Rediscover the Past

TOP: Jeremiah Gurney & Son, Little Robe, Cheyenne, 1871. Photograph. Palace of the Governors.

ABOVE: William Workman, ca. 1855. Daguerrotype. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), 13492.

The Palace of the Governors collections come to Albuquerque.

SET ON THE SANTA FE PLAZA, the Palace of the Governors was originally constructed in the early seventeenth century as Spain’s seat of government. The Palace is the oldest surviving public building European settlers constructed in the continental United States—making it a gem in itself. Today, it anchors the New Mexico History Museum campus, which holds a 16,000-object collection, as well as more than a million images in its photo archives. A Past Rediscovered: Highlights from the Palace of the Governors exhibits some of the rare, unusual, and seldomseen items from these collections.

The seed for the exhibition and its catalogue, New Mexico’s Palace of the Governors: Highlights from the Collections, was planted several years ago when staff from the New Mexico History Museum and the Albuquerque Museum met to discuss the idea of an exhibition highlighting the collections of the History Museum and the Palace of the Governors. Seizing the opportunity to share the history and material culture of our state’s history museum with Albuquerque, the museums relied on a wide array of staff and other experts, all of whom brought their particular areas of knowledge into play to develop an extraordinary ABOVE: Eadweard Muybridge, Animal Locomotion, Plate 7642, ca. 1872 –1885. Calotype. Palace of the Governors. Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), 188657

LEFT: Gustave Baumann, Rain in the Mountains, 1926. Palace Press.

BELOW: Bernadino Polo, Our Lady of Joys, 1700. New Mexico History Museum.

exhibition highlighting rarely seen historical collections.

The curatorial team has enumerated more than 300 of the best objects from the Palace’s collection to tell the story of New Mexico—though the curators took different viewpoints on what constituted the best. With some objects, the choice was clear. That was the case with Segesser II, a hide painting and a rare example of the earliest known depictions of colonial life in the United States. It depicts an ill-fated 1720 Spanish expedition into present-day Nebraska. The hide, which is named for the Jesuit priest Phillip von Segesser who acquired it, has hung in the Palace previously, but it has been stored away from damaging light and weather for several years. At eighteen-feet-long and four-feet-wide, it’s a feat to transport it from Santa Fe to exhibit it in Albuquerque.

Daniel Kosharek, photo curator of the Palace of the Governors, selected several cased images for the exhibition. Because of their fragile nature, they’re rarely shown. Many of the images date nearly to the dawn of photography. One is a daguerreotype of William Workman dating to 1855, a Taos mountain man known for fur trading and bootlegging. Other objects are less splashy but just as meaningful. The exhibition will feature a letter from a Japanese American who was interned in Santa Fe during World War II. Alicia Romero, New Mexico History Museum curator, chose a cigar box full of rocks to accompany the letter. “I included it to demonstrate to our visitors more of the life that went on in that camp. … I wanted to answer the question ‘how do you pass the time?’” she says.

The exhibition will also include colonial paintings in their original frames, Mescalero Apache moccasins, and famed printmaker Gustave Baumann’s carving tools, to name a few of the items telling the story of New Mexico.

ON VIEW MAY 11–OCTOBER 20, 2019

Member opening for A Past Rediscovered May 10, 5:30–8 p.m. Exhibition preview and reception with light refreshments and a cash bar.

COMING SOON New Mexico’s Palace of the Governors: Highlights from the Collections, an exhibition catalogue created in partnership with the Albuquerque Museum, the Palace of the Governors, and Museum of New Mexico Press, will be available at the Museum store and other fine bookstores summer 2019.