All Press Releases
New Mexico History Museum | Mar 31, 2014
Meet our new interim director, learn about the human-sized camera obscura we’re building, get a glimpse of a recently conserved 18th-century painting. It’s all in the April-May 2014 issue of The Museum Times, a publication of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors. Give it a read by clicking here (or log onto http://media.newmexicoculture.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=313) then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the page.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 26, 2014
Ever wonder why there’s an obelisk in the middle of the Santa Fe Plaza? Have you noticed the gargoyles on top of the Catron Building? Where was the gambling hall? Which tucked-away building held a Manhattan Project secret?
Learn all that and more when the Historical Downtown Walking Tours led by museum-trained guides resume on April 14 through Oct. 11.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 21, 2014
Dr. Jon Hunner, a history professor at New Mexico State University, will serve as interim director at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors, starting in early May after the spring semester. Hunner will be on loan from NMSU through December 2014. Dr. Frances Levine, the museum’s current director, is taking over leadership of the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. Her last day is Sunday, March 16, the closing day of the exhibition Cowboys Real and Imagined.
“We are grateful to Governor Garrey Carruthers and New Mexico State University for their generosity in sharing Dr. Hunner, who has shown lifelong dedication to public history and a commitment to education,” said Veronica N. Gonzales, Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. “The Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents has already formalized the search committee and a national search will be conducted.”
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 5, 2014
Drought has descended on the Southwest for the last several years, leaving most of New Mexico’s agricultural land in conditions that demand new ways of thinking. Ranches have traditionally been one of the state’s largest industries, and that rainless sky means tough choices for people who juggle land management and environmental change. Many of them are adapting successfully, though, by reevaluating land use in creative ways. Their efforts help keep the legacy of the cowboy alive.
As part of the ongoing exhibit, Cowboys Real and Imagined, join us for a panel discussion on “Ranching in the 22nd Century: How We Get from Here to There,” at 2 pm on Sunday, March 2, in the History Museum auditorium. Moderated by Courtney White, founder and creative director of the Quivira Coalition, panelists will address the issues facing ranchers in the current drought and the prospect of ranching in the future with a deeper understanding of environmental conditions.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 4, 2014
Historical Downtown Walking Tours resume April 14 .... An invitation to join the ranks of tour guides
The Historical Downtown Walking Tours led by museum-trained guides have grown into a popular pastime among locals and tourists alike. This year’s tours will run from April 14 through Oct. 11. To boost the ranks of volunteer guides, the New Mexico History Museum and Los Compadres del Palacio, a support group of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, are inaugurating a special recruitment and training opportunity, with a kickoff event on Tuesday, March 4, at 9:30 am.
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 27, 2014
Tom Leech, director of the Palace Press, and Arlyn Nathan, a book designer and typography instructor at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, have won the 14th Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design from the University of Texas at El Paso’s Friends of the Library. The award recognizes Jack Thorp’s Songs of the Cowboys, published in 2012.
Leech, along with J.B. Bryan, also won honorable mention for the design of Margaret Wood’s memoir, O’Keeffe Stories. In his announcement letter, Robert Stakes, director of the UTEP Library, said “it is the first time a single Press was selected as both the winner and as honorable mention in the same year.”
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 21, 2014
Dr. Frances Levine, who became director of the Palace of the Governors in 2002 and led construction of the New Mexico History Museum into a world-class institution, has been named president and CEO of the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. She will remain at the New Mexico History Museum until March 15 and start her new job on April 15.
“Everything I have done with the help of our staff, donors and volunteers has prepared me for this next set of responsibilities and challenges,” Levine said. “It’s not a coincidence that I would be traveling to a museum that shares so much of our Mexican period and territorial period history. This new position will also introduce me to another perspective on the American story. I look forward to learning about the diverse cultures and historical experiences brought together here at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and made St. Louis a dynamic American city."
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 15, 2014
Beginning with his early years working as a research photographer at the Sacramento Peak Solar Observatory in southern New Mexico, photographer Donald Woodman honed his photographic vision first through stars and clouds and then through sandy soil, majestic peaks and his own interior life. Donald Woodman: Transformed by New Mexico explores that journey through a series of photographs on exhibit February 23 through October 12, 2014, in the New Mexico History Museum’s Mezzanine Gallery.
Transformed by New Mexico is one of the commemorations of the History Museum’s fifth anniversary, a yearlong series of exhibits and events celebrating all the museum has accomplished since its opening in May 2009.
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 7, 2014
Experts on pinhole photography, the Taos Mutiny of 1855, New Mexico’s Civil War slave code and more will speak in the first half of the 2014 Brainpower & Brownbags Lecture Series. Organized by Tomas Jaehn of the museum’s Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, the lectures are free and open to the public (and, yes, you can bring a lunch). Each lecture begins at noon in the Meem Community Room; enter through the museum’s Washington Avenue doors. Seating is limited.
Mark your calendars. The schedule:
Wednesday, Jan. 15: Andres Armijo on “Witness to the Light: A History of Vernacular Photography in New Mexico.”
Armijo, an Albuquerque resident, is the author of Becoming a Part of My History: Through Images & Stories of My Ancestors (LPD Press/Rio Grande Books, 2010).
Wednesday, Feb. 19: Stefanie Beninato on “Land Grants and Water Rights: Fighting Words in the 21st Century"
Beninato, a Santa Fe tour guide, holds a doctorate in Southwest history from the University of New Mexico.
Wednesday, March 5: Brian Stout on “Tree of Life: Our Forests in Peril”
Stout is a Michigan-based forester and author of Trees of Life: Our Forests in Peril (Friesen Press, 2013).
Wednesday, April 23: Nancy Spencer and Eric Renner on “Contemporary Pinhole Photography in the West and Southwest"
Spencer and Renner created the Pinhole Resource Collection from their home in New Mexico’s Mimbres Valley. They guest-curated the exhibition Poetics of Light: Pinhole Photography at the New Mexico History Museum, April 26, 2014–March 29, 2015, along with its accompanying book (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2014).
Wednesday, May 21: John Ramsay on “The Year 1855: Excitement in the Taos Plaza”
Ramsay, a retired Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher, is a longtime board member of the History Society of New Mexico.
Wednesday, June 18: John P. Hays on “The Curious Case of New Mexico’s Civil War-Era Slave Code”
Hays is an attorney in the Santa Fe firm of Cassutt, Hays and Friedman.
New Mexico History Museum | Dec 3, 2013
Meet the new kids on the block, check out a cool education program, find out what artist Kumi Yamashita is up to, map out your holiday events. All that and more in the December-January edition of The Museum Times, a publication of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors. Give it a read by clicking here (or log onto http://media.newmexicoculture.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=291) then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the page.
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 8, 2013
Starting Nov. 1, the New Mexico History Museum’s Free Friday Evenings will switch from every Friday to the first Friday of each month through April. Admission will be free from 5 to 8 pm for everyone on those evenings, and we’ll spice them up with casual staff-led gallery talks about special items in our long-term collections.
Meet up with friends, learn a little something, then head onto dinner with the money you saved. The talks will be repeated at 5:30 and 6:30 each evening.
Free Friday Evenings will resume their traditional weekly schedule May through October 2014.
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 7, 2013
This event is SOLD OUT. Thanks for your support!
Fred Harvey all but invented cultural tourism, inspiring travel on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that brought new life to the American West. From 4–7 pm on Sunday, Nov. 17, the New Mexico History Museum joins with KNME-TV and La Fonda on the Plaza to celebrate that legacy with a fund-raising event for the museum’s exhibitions and public programming funds.
An Evening with the Harvey Girls begins with the premiere of Producer Katrina Parks’ new documentary, The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound, in the History Museum auditorium. Following the film, participants will enjoy an exclusive reception at La Fonda with Harvey House-inspired hors d’oeuvres and tours of newly renovated suites featuring the architectural and design legacies of Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter. Special guests include Parks; former Harvey Girls; and Stephen Fried, author of a 2010 book about the Harvey empire, Appetite for America.
Tickets are $80; $100 for reserved seating, and are available at the museum’s shops or by calling 505-982-9543. Ticket holders will also receive a complimentary set of note cards featuring historical Harvey images.
New Mexico History Museum | Sep 30, 2013
Learn more about a special Harvey Girls event, new awards, a new book, and lots of great events at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors. iIt’s all in the latest edition of The Museum Times. Give it a read by clicking here (or log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=284) then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the page.
New Mexico History Museum | Aug 1, 2013
Learn more about the History Museum’s upcoming Wild West Weekend. Meet our newest staffers. Check out the collections vault’s toys, toys, and more toys. It’s all in the latest edition of The Museum Times. Give it a read by clicking here, then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the next page.
New Mexico History Museum | Jul 22, 2013
Immerse yourself in cowboy culture August 9—11 at the New Mexico History Museum’s Wild West Weekend, a special event celebrating the exhibition Cowboys Real and Imagined. Cowboy musicians and poets join trick ropers, saddle makers, silversmiths and more to provide three days of hands-on fun for the whole family. The events are free; the exhibition is by regular admission (Sundays free to NM residents, Friday evenings free to everyone, children 16 and under free daily).
New Mexico History Museum | Jul 10, 2013
Gregory Hinton grew up in the cowboy country of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, but evacuated to a California more tolerant of him as a gay man, finally making peace with his roots thanks to gay rodeo. Blake Little showed up at his first gay rodeo in the 1980s intending only to take photographs, but became so enchanted that he eventually earned his spurs as a champion bull rider.
Hinton and Little will talk about their experiences, joined by Brian Helander, founder and president of the Gay & Lesbian Rodeo Heritage Foundation, and renowned Santa Fe photographer Herb Lotz, on Sunday, Aug. 4, at 2 pm in the New Mexico History Museum Auditorium. “Pride in the Saddle in New Mexico: The Story of Gay Rodeo” is free with admission; Sundays are free to NM residents.
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 26, 2013
Experts on the early history of baseball, Mable Dodge Luhan, Edith Warner, and hippies will participate in the second half of the 2013 Brainpower & Brownbags Lecture Series. Organized by Tomas Jaehn of the museum’s Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, the lectures are free and open to the public (and, yes, you can bring a lunch). Each lecture begins at noon in the Meem Community Room; enter through the museum’s Washington Avenue doors. Seating is limited. Go to http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=271 for details.
Go to http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=271 for details. -->
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 25, 2013
Staffers of the New Mexico History Museum are delighted to welcome an offshoot of the popular dulce bakery + coffee to the museum’s Cowden Café. Now up and running, “dulce downtown” is operating a coffee shop and bakery/café in the museum’s second-floor space through this fall. The bakery serves sumptuous helpings of fresh-baked pastries, quiche, coffees and teas to customers eager for red velvet cupcakes, blueberry-ginger scones, banana-walnut muffins, bread pudding, lemon tarts, and cheesecake.
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 18, 2013
Besides selling authentic handmade artwork, jewelry, pottery and more beneath the Palace Portal, the Native American Artisans Program of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors brings back two of its most popular events this summer, the annual Young Natives Arts & Crafts Show, July 6 and 7, and the Palace Portal Artisans’ Celebration during in the SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market weekend, Aug. 17 and 18.
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 14, 2013
When he heard African American cowboys singing made-up songs under the New Mexico stars, N. Howard “Jack” Thorp decided to compile the world’s first book of campfire lyrics, Songs of the Cowboy.
Born a slave, George McJunkin grew up to become foreman of the Crowfoot Ranch near Folsom, NM, where he discovered ancient bones that proved, at the time, to be the oldest of their kind.
From the freed slaves who found work on the earliest cattle drives to the contemporary rodeo circuit, African Americans have been part of New Mexico’s cowboy heritage for generations.
Learn more about the roles they played at “African American Cowboys” on Sunday, June 30, at 2 pm in the History Museum Auditorium. See the short documentary African American Cowboy: The Forgotten Man of the West, by film student Victoria Lioznyansky, followed by a discussion with Kevin Woodson and Aaron Hopkins of Cowboys of Color, sponsors of the largest multicultural rodeo tour in the world.
The event, part of the exhibition Cowboys Real and Imagined, is free with admission. Sundays are free with admission; children 16 and under are free every day.
New Mexico History Museum | May 31, 2013
From a fine-press reprise of the book that started country singers singin' to railroad maps, conservation of an awesome artowork, a photographer of vernacular architecture and more, the latest edition of The Museum Times from the New Mexico History Museum fits the bill. Give it a read by clicking here, then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the next page.
, then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the next page.-->New Mexico History Museum | May 14, 2013
In the hallowed tradition of campfire tales and cowboy poetry, the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project holds a special session at the New Mexico History Museum on Friday, June 21, 10–11 am. People living with dementia, their family members and the general public are invited to participate in performing and creating poetry inspired by the new exhibit Cowboys Real and Imagined. Poet Gary Glazner, founder and executive director of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, will lead the session.
The event is free by reservation, but limited to 30 participants. For more information or reservations, contact Gary Glazner at (505) 577-2250 or gary@alzpoetry.com.
New Mexico History Museum | May 6, 2013
Author, painter, and raconteur Max Evans is joined by Jim Harris, director of the Lea County Museum, to talk about his storied career, including the making of movies from his works, at 6 pm on Friday, May 17. After jawin’ about the cowboy life, the two will introduce a special showing of The Hi-Lo Country (1998), starring Woody Harrelson, Billy Crudup, and Patricia Arquette. The evening, part of the exhibition Cowboys Real and Imagined (through March 16, 2014), is in the History Museum auditorium. Admission is free every Friday 5-8 pm.
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 16, 2013
Museum-trained guides in Santa Fe history will resume their Downtown Walking Tours on April 22, Monday—Saturday, through mid-October. The tours begin at 10:15 am in front of the Blue Gate just south of the New Mexico History Museum’s main entrance at 113 Lincoln Ave. Tours cost $10; children 16 and under free when accompanied by an adult. Museum guides do not accept tips.
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 14, 2013
When America needed hard workers, the cowboy was there. The job was dirty and difficult, low-paid and lowly regarded. But when an America torn by the Civil War needed a hero to unite its soul, the unassuming cowboy was an unlikely—and ultimately lasting—pick. Since riding out of Spanish horse culture, he’s been an itinerant hired hand, an outlaw, a movie star, a rodeo athlete, a radio yodeler, and a rhinestoned disco diva. He’s been Spanish, Mexican, African American, Anglo, male, female, straight, and gay. His image has been co-opted to sell trucks, beer, boots, beans, jeans, tires, cigarettes, leather couches, presidential candidates, and a lifestyle far beyond the means of real-life buckaroos.
Using artifacts and photographs from its wide-ranging collections, along with loans from more than 100 people and museums, Cowboys Real and Imagined (April 14, 2013, through March 16, 2014) blends a chronological history of Southwestern cowboys with the rise of a manufactured mystique as at home on city streets as it is in a stockyard.
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 9, 2013
Live music, family activities and a lecture by guest curator B. Byron Price are among the goodies awaiting people coming to the opening weekend of Cowboys Real and Imagined. Members Preview: 6:30-8 pm Saturday, April 13, with food by Cowgirl BBQ and music by the Free Range Ramblers. Grand Opening: 1-5 pm Sunday April 14 with a 2 pm lecture by guest curator B. Byron Price and, from 3-5 pm, music by Bill Hearne and refreshments by the Women's Board of the Museum of New Mexico.
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 3, 2013
What's new at the New Mexico History Museum? The April 14 opening of Cowboys Real and Imagined. A hunt for hints of cochineal in 18th-century paintings. A staffer who's a killer (or plays one on the silver screen). Check out the latest edition of The Museum Times by clicking here, then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the next page.
New Mexico History Museum | Mar 10, 2013
Don Edwards, a premier performer of old-time ballads and cowboy songs, performs in the New Mexico History Museum Auditorium at 2 pm on Sunday, March 10, an advance event for the exhibition Cowboys Real and Imagined, opening April 14. Tickets for Edwards’ performance are $25 at the History Museum Shop; call (505) 982-9543 or go to www.newmexicocreates.org.
New Mexico History Museum | Mar 8, 2013
Women's Visual Narratives of New Mexico between the World Wars, by Joy Sperling, art history professor at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, at 12 pm, on Wednesday, March 13, in the History Museum's Meem Community Room.
and
Your Hands Will Always Be Covered with Ink: Nuns, Widows, Mavericks and Other Passionate Printers, a lecture by Kathleen Walkup, professor of book art and director of the Book Art Program at Mills College, in Oakland, Calif., at 6 pm on Friday, March 22, in the History Museum Auditorium.
Both lectures are free.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 1, 2013
Preparations for the upcoming New Mexico History Museum exhibit, Cowboys Real and Imagined. NPR's StoryCorps comes to the museum. Tales of awesome volunteers. Cool new artifacts. And a guide to upcoming events like cowboy balladeer Don Edwards and a train trip to Lamy. To download the latest edition of the History Museum's Museum Times, click here -- http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=252 -- then click on "download PDF" at the bottom of the next page.
