All Press Releases
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 10, 2016
The American Association for State and Local History will bestow their Award of Merit for Leadership in History to the New Mexico History Museum at their annual awards banquet on September 16. This prestigious award recognizes the museum’s Historic New Mexico Maps project, the culmination of a four-year effort to catalog more than 6,000 maps, along with hosting an array of public programs and producing Historic Maps as Teaching Tools: A Curriculum Guide for Grades 5–8. Patricia Hewitt of the museum’s Fray Angélico Chávez History Library oversaw the project. She and the museum share the award with the co-writers of the curriculum guide, Drs. Judy and Dennis Reinhartz of Santa Fe.
The museum’s map collection encompasses all of New Mexico history, from Spanish Colonial to Mexican Republic, U.S. territorial and statehood periods. From the smallest map (4 x 5 ½ in.) to the largest (13 x 122 ft.), the museum’s map collection includes more than 1,100 road maps, 800 railroad maps, and 2,000 topographic maps—all of them now available to researchers and interested members of the public visiting the library. (A plan to digitize the collection awaits appropriate funding and staffing.)
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 9, 2016
New Mexico History Museum presents Vanessa Paloma Elbaz speaking on “De tu boca a los cielos (From Your Mouth to the Heavens): Women’s Songs and Stories at the Heart of Sephardic Identity.” Using musical examples, this free talk will demonstrate the richness of women’s oral traditions in the Sephardic world and the role of their voices in the continuity of Sephardic identity.
Where: New Mexico History Museum Auditorium in conjunction with the exhibition, Fractured Faiths: Spanish Judaism, The Inquisition, and New World Identities.
When: Sunday, June 26 at 11 am.
Admission: Free with museum admission. NM residents with ID always free on Sundays.
Public Contact: 505-476-5200
New Mexico History Museum | May 17, 2016
Lowriders, Hoppers, and Hot Rods: Car Culture of Northern New Mexico Author Denise Chavez Santa Fe— Sunday, June 19, 2016 2 pm New Mexico History Museum auditorium Free with museum admission ¡ÓRALE! BORDER LOW & B ...
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 4, 2016
The documentary film-in-progress, Citizen Min in New Mexico, by Holly Yasui, commemorates a little known hero of the Japanese American civil rights movement, Minoru Yasui, who was recently awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. The film also presents a historic encounter between Min and Senator Pete Domenici in Albuquerque in 1984. Starting with a program on Friday May 6, 5:30-7:30pm at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors, Min’s daughter, Holly Yasui, will be in New Mexico to tour a two-hour program that includes:
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 1, 2016
Jake Barrow, program director at Cornerstones Community Partnerships, speaks on “A Fragile Legacy: Earthen Architecture in New Mexico” at 6 pm on Friday, April 1. The lecture in the History Museum auditorium underscores the importance of ongoing restoration projects at the Palace of the Governors, a National Historic Treasure and one of the most visible adobe structures in the state. Barrow and other Cornerstones staff are consultants to the museum on that project.
This is a Free First Friday Evening event. Admission to the History Museum and Palace is free to everyone from 5–8 pm.
New Mexico History Museum | Mar 10, 2016
From offering caregivers an hour of respite to discovering new wells of creativity, the acclaimed Alzheimer’s Poetry Project has spent the last decade developing techniques to reach people with memory illnesses through literature, performance, art and museum exhibits. Now you can learn techniques focused on movement and dance to reach learners of all abilities. Join us on Saturday, April 9, from 10 am to 1:30 pm, when the New Mexico History Museum and the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project present “Celebrating Creativity in Elder Care: A Day of Learning.”
The workshop will be held at the History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue, on the Santa Fe Plaza. A registration fee of $25 includes a light breakfast. Continuing Education Units are available. To register, go to www.dementiaarts.com, or call (505) 577-2250. Seating is limited, so reserve a spot today.
New Mexico History Museum | Mar 9, 2016
Learn about preserving adobe structures (including our beloved Palace of the Governors), learn to tackle risk, take a historical stroll, and enjoy family-friendly activities. It’s all in April at the History Museum.
New Mexico History Museum | Mar 2, 2016
Jake Barrow, acting executive director at Cornerstones Community Partnerships, speaks on “A Fragile Legacy: Earthen Architecture in New Mexico” at 6 pm on Friday, April 1. The lecture will compare and contrast the challenges of preserving earthen architecture using several case studies, including the evolution of the Palace of the Governors, a National Historic Treasure and one of the most visible adobe structures in the state. Barrow and other Cornerstones staff are participating with the museum on educational initiatives focusing on the preservation of New Mexico’s earthen architectural heritage.
This is a Free First Friday Evening event in the History Museum auditorium. Admission to the History Museum and Palace is free to everyone from 5–8 pm.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 18, 2016
Enter spring like a history lion by attending special events in March that range from Pancho Villa to colcha embroidery, 17th-century books, and a new exhibit with portraits of Santa Feans.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 17, 2016
To bring extra oomph to this year’s Time Trekkers Summer Camp, the New Mexico History Museum has crafted a partnership with the Santa Fe Children’s Museum. During the weeklong camp, History Museum educators will work with volunteers and staff from the Children’s Museum, mostly at the History Museum. One day will be spent at the Children’s Museum, where participants will learn about different kinds of 18th-century foods, bake in an horno, and explore traditional plants in the gardens.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 16, 2016
To commemorate this year’s 100th anniversary of Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, NM, the New Mexico History Museum hosts a special lecture by noted author and photographer Jeff Lowdermilk and Helen Patton, granddaughter of General Patton. “Pancho Villa and the U.S. Army: A Training Ground for World War I” is at 2 pm on Sunday, March 6, in the museum auditorium. Seating is limited. The lecture is free with admission; Sundays are free to NM residents.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 10, 2016
¡Orale! Take a ride into the creative reimaginings of American steel as captured in photographs, hubcaps, hood ornaments, car show banners and, yes, actual cars. Lowriders, Hoppers, and Hot Rods: Car Culture of Northern New Mexico, opening May 1 (through March 5, 2017) at the New Mexico History Museum focuses on mobile works of art and their makers—home-grown Nuevomexicanos who customize, detail, paint and upholster these favorite symbols of Hispanic culture.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 10, 2016
In 2009, photographer Alan Pearlman set out on a quest to capture the soul of Santa Fe in a series of photographic portraits. Some of the results take center stage in the New Mexico History Museum’s Mezzanine Gallery, March 13–September 18, 2016. Santa Fe Faces features a selection from 90 portraits that Pearlman created between 2009 and 2013. Included among them are images of flamenco artist Juan Siddi and Turquoise Trail rancher Archie West. Through them, Pearlman aimed to reveal a moment in the City Different’s history, focusing on the ways that clothing and settings speak to identities and occupations.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 8, 2016
Join local arts organizations and Gary Glazner, founder of the internationally acclaimed Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, for a fun-filled morning of creating poetry and song inspired by The Book’s the Thing: Shakespeare from Stage to Page. This event is crafted especially for people with memory illnesses and their care partners, though everyone is welcome to participate.
Meet at the New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue in Santa Fe, on Tuesday, February 23, from 10–11 am. Community-in-Residence is a free event during which we’ll explore Shakespeare’s famous quotes in a spirit of creativity, playfulness and learning, and then invent a performance inspired by his work.
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 20, 2016
Doth thou love William Shakespeare? Then February’s your month. The New Mexico Museum of Art features First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, in collaboration with the New Mexico History Museum’s The Book’s the Thing: Shakespeare from Stage to Page. Come throughout the month to each museum for lectures, performances, hands-on art activities and more. Find out all the ways we’ll help you fall in love with history this February (including a few non-Shakespearean ones).
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 20, 2016
Augment your visit to the New Mexico Museum of Art’s First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare by stepping across Lincoln Avenue to the History Museum’s exploration of Shakespeare and the art of publishing, in The Book’s the Thing: Shakespeare from Stage to Page. The exhibit includes a full month of free, special programming events.
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 3, 2016
In 1492, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella unified the nation under the Catholic crown, a royal edict ordered all Jews to either leave the country or convert to Catholicism within four months—or else. The Spanish Inquisition (and later, the Portuguese and Mexican Inquisitions) stood ready to persecute anyone who failed to abide. Violators would endure prisons, torture and death. Fractured Faiths: Spanish Judaism, The Inquisition, and New World Identities, opening May 22, 2016, stands on the brink of that chasm and leaps into a diaspora that dates to biblical times. For the first time, a major institution tells the comprehensive story of how Spain’s Jewry found a tenuous foothold in North America. Despite continued persecution, its people persisted—sometimes as upright Catholic conversos, sometimes as self-identifying “crypto-Jews.”
New Mexico History Museum | Dec 22, 2015
The New Mexico History Museum kicks off a new year with a series of robust programs, including the inaugural edition of its third-Sunday-of-the-month Family Fun Days. Check out our schedule for lectures, poetry readings and more.
New Mexico History Museum | Dec 1, 2015
Billy the Kid, Kit Carson, Lucien Maxwell, the railroad, Pueblo Indians and more are among the topics covered in the next set of the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library’s Brainpower & Brownbags Lunch Lectures. Organized by Librarian Tomas Jaehn, the monthly lectures are free, and you’re welcome to bring a lunch. Each lecture begins at noon in the Meem Community Room; enter through the museum’s Washington Avenue doors. Seating is limited.
New Mexico History Museum | Nov 30, 2015
Find out about terrific holiday events and go behind the scenes with our trusty security staff. Learn about the Palace renovation project and check out a truck-sized effort to photograph the building. It’s all in the latest edition of the New Mexico History Museum’s newsletter. Click here to download a pdf or copy this URL into your browser: http://media.newmexicoculture.org/press_releases.php?action=download&releaseID=429.
New Mexico History Museum | Nov 23, 2015
The Palace Press presents a special exhibition in collaboration with the New Mexico Museum of Art’s First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare. The Book’s the Thing: Shakespeare from Stage to Page offers a multi-part exhibit with a hands-on twist: The printers will make facsimiles of a First Folio page using a replica “Gutenberg” wooden hand press. Visitors will be able to make their own prints for a take-home treat. In addition, members of the Santa Fe Book Arts Group have crafted contemporary art books inspired by the works of Shakespeare. And Palace Press Director Thomas Leech and internationally known calligrapher Patricia Musick will collaborate on broadsides from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
New Mexico History Museum | Nov 12, 2015
Remarkable women, a family-day wool-and-weaving event, and our annual holiday events. Find out what’s up in December at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors.
New Mexico History Museum | Nov 3, 2015
See a new film produced by the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center, examine textiles and try your hand at weaving on Sunday, December 6, from 1:30–4 pm. The 20-minute film, An Unbroken Thread: Wool & Weaving in Northern New Mexico, will be shown at 1:30 and 2:30 pm in the History Museum auditorium. Throughout the afternoon, representatives from the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center and museum educators will engage visitors in the materials of the weaver’s trade, teach basic weaving skills and showcase finished textiles. This event is free with admission. Sundays are free to NM residents; children 16 and under are free daily.
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 28, 2015
The Press at the Palace of the Governors will receive the Edgar L. Hewett Award by the New Mexico Association of Museums. The award is made to individuals or organizations whose actions exemplify leadership and service to the New Mexico museum community and for their achievements in the museum field. Past recipients include the New Mexico History Museum (2009), the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (2011), and the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 20, 2015
During World War II, Santa Fe was the site of one of the nation’s largest Justice Department internment camps. It primarily housed Japanese immigrants, among them the Rev. Tamasaku Watanabe. On Sunday, November 15, at 2 pm, Watanabe’s granddaughter, Dr. Gail Y. Okawa, speaks on a brain-twisting aspect of that heartbreaking period: Even as our government locked up Japanese residents over fears of their supposed disloyalty, their own children put on soldiers’ uniforms to defend the nation.
“Compounded Ironies: Japanese Internee Fathers, American Patriot Sons” is a free-with-admission lecture in the New Mexico History Museum auditorium. (Sundays are free to NM residents.)
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 19, 2015
From an exclusive Palace Guard events to a book-arts flea market and talks on the history of the New Mexico National Guard, internment camps of Japanese people and the various types of Southwestern cuisine, the New Mexico History Museum will deepen your appreciation for the past during November.
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 8, 2015
Grab the kids, don a costume, and head to the Santa Fe Plaza for a progressive Halloween party on Friday, October 30, at the Museum of Art and New Mexico History Museum. We’ll have music, treasure hunts, ghost stories, tarot cards and more. And it’s all free, from 5–8 pm, with full access to all of our exhibitions.
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 6, 2015
Weekly training classes for new volunteer tour guides at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors begin Tuesday, November 3, from 9–11 am. Upon completion in late April, students will have deepened their knowledge of our state’s history and be comfortably prepared to lead groups on tours according to their individual schedules.
Staff members and guest speakers lead the classes, which cover more than 500 years of New Mexico history. The training is free; classes will break for the holidays. To learn more and to register, contact René Harris at (505) 476-5087, rene.harris@state.nm.us.
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 1, 2015
Sam Scarpino, a Santa Fe Institute resident, talks on the theme of “shock” at a free CreativeMornings event on Wednesday, October 14, 9–10 am. Besides Scarpino’s brief TED-like talk, you can do a little creative networking and enjoy pastries and coffee from the Santa Fe Baking Co. Support provided by the St. Vincent Hospital Foundation.
New Mexico History Museum | Oct 1, 2015
Space, the final frontier (for our collections). Creating an opera for people with memory illnesses. Making paper out of yucca fibers. It’s all in the latest edition of the New Mexico History Museum’s newsletter. To download a PDF of it, click on the red headline, then scroll down to the PDF command.
