New Mexico History Museum

Exhibit opening: Santa Fe Found: Fragments of Time

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2009

MEDIA CONTACT


Santa Fe (BY NOV. 9) – Join the curators for the grand opening of the New Mexico History Museum’s newest exhibit, Santa Fe Found: Fragments of Time, a historical and archaeological exploration of the founding and first 100 years of La Villa Real de Santa Fé. A free reception will be 5:30-7 pm on Friday, Nov. 20, in the Palace of the Governors. The event is hosted by the Women’s Board. Visitors can enter through the Palace at 105 W. Palace Ave., or the History Museum, 113 Lincoln Ave.

 

Before construction of the History Museum began, a two-year archaeological dig uncovered hints of the Native peoples and Spanish settlers who first encountered one another 400 years ago. More than 800,000 artifacts were unearthed from that downtown Santa Fe site, joining finds from the Baca-Garvisu site (now the Santa Fe Community Convention Center), the Sanchez site (near El Rancho de las Golondrinas) and San Gabriel del Yungue (on the Pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh).

 

Co-curated by Josef Diaz of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors and Stephen Post of the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies, Santa Fe Found collects more than 160 artifacts from those sites, along with maps, documents, household goods, weaponry and religious objects.

 

Santa Fe Found: Fragments of Time was made possible by the Palace Guard, a support group of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation; the Gala Opening Committee; Friends of Archaeology, a support group of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation; the Santa Fe 400th; and the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

 

A lecture series accompanies the exhibit. Each one is in the New Mexico History Museum Auditorium. The Thursday evening lectures are free; Saturday afternoon lectures are free with museum admission. The schedule:

 

Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, 6-7:30 pm
Historian and genealogist José Esquibel, “The Jewish-Converso Lineage of Don Juan de Oñate”
A Santa Fe 400th Anniversary lecture

Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009, 2-3:30 pm
Stephen Post, assistant director of the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies, “The Founding of Santa Fe from the Ground Down”
A "Santa Fe Found" lecture

Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010, 6-7:30 pm
Archaeologist Cordelia Snow, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, “Luxury Goods Transported Over the Camino Real”
A Santa Fe 400th Anniversary lecture

Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010, 2-3:30 pm
Dr. Frances Levine, director of the New Mexico History Museum, “In Her own Voice: Doña Teresa and Intrigue in the Palace”
A "Santa Fe Found" lecture

Saturday, March 13, 2010, 2-3:30 pm
Thomas Chavez, retired Executive Director of the National Hispanic Culture Center and former director of the Palace of the Governors, “Juan Martínez de Montoya and the Establishment of Santa Fe”
A "Santa Fe Found" lecture

Saturday, April 17, 2010, 2-3:30 pm
Robin Farwell Gavin, senior curator of the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, “The Journey of Mayólica”
A "Santa Fe Found" lecture

Thursday, May 13, 2010, 6-7:30 pm
Joseph Sánchez, director of the University of New Mexico Spanish Colonial Research Center and director of the Petroglyph National Monument, “Peralta and the Founding of Santa Fe”
A Santa Fe 400th Anniversary lecture

For details on the lectures, click here. For more on the exhibit, click here.

 

Cutline info for above photo: A water iron, baptismal bottle and traveling baptismal box used in the 18th and 19th centuries and produced in Mexico. Photo by Blair Clark, Department of Cultural Affairs.

 

The New Mexico History Museum is the newest addition to a campus that includes the Palace of the Governors, the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States; Fray Angélico Chávez History Library; Palace of the Governors Photo Archives; the Press at the Palace of the Governors; and the Native American Artisans Program. The New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs. For more information, visit www.nmhistorymuseum.org.

 



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