Tag Archives: new mexico history museum

Sgt. Leroy Petry’s Homecoming…with Style

Posted on by

The New Mexico History Museum has a soft spot for military veterans. In our exhibits, we honor the men who served aboard the USS New Mexico, who endured the Bataan Death March, who answered the nation’s call time and again — as far back as the U.S. Revolution. Today, outside our windows and on the streets of the Santa Fe Plaza, the whole state showed its soft spot for one veteran and Santa Fe native in particular.

Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry recently became America’s newest Medal of Honor recipient. Over the last few days, he’s enjoyed a series of welcome-home events, but today was the cream of them all: A parade with bagpipers, a Color Guard, Vietnam veterans on Harley Davidsons, Cub Scouts waving flags bigger than themselves from the sidewalk, and a host of people bearing homemade banners and snapping keepsake photographs.

The weather cooperated with turquoise skies and a mild temperature. Mayor Dave Coss and Gov. Susana Martinez joined the procession, beaming and waving to the crowd. You can find plenty of background about the Army Ranger on the U.S. Army’s web page dedicated to him, along with the Santa Fe New Mexican’s collection of stories. In short, here’s what it took to make a hero:

While under fire in Afghanistan, Petry was struck and severely wounded when a Russian-made grenade was tossed toward him and his men. Despite his wounds, Petry reached for the grenade and prepared to toss it away when it instead blew up, taking his right hand with it.

From President Obama’s remarks at the Medal of Honor ceremony: “Every human impulse would tell someone to turn away. Every soldier is trained to seek cover. That’s what Sergeant Leroy Petry could have done. Instead, this wounded Ranger, this 28-year-old man with his whole life ahead of him, this husband and father of four, did something extraordinary. He lunged forward, toward the live grenade. He picked it up…and threw it back – just as it exploded.”

If you haven’t already seen it, Petry’s appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is well worth watching. (Warning: Your eyes will tear up, and you will laugh out loud when Stewart compares Petry to a Jedi warrior.)

In the meantime, check out our album of images from today’s parade, when New Mexico honored a favorite son.

 

 

Palace Windows Get Technical Support

Posted on by

You don’t have to be a winner of HGTV’s Design Star to see that the windows in the Palace of the Governors could use some help.

Hey – when you’re a National Historic Landmark with a 400-year-old history, some of your edges can tend to the ragged side of things. Wood gets old and porous. Water seeps past cracked plaster into adobe bricks. Foundations shift and settle.

But budgets are tight all over, and the cost of repairing a historic building can soar beyond a new screen door for your average bungalow. What was the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors to do?

Well, we turned to some of our most trusty and energetic supporters, the members of Los Compadres.  Building on their shared love for the Palace of the Governors,  Los Compadres’ members have for years given their volunteer all for the museum. During the warmer months, its members lead the Downtown Walking Tours that give tourists and locals alike a learned look at Santa Fe’s history. At the History Museum’s grand opening in May 2009, they stood in the heat for hours, scooping ice cream that they provided to a hot horde of first-time visitors. During last year’s Christmas at the Palace and Las Posadas, those bizcochitos you might have nibbled were provided by none other than Los Compadres.

Most important, they dove into fund-raising efforts to create the History Museum, beating the odds and ensuring we opened with a stunning array of exhibitions.

The majority of that work is done so quietly that you might be unaware of it. But their latest project – “Windows on History” – will soon appear before your very eyes.

Last year, Los Compadres adopted the Palace’s aging windows as a fund-raising cause, setting a goal of $40,000. They sold $5 raffle tickets, arranged a special showing of the Santa Fe Fiesta Melodrama, held private dinners with history experts as speakers, and offered 25 limited-edition prints of Jack McCarthy’s linoleum-cut version of a Palace window (left) as a premium. (The Palace Press stepped up by producing the prints, using handmade paper that included, fittingly, adobe mud.) The hustle caught the eye of the Santa Fe New Mexican, which wrote a lovely story that brought in a new wave of donations.

In the end, Los Compadres raised $54,000 – much of it in those highly cherished $5, $15, and $25-sized donations that show broad-based support for a fund-raising effort. With money in hand, the museum was able to look for a contractor, and soon as you know it, they’ll start replacing some of the most seriously impaired windows. (Just how many depends on what the contractors find once they open the building’s centuries-old walls.)

Los Compadres’ latest goal is to broaden its statewide reach, in part by creating a new category of supporters, the “Ambassadors.” Members want to reach beyond Santa Fe’s borders to carry the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors’ word to communities throughout the state and to welcome visitors from other historical societies to both the old and the new of our museum complex. Got an itch to devote some time to preserving New Mexico’s past? Interested in learning more? Contact the Museum of New Mexico Foundation at 982-6366.

 

Someone’s In the Kitchen at the Cowden Café

Posted on by

Museum-goers who wouldn’t mind a little nosh with their exhibits have reason to celebrate the re-opening of the History  Museum’s Cowden Café. Someone’s In the Kitchen, a longtime Santa Fe catering company, has begun serving light breakfasts and lunches in the second-floor space with a fabulous outdoor patio overlooking downtown Santa Fe.

Richard Derwostyp (“Just call me Richard,” he says, for obvious reasons) has owned and operated Someone’s in the Kitchen for 20 years.

“It’s going to be simple salads, sandwiches,” he said of the Cowden Café fare. “Some of them won’t be that simple, and some will have a Southwestern edge.

Typical lunch offerings might include gazpacho, smoked-turkey-and-pepper-jack cheese sandwiches, and salads like a Southwest Caesar; spinach with apples, Maytag blue cheese and pecans; and a chef salad. Service will be casual, with orders taken at the counter. With a minimum of two days’ advance notice, the café can prepare sack lunches for groups of visitors. The number to call for group orders is 505-424-8209.

The café is open from 10 am to 4:30 pm Tuesday through Sunday, with lunches from 11:30 am to 3 pm, and drinks, cookies and pastries until 4:30 pm. Lunches will cost $7-$13, and Richard will also have a variety of non-alcoholic beverages and breakfast pastries. Diners don’t need to pay museum admission, unless they’d also like to wander the exhibits. Besides good food and a great view of downtown Santa Fe from its balcony patio, the café has free wireless.

Set on the museum’s second floor, the cafe closed April 1 when its previous operators, the owners of the Plaza Restaurant, decided to focus on repairing their fire-damaged restaurant. A request for proposals was issued for another operator and resulted in a contract for Someone’s In the Kitchen through October, giving Derwostyp an opportunity to see how well his current operation adjusts to the space.

“Richard was the most responsive in trying to work with us and our needs,” said Dr. Frances Levine, director of the museum.

The café is named for New Mexico’s Cowden family who, from 1883 to 1915, ran the JAL Ranch (for which the southeastern town of Jal is named). The JAL was the open-range home to 40,000 head of cattle and a part of New Mexico history that included the likes of Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, skirmishes with Comanches, and tales of gutting out the pioneer life in dugouts and covered wagons. At its peak, the JAL occupied much of what is now Lea County, east and south into Texas.

So come on up to the Cowden and enjoy some tasty food from Someone’s in the Kitchen. (Just for the sake of it, and given the name of the new cafe operator, we just couldn’t resist adding this image from the Photo Archives of former First Lady Susie Miles doing her very best — and very prescient — June Cleaver imitation.)

Susie Miles, wife of John E. Miles, in the kitchen at the Governor’s Mansion. Miles served as New Mexico governor from 1939 to 1943. Photo by T. Harmon Parkhurst. Courtesy Photo Archives at the Palace of the Governors, No. 54376.

The Woman Who Helped Make Chile Hip

Posted on by

Fabiola Cabeza de Baca (far left) with the Sociedad Folklorica in 1945. Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives.

Tough economic times and persistent droughts were nothing new to Fabiola Cabeza de Baca. The native New Mexican, home economist and author saw them as an opportunity to thrive.

During the Depression, she worked for the New Mexico Agricultural Extension Service, helping Hispanic and Tewa women learn new gardening and poultry-raising techniques, along with how to can vegetables and fruits, use sewing machines, and make simple home repairs. She valued traditional ways and documented the recipes for everyday fare that would one day grace restaurant menus throughout the state.

At 2 pm on Sunday, July 10, you can learn even more about this amazing woman when Dr. Tey Diana Rebolledo, regents professor at the University of New Mexico,  speaks on her life and legacy.  “Fabiola Cabeza de Baca and the Good life,” in the History Museum Auditorium, is free with admission; Sundays are free to NM residents.

The State Historian’s excellent web site has a comprehensive article on Cabeza de Baca, who’s also featured in the History Museum’s new exhibit, Home Lands: How Women Made the West. What follows is but a brief glimpse — an appetizer, if you will, to Dr. Rebolledo’s lecture.

Born in 1894 in Las Vegas, NM, she could trace her ancestry to Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, a 1530s Spanish explorer. She grew up on her family’s ranch, but was schooled by the Sisters of Loretto and in Spain.

Fabiola in front of New Mexican schoolhouse

In 1916, she took her first job as a school teacher in a one-room school in rural Guadalupe County six miles from the family ranch but a day’s ride from the closest town. During her teaching career, she was introduced to a new field of study called Home Economics. She quickly became hooked and was eventually hired by the Extension Service at the start of the Great Depression.

At the time, none of the other extension agents spoke Spanish, even though more than half of the state’s resident spoke no English. Not only did Cabeza de Baca speak Spanish, but she learned enough Tewa to work with Pueblo women as well. Focusing at first in Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties, she traveled among towns from dawn until midnight. “Some of our counties are larger in area than many of our eastern states,” she once said. “We say so many miles to a person rather than persons to a mile.”

In the 1940s, Cabeza de Baca began writing – Extension Service bulletins, including “Noche Buena,” documenting traditional cultural practices; The Good Life: New Mexico Traditions and Foods, a fictional account of a family that included recipes of their favorites foods; and We Fed Them Cactus, which told of her family’s four generations on the Llano Estacado, blending nostalgia with a critical view of how progress was affecting Southwestern Hispanics.

In the 1950s, Cabeza de Baca’s extension work went global when, with the United Nations, she began developing home economics programs in Mexico and, later, consulted for the Peace Corps.  She was an active member of La Sociedad Folklorica of Santa Fe, an organization that to this day is dedicated to preserving Spanish culture. Cabeza de Baca died in 1991, and is still fondly remembered by those who were lucky enough to know her when.

NM History Museum and Partner Museums Win “Threads of Memory” Awards

Posted on by

The American Association for State and Local History has given The Threads of Memory: Spain and the United States a 2011 Award of Merit by the group’s Leadership in History Awards Committee. The awards are the nation’s most prestigious competition for recognition of achievement in state and local history.

The New Mexico History Museum, El Paso Museum of History, and The Historic New Orleans Collection collaborated on bringing the exhibition of rare documents, paintings and maps from Spain, developing a robust series of public programs, and publishing a bilingual companion catalogue. The exhibition made its U.S. debut at the New Mexico History Museum from Oct. 17, 2010 to Jan. 9, 2011. It then traveled to El Paso through April 24, and is on exhibit in New Orleans through July 10.

“This award means so much to all of us on our international team—in New Mexico, Texas, New Orleans, and Spain,” said Dr. Frances Levine, director of the New Mexico History Museum. “I’m especially proud of the History Museum’s exhibition design team and the way our team members and partners at the University of New Mexico’s Spanish and Portuguese and Education departments melded their best efforts with those of our partners’ staffs. Such a collaboration was the only way that an exhibition of this caliber could have been accomplished. We are honored by the recognition.”

Besides the AALSH award, the American Association of Museums gave graphic designer Natalie Baca a second-place award for her invitation to the Threads of Memory opening gala.

Consisting of nearly 140 documents spanning Ponce de León’s first contact in Florida through New Mexico’s incorporation as a U.S. Territory, The Threads of Memory: Spain and the United States (El Hilo de la Memoria: España y los Estados Unidos) drew more than 20,000 visitors to the History Museum during its tenure. Visitors included numerous school groups focused on learning more about U.S. history and the Spanish language.

The exhibition, presented in Spanish and English, featured such documents as Pedro de Peralta’s orders to establish Santa Fe, a letter signed by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado detailing his travels through the Tiguex province, and documents that detailed the aid given by Spain to the United States during the American Revolution. A small illustration of a buffalo, drawn in 1598 by Vicente Zaldivar, introduced Europeans to an animal whose herds then covered hundreds of miles.

The U.S. partners also developed a Threads of Memory curriculum and computer interactive for use in classrooms. It remains available as a valuable teaching tool here.

In a letter supporting the museums’ nomination for the award, Dr. Light Cummins, state historian of Texas and Bryan Professor of History, wrote that “The Threads of Memory blends together the best of documentary history, material culture, and the judicious use of artifacts, documents, and images to present one of the most complete and cogent analyses that I have ever seen on the subject.”

Guillermo Corral Van Damme, cultural counselor for the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C., said: “This is a wonderful award that rightly recognizes the exceptional work of the three American museums involved in the project. Few times have I seen such an incredible amount of interest and attention to detail put into an exhibition. Working with them, one could feel how our common Spanish-American history is still very much alive today.”

The exhibition was sponsored by the Fundación Rafael del Pino and co-organized by the Archivo General de Indias (General Archive of the Indies) and the State Corporation for Spanish Cultural Action Abroad (Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, or SEACEX), in collaboration with Spain’s Ministries for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and Culture.

“I believe that for all of us who worked on El Hilo, this was a model of collaboration for North American and Spanish cultural institutions,” said Isabel Simo, director of the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain.

The AASLH award will be presented at the group’s annual meeting on Sept. 16 in Richmond, Va.

New Perk for Museum Foundation Members Debuts

Posted on by

History Museum Director Frances Levine talks about a portrait of Don Diego de Vargas.

On Monday morning, the History Museum was proud to serve as a launchpad. Thanks to a new summer program by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, more than 70 foundation members gathered at the museum for the premiere of “Member Mondays.”

Besides pitchers of cool cucumber water, the members were treated to intimate talks and tours of museum exhibitions led by key members of the museum’s staff.

Dr. Frances Levine, director of the museum, led visitors into the History Museum’s main exhibition, Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now,  with a focus on the the life and times of Gov. Don Diego de Vargas, leader of the 1692 reconquest of Santa Fe.

Participants rotated through two other tours:

Collections and Education Programs Manager René Harris explored highlights of the new exhibition, Home Lands: How Women Made the West.

And Josef Diaz, curator of Southwest and Mexican Colonial Art and History Collections, talked about the centuries-old bultos, retablos and crucifijos showcased in the exhibit Treasures of Devotion: Tesoros de Devoción inside the Palace of the Governors.

Plans for additional Member Mondays are in the works for the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors, as well as the other state museums in Santa Fe.  Tempted to give membership a try or learn more about Member Mondays? Contact Mariann Lovato at (505) 982-6366, ext. 117 or mariann@museumfoundation.org.

 

The Palace Press Beefs Up Its Bodoni

Posted on by

Few people would consider a drive to Roswell to pick up pounds of lead a pleasure journey, but to Tom Leech and James Bourland of the Palace Press, it was all that and more.

Earlier this week, the two traveled to the site of the old Hall-Poorbaugh Printing Co., now the Copy Rite Co., to load up 24 cases of cherished Bodoni and Caslon metal type.

Tom Leech, curator of the Palace Press, pulls out a case of Bodoni type.

“We figured it was at least 1,000 pounds altogether,” Leech said, adding that they broke up the burden by moving it case by case. “It’s a dubious honor that comes with being a letterpress printer — the opportunity to move large cases of lead.”

“By the fifth case,” Bourland said, “the weight doubles. It’s true, I felt it.”

Jeanine Best, owner of Copy Rite, donated the type to the New Mexico History Museum because “I didn’t need it and, as long as someone else can use it, they should have it.”

She purchased the Hall-Poorbaugh building in 2007, along with its old linotype press and various and sundry stacks of type. (The building, at 210 N. Richardson Ave., is known to locals by the UFO mural painted on its side.) As part of the family that operates the legendary Corn ranch — “three centuries old,” she said — Best understands the power of antique furniture and old equipment to move people’s emotions.

“I’m a big history buff,” she said. “I donate a lot of stuff to museums.”

For Leech, laying hands on a cache of Bodoni that ranges in size from 10 to 72 point, including italics, meant broadening his access to one of his most preferred fonts.

“It’s a really nice type,” he said, citing its straight serifs and balance of thick and thin lines. “It’s significant to New Mexico because when the first type arrived by the Santa Fe Trail in 1834, it was Bodoni. It was the only type used for a decade or so and got well-worn.

“I’ve been trying to use Bodoni in the last couple of years. A couple of books have used it, but we never really had enough to do much with it. These letters are finite. It’s not like a word processor. Over time, they become damaged, worn out, lost, misplaced, and then you don’t have that letter you need.”

Invented by Giambattista Bodoni in the late 18th century, the type is nevertheless considered an exemplar of modern types. From a Web site that font addicts will love:

Bodoni had been hired by Duke Ferdinand of Parma, a noted patron of the arts, to establish a premiere royalty press. His concern was printing of the highest quality not for the masses, but for the aristocracy. The craftsmanship of Bodoni was superb and his attention to detail was legendary. The quality of his printing was unmatched and he came to be regarded as the finest printer of his day. …

Bodoni’s desire was a type which was suitable for contemporary times rather than the age of the scribe. Instead of the stroke of the pen, his inspiration was the mathematical precision and delicate hairline strokes characteristic of copperplate engraving, which was very popular at that time.

 

Bodoni A

For some lovely examples of Bodoni and an essay on how the font has evolved since Giambattista’s time, click here.

The box that Leech and Bourland collected also contained cases of Caslon type — another historic font so respected that printers since the time of Ben Franklin have said, “When in doubt, use Caslon.”

Caslon A

William Caslon hit his printing stride slightly before Bodoni did and in another country, England. In 1716, he opened shop in London as an engraver of gun locks and barrels, and as a bookbinder’s tool-cutter. After rubbing elbows with printers, he was inspired to open a type foundry and developed a style so legible that the leading printers of the day brought him their work.

Caslon was used on the original printing of the Declaration of Independence, and George Bernard Shaw insisted that only Caslon be used for all his books.

You can find examples of Caslon’s fonts here.

Besides collecting and displaying New Mexico’s historic printing equipment, the Palace Press is a working print shop, and Leech thinks he’ll likely dip into his new toy box for some upcoming poetry broadsides. And although it took only a day or two for the new cabinet to be engulfed in all the stuffage that comes with a print shop, he’s open to adding to the clutter with other acquisitions — should they exist.

“A lot of this stuff just gets melted down or thrown away,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for someone to walk in and say, `I just threw some of that away, made bullets out of it, fishing weights.’

“That’s why it’s important that a museum keeps this stuff — and knows how to use it. If you don’t, it is just heavy, dusty stuff.”

 

 

Let Us Now Praise Doris Fields

Posted on by

Doris Fields at the opening for "African American Legacy"The new exhibition on the museum’s second floor, New Mexico’s African American Legacy: Visible, Vital, Valuable, has been drawing visitors keen to learn more about how Black families planted their roots in Las Cruces and Albuquerque. At the exhibition’s opening last month, we were particularly honored by Dr. Doris A. Fields, who wrote a poem specifically for the exhibition’s stay at the New Mexico History Museum, through Oct. 9.

She graciously agreed to allow us to reprint it (below) that we might share it with an even larger audience. (Personally, my heart felt an extra thump when she read the line, “Selling goods/not being goods sold.”)

Doris is a performance artist and poet whose work has appeared in publications like the most recent issue of Malpais Review. She holds a doctorate in International Communication Competence,  is an activist and scholar of health care, and teaches a variety of courses at the University of New Mexico, including “Health Issues in Death and Dying” and “Stress Management.” She has conducted workshops for Black women, gifted students and women across cultural differences.

On top of all that, she’s simply one of the warmest people you’ll ever be lucky enough to meet. Her poem has now entered the archives of the Fray Angelico Chavez History Library, and we hope you’ll enjoy it here, as well.

 

Movers and Journeys in Freedom


Sacred                       -ness

Of        footprints

Impressions   in dust

Rising like phoenix                powder

Free to            drift                  to roam

Settle              where Ever

It pleases

That is the implication of freedom

 

Visible:

Seen

I see you                     do you             see

You                  see me

Peer    through eyes

Of  dead         soldiers

Heads of wool

Come alive

Dressed         in foreign fare

Traditional skins

Left on mother continent’s shores

 

Left behind

 

Iridescence    you see

Threads    a cultural quilt                   into being

Being as how

The vital organs of existence

Shed

A shelter of light         -ness

 

Vital:

Critical for survival     freedom

Build   churches                    towns

Blackdom

Vado

Links to Eatonville

 

 

 

Miners            mine    coal                gold

Silver              turquoise

Defying stereotype

 

Lawyers          archeologists             pastors

Soldiers          salesmen                   cowboys

In saddle

Ride                            the range

Imagine

African silhouette in one

Brilliant           orange

Horizon

 

Valuable:

Markets                      cannot             dictate

What   determination            mitigates

 

Retailers                      wholesalers

Selling goods                        not being goods sold

Unquenchable           thirst for knowledge

Drinking freedom like moonshine on a Saturday night

 

Soak up dried desert bones

Swallow life whole

Breathe          in

Life

To break chains

Explore depths of death-defying souls

 

Turn earth                   water               seed

Into apples                 pears                          peas

Quench thirst              for        freedom

 

Resolve that   skills count

More than color

Ingenious        to wash alkali             from soil

Enrich dirt                   with brown sweat

Talk of promise

Teach the soil                        its own potential

Black soil                   black dirt

Fertile as Africa         herself

Cooks             porters            rail workers

Link     with Chinese             to join

West with East                      South to North

 

Find faith in one another

Hearers of G-d

Finding G-d                inside

Outside           the limiting      expectation

 

Visible                        Vital                            Valuable

These             are the sounds           of freedom

 

Doris Fields

05/14/ 2011

Mei

History in the Faking

Posted on by

Here’s a tale of how the development of the upcoming Home Lands: How Women Made the West exhibit is mimicking history–in particular, an archival image taken by Russell Lee that’s become the cornerstone of our advertising for the exhibit.

First up, the historical image:

Spanish American Woman plastering, Chamisal, New Mexico, photograph by Russell Lee, 1940. Courtesy Library of Congress

Next, the modern-day image:

Plasterer Kathy Brennan checks the finish on her mud wall in the exhibit space for “Home Lands”

 

See the connection?

Exhibition designer Caroline Lajoie wanted visitors to Home Lands (opening June 19, btw) to be greeted by something elemental to the Rio Arriba section of the exhibit. At that heart is the role earth played in how women prevailed over often-daunting conditions. Whether they were using it to form cooking vessels and, eventually, fine-art pottery, or mudding the walls of their homes and churches, or wheeling, dealing and preserving the real estate of northern New Mexico, the dirt beneath of our feet has been a constant thread in the story of New Mexico women.

And now that story is on the wall, too, thanks to plasterer Kathy Brennan.

Brennan used American Clay Earth Plaster to mud the exhibit’s title wall in the style of how women have plastered the walls of adobe buildings for centuries. “It’s a type of veneer plaster,” she said, “that you can transfer to sheetrock.”

Although the precise recipe’s a secret, it includes clay, marble dust and natural pigments “straight out of the earth,” Brennan said.

She also added bits of straw and twigs for that old New Mexico look and used the Russell Lee image as an inspiration, though she didn’t don the overalls and straw hat of the photo’s plasterer.

“When Caroline called me, I thought it was really exciting–how to figure out how to come up with the color she was looking for and so on. I liked it, but it was a bit nerve-wracking at the same time. Still, I was really psyched. I love the photograph.”

This is her first experience mudding in a museum. Mostly, she works on home interiors, where people often ask her to include their handprints, their dogs’ pawprints, or their grandchildren’s footprints.

Home Lands focuses on the lives of women across the centuries in three regions–New Mexico’s Rio Arriba, Colorado’s Front Range, and Washington State’s Pugent Sound. Originally organized by the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, it features additional materials from the History Museum’s collections. It joins three smaller exhibitions–Ranch Women of New Mexico, New Mexico’s African American Legacy: Visible, Vital, Valuable, and Heart of the Home to put a spotlight on the unsung heroes of American history.

You can see Brennan’s mud wall in person June 19-Sept. 11, on the second floor of the History Museum, just north of the Santa Fe Plaza. Our grand opening, with refreshments in the Palace Courtyard, will be from 2-4 pm on Sunday, June 19. Admission is free on Sundays to NM residents.

The Things They Gave (2010 Donations to the Museum)

Posted on by

Behind a secure door in the lower level of the History Museum sits a cavernous storehouse reminiscent of that final warehouse scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The museum’s collections storage area boasts some of the most state-of-the-art qualities for preserving everything from ancient Pueblo artifacts to the recently honored Centennial license plate. Despite the bounty the museum already owns, we still actively collect items for future exhibitions, for researchers, and to ensure we have representative samples of every era of our history.

Thanks to our devoted fans, we came into quite a few “new” items in 2010, and thought you’d enjoy perusing the full list–everything from WPA chairs to a printing press to a commemorative bottle of Jim Beam liquor with, yes, the liquor still intact. (By the way, if you have something you think might be of interest, slip an e-mail to our Collections Manager and Registrar, Wanda Edward at wanda.edwards@state.nm.us.)

Drumroll, please:

National Park Service hat and original storage box.

Dress, early 1970s.

Three framed artworks by unknown artists from the Santa Fe Indian School.

Portfolio:  When the Two Came to Their Father,  Princeton University, 1943, Princeton, NJ.

These are 18 serigraph plates (18 x 24 inches) in a portfolio, based on original works that were executed in cornmeal and pollen on buckskin. They document a ceremony that was revived at the outset of WWII to prepare young Navajo men for military service. Jeff King was a tribal religious leader who revived the ceremonial and celebrated it for Navajo soldiers leaving for war. Text and paintings were recorded by Maud Oakes. Introduction is by Joseph Campbell.  This was the very first publication issued in the distinguished Bollingen series issued by Princeton University.  This rare first edition is not listed in any Museum of New Mexico library collections. This original edition became available after the purchase of  a reprint portfolio, and includes the accompanying book by Oakes and Campbell.

Polaroid prints taken in the 1970s.

Artist H. Joe Waldrum first began taking SX-70 Polaroid prints to capture details for his paintings.  Over time the Polaroid prints began to take on an art form of their own.  The result is this collection of almost 8,000 prints of churches, flowers, fruit, architecture and people.  This priceless collection documents many of the churches of New Mexico.  The Polaroid prints are the first of several planned donations from the estate of H. Joe Waldrum. (They were recently featured in the museum’s exhibit A Passionate Light.)

Museum of New Mexico Film and Video Collection and equipment. Transferred from Museum Resources to Photo Archives.

Priest’s cassock and sash.

Brown Franciscan robe with white knotted cord.

Thirty- eight 8 x 10 silver gelatin prints.

Two 1930s photographs of the Alamogordo Dam project.

Seven 16 x 20 photographs by Anne Noggle.

Women’s clothing.

The donor’s family has lived in New Mexico for several generations.  The donation includes a wedding crown, pink dress (1962), sheer navy dress (1930-1940s), navy and blue mantilla (1950s?) and 1 digital copy of the donor wearing the wedding crown for her wedding in 1972.  It was worn by donor’s grandmother for her 1912 wedding.  This will be the second wedding crown in the museum’s collections.

Boy’s clothing and toy.

The donor was born in Las Cruces on July 20, 1940.  He wore this suit for his first birthday.  The donation also includes his hand-knitted sailor hat and toy dog.  We have a digital photo of Dodson wearing the suit and standing in front of a marshmallow bunny cake.  This donation will broaden our collection of WWII era children’s’ clothing.

Silver and turquoise business card holder.

This silver holder with a piece of turquoise was given to the Director on the opening of NMHM by Ben Lujan, Speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Material associated with the issue of the Bill Mauldin stamp.

Bill Mauldin, well known cartoonist, was born in New Mexico.  The ceremony unveiling the stamp was held at the New Mexico History Museum.  Materials include first day of issue stamps and envelopes and a framed display of the stamps with Bill Mauldin’s image.

Four First day of Issue stamps on envelopes.

The stamps all relate to New Mexico: Georgia O’Keefe, Spanish Settlement, Palace of the Governors, and Dennis Chavez.   They will be added to the library’s growing collection of stamps honoring New Mexico.

Formed display of new Zia New Mexico Stamp.

The First Day of Issue ceremony was held at the New Mexico History Museum.

Uniforms.

The uniforms are from the New Mexico Military Institute and the National Park Service, Bandelier.  They were worn by the donor and date from 1996-98 and 2000 respectively.

Photographs by Dimitri Baltermants.

Scrapbook created by Fray Angélico Chávez relating to Chávez family.

Scrapbook relating to the Paul A. F. Walter Jr. family.

Walter, son of Santa Fe newspaperman Paul A. F. Walter Sr., was assistant director of the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research. He became the first director of the University of New Mexico Press and was the longtime editor of El Palacio magazine.

Papers relating to Olivia Tsosie.

The 9 boxes of materials pertain to the Santa Fe River Project, Agua Fria Village, Spanish horses, and family materials.

Papers and one dress belonging to Jesusita Acosta Morales.

Morales was New Mexico Secretary of State in 1928.  The donation consists of 4 boxes of newspaper clippings, photos, letters, embroidery art work and a flapper–style dress.

Small NM flag and paper ephemera associated with the commissioning of the USS New Mexico submarine in 2010.

Cap with insignia of USS New Mexico submarine.

CDs of interviews of 40 individuals who served in the battleship USS New Mexico during WW II.

Commemorative objects relating to the newly commissioned submarine USS New Mexico (SSN 779).

Cap, patch, poster, mug, and pin, all with the submarine’s logo.

Donation of two towels with the USS New Mexico (SSN 779) crest and two DVDs on the commissioning of the submarine.

Materials pertaining to John Stewart Harvey Sr. and the Fred Harvey Company.

Donation of papers associated with Fred Harvey and other family members.

Materials include date books, letter books, code books, clippings, photographs, and letters dating from the 1860s-1880s.

Donation of Fiesta clothing for men, women and children; also a black dress worn by Emma Dixon in the 1920s.

Book, Trail of an Artist Naturalist: the Autobiography of Ernest Thompson Seton.

Framed print of clay sparrow by Ernest Thompson Seton.

A framed letter from the director of the Office of Indian Affairs, dated February 24, 1923.

Four boxes of papers pertaining to La Herencia magazine; correspondence, essay drafts, photographs, and financial matters.

La Herencia began publication in 1994 in Santa Fe.  La Herencia, a quarterly publication, was founded by Santa Fe native Ana Pacheco, in response to the rapid decline of the Spanish language and Hispanic culture of New Mexico.   The magazine has ceased publication.

Papers pertaining to the Johnson family, collected by Dove Brown.

Abstract of Title, plat maps, legal and tax documents, correspondence, postcards, and miscellaneous documentary items for Colorado, Illinois and New Hampshire.

Three linear feet of papers from Tigges Planning Consultants.

Traffic, development and master plans.

Framed hand-painted photographs from the Ulibarri family in New Mexico; Ana Maria Montano and Jose Eluojio Ulibarri.

Four archival pigment prints of New Mexico scenes, 2006-2007.

Richard Wilder photograph of Laura Gilpin’s House, 1980.

Production photographs from the Santa Fe Opera, 1960-1980.

Commemorative Jim Beam bottle depicting the Palace of the Governors, 1610-1960.

Donation of 1960s clothing.

Donation of cap, photograph and La Fonda Hotel brochure dated 1954.

Two boxes of materials pertaining to the Santa Fe Historical Society, 1967-1990s.

Albuquerque aviation medal.

Materials related to Gustave Baumann.

Artwork, wood blocks, hand tools, books, personal items.

Eight Civil War era letters

Twenty six black and white glass slides of pre-revolutionary Mexico, mostly along the border.

Donation of two coins.

One coin is a Spanish silver 2 reales, minted 1775.  The other is an American copper one-cent coin, minted 1850.

Three silver 8 reales pieces.

Donation of papers from the 1960s pertaining to New Mexico and Arizona.

Materials include maps, Santa Fe Opera programs, and research materials on the Acequia Madre.

Donation  of 1960s clothing worn in New Mexico.

Donation of commemorative material associated with the 400th Anniversary of Santa Fe.

Items include drinking glasses, lapel pins, coins, CDs, books, and magazines.

Donation of memorabilia  associated with Governor and Mrs. Bill Richardson.

Items include invitations to the White House and the governor’s inaugurations, name tags and name plate, a scrapbook documenting the governors’ career from 1970-1980, a presentation piece from Mexico, and jackets and vests relating to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Rail Runner, and New Mexico Rodeo Council. Mrs. Richardson has donated the suit she wore to the swearing in ceremony and the gown she wore for the inaugural gala. Governor Richardson has donated the suit he wore for his inauguration.

Donation of furniture made in Mexico and New Mexico including a chest, table, mirror, two silver sconces and three New Mexican tin lamps.

Donation of a painted tin ex-voto of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Purchase of  a retablo with an image of Santa Barbara painted by Don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco (1714-1785).

Miera y Pacheco was one of the earliest Santeros in New Mexico to be known by name with documented works associated with him. The purchase was made possible through generous donations by Kay Harvey, Marilynn and Carl Thoma, Terra Foundation, Linda and Leroy Clark, and an anonymous donor.

Donation of a medallion commemorating Carlos V.

Presented to the director of the museum by SEACEX while she was in Spain.

Purchase of a Christmas ornament depicting the New Mexico Capitol Building.

Donation of  the Quentin Hulse Collection which includes books, artwork, photographs and personal items.

Quentin Hulse (1926-2002) was a well-known ranger, hunter, trapper, and guide who lived and worked at the bottom of Canyon Creek in the Gila River Wilderness for over 50 years.

Donation of a collection of books and periodicals on photography.

Donation of photographs of the mining town of Hagen, New Mexico.

Donation of photographs of New Mexico doors by Gustavo Castilla.

Donation of a collection of photographs including stereo views, cabinet cards, cyanotypes, and postcards of New Mexico scenes and pueblos.

Donation of a panorama photograph of Deming, New Mexico, 1917.

Donation of two home movies recording ceremonial dances at the Palace of the Governors with singing by Maria Martinez (1960s) and a Gallup Ceremonial.

Donation of a collection of photographs of the Santa Fe Opera, 1967-68.  Gift of Randall Bell.

Donation of a collection of photographs, papers from the Photographic Society of America and the Santa Fe Camera Club, 35mm slides, and cameras from the estate of Roy Elliott Barker (1911-2005).

Barker worked for the New Mexico Fish and Game Department from the 1930s until he retired in the 1960s.  He produced over 25, 000 slides of the Barker family in New Mexico, the vernacular architecture of the state, and scenes of landscapes and wild life.  His work was published in the New Mexico Magazine and Arizona Highways.

Donation of photographs of New Mexico, 1920s.

Donation of photographs of buildings in Santa Fe, 1918-1925.

Donation of photographs produced by Miguel Gandert and Anne Noggle.

Collection of clothing worn in New Mexico in the 1970s.

Donation of a Bobcat Press.

Gift of the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System.

Donation of a rosary created by a prisoner in Central New Mexico Correctional Facility.

Donation of items from Diane Denish’s term as Lieutenant Governor.

Framed bill signed by her, 2 portraits, gavel, and a shovel used in the ground breaking for the Navajo Nation water project.

Donation of original and photocopied items pertaining to the history of the USS Santa Fe, 1940s-1990s.

Donation of 0.25 linear feet of materials pertaining to the St. James Hotel and Cimarron, NM, including photographs, scrapbook, and newspaper clippings

Donation of silver gelatin prints by Barbara Van Cleve.

Donation of original signed prints by Henry Tefft (12 binders, 3 boxes).

Donation of photographs taken between 1868 and 2008, including images produced by William Henry Jackson and Memphis Barbree.

Donation of bottle opener from the De Vargas Hotel (1920s).

Donation of materials pertaining to the SS Columbus (the German crew was held at Ft. Stanton during WW II).

Donation of silver gelatin prints (1930-1940) created by Jack Hull, editor of the Clovis Times and diaries (1941-1947) of Iretus D. Johnson, only dentist in Clovis at that time.

Donation of four chairs made by WPA artist Eliseo Rodriguez, circa 1938.

Donation of an iron hide scrapper and iron spoon.

Donation of 1970s iconic pins and badge