Married to a Jewish merchant in Deming, NM, Ella Klauber Wormser took what may be the only photographs documenting the transition from cattle drives to rail transport in the late 1880s. Her contribution is but one of many made by Jewish pioneer families to the ranching heritage of New Mexico.
At 2 pm on Sunday, Oct. 27, the museum joins with the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society and Temple Beth Shalom to present “Nice Jewish Cowboys and Cowgirls” in the History Museum auditorium. The event, part of the exhibit Cowboys Real and Imagined, is free with admission; Sundays are free to NM residents.
Noel Pugach, professor emeritus of history at the University of New Mexico, will lead a panel discussion featuring members of the Moises, Gottlieb and Wertheim families. Meredith Davidson, curator of 19th- and 20th-century Southwest collections, will present a selection of Wormser’s images also on view in the exhibit Cowboys Real and Imagined.
In the second half of the 19th century, Jewish families began playing prominent roles in cattle ranching and sheep raising – roles that continue into 21st-century New Mexico. Modern-day practitioners will share their families’ stories and explain what “the cowboy way” means to them.
Cowboys Real and Imagined explores New Mexico’s cowboy legacy from its origin in the Spanish vaquero tradition through itinerant hired hands, outlaws, rodeo stars, cowboy singers, Tom Mix movies and more. Guest curated by B. Byron Price, director of the Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West at the University of Oklahoma, the exhibit grounds cowboy history in New Mexico through rare photographs, cowboy gear, movies and original works of art. It includes a bounty of artifacts including boots and spurs, ropes, movie posters, and the chuck wagon once used by cowboys on New Mexico’s legendary Bell Ranch.
For more information on Cowboys Real and Imagined, including programming events, click here (or log onto
http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/events.php?action=detail&eventID=1421).
Download high-resolution versions of images from the exhibit by clicking here.
This event is supported by the New Mexico Humanities Council. Cowboys Real and Imagined was made possible by the Brindle Foundation; Burnett Foundation; Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation, Houston; Candace Good Jacobson in memory of Thomas Jefferson Good III; New Mexico Humanities Council; Newman’s Own Foundation; Palace Guard; Eugenia Cowden Pettit and Michael Pettit; Jane and Charlie Gaillard; Moise Livestock Company; the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association; and the many contributors to the Director’s Leadership, Annual Education, and Exhibitions Development Funds.
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