWART IN NEW MEXICO
The title of the book comes from the 1929 diary entry of Ernie O’Malley, written in Taos, New Mexico. It is self-conversation that begins with Ernie asking, “What the hell are you doing near Indian country?” It goes on to reveal the philosophy and values of the young general in the Irish war for independence as he seeks new experiences in America. Shortly after this was recorded, he met artist Dorothy Newkirk Stewart, who lived at El Zaguán on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. The two forged a friendship based on a shared commitment to the arts, travel, and indigenous cultures that took them around New Mexico and on to Mexico.
Introduced by Cormac O’Malley, the book is a hybrid cross of an album amicorum – a friendship book – and an informal artist book, juxtaposing the words of Ernie O’Malley and early prints by Dorothy Stewart. Inspired by Dorothy’s at times “throw caution to the wind” approach to book design, we meandered into book-making parts unknown on the way to completion. Dimensions, typography, and papers were tried and ruled out until we arrived at a book you will want to caress. It won’t take long to read, but you will return to it again and again. You may even recognize yourself in it, for honestly, who of us hasn’t had a similar self-conversation?
The set type for a page and the resulting print.
With 48 pages measuring 5 x 7.5 inches, 100 copies of this letterpress edition were printed. The soft-cover binding is based on the popular travelers’ journals that we make and sell at the Palace Press. Our friend Patricia Musick, who knows more about Irish lettering than nearly anyone, designed the lettering for the title page, and also the monogram of the entwined EOM and DNS initials used on the half-title page. Text papers are Biblio and handmade Moravia, and the cover paper is a rare handmade by John Koller. It was marbled by Thomas Leech, who along with James Bourland, did the presswork. The typefaces, all handset, are Goudy Oldstyle and University of California, with Colum Cille used judiciously for the headings. That typeface was designed as a Gaelic alphabet in the 1930s and is named for the Irish monk, scribe and saint.
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.”
