J. PAUL TAYLOR, HONORARY CHAIR For more than 60 years, J. Paul Taylor and his late wife, Mary Daniels-Taylor, raised their family in a historic adobe home just off the Mesilla Plaza. Filled with artwork and artifacts, the rambling structure reminds visitors of southern New Mexico’s contributions to the political, commercial, and social life of our state. Mr. Taylor, a longtime educator, advocate, and legislator, has gifted the home and two adjacent commercial buildings to New Mexico Historic Sites so they may continue to inspire and enlighten visitors for generations to come.
“This is a state that’s rich in culture, and people need to know the depths of the heritage here.” “This is a state that’s rich in culture, and people need to know the depths of the heritage here,” he says. “You can’t learn it in one visit to one museum or one historic site. We need to develop an overlay that reveals all the cultures and their relationships across the state. That’s what the Campaign for New Mexico History is all about. If our museums and historic sites can’t do the job they need to do, that history will be lost.
Taylor-Mesilla Historic Property
Taylor-Mesilla Historic Property
A HISTORY FOR ALL OF US I. The best history teachers know this: The past that crafted our present is far more than a list of dates, places, and famous names. Rather, it’s a complex weaving of conflicts and collaborations ranging across vast spaces, many centuries, and numerous cultures. No place represents that elaborate, ongoing tapestry better than New Mexico. All around the globe, people struggle with issues of water rights, land use, economic development, immigration, technology, and more—all overlaid on questions of power, identity, and resilience. By exploring these issues, past and present, and providing a space for discourse about them, we can make wiser decisions about our future.
Palace of the Governors Portal The New Mexico History Museum and New Mexico Historic Sites together tell interlinking parts of a saga that begins with Ancestral Puebloans and ranges through Spanish and Mexican colonists, American traders, territorial settlers, and 20th-century residents. The stories involve ranchers and businessmen, artists and health seekers, miners and engineers, educators, politicians, and many others. What we can learn from their struggles and accomplishments will help us better understand the present and prepare for the future.
You can see the wonders of New Mexico’s past in Navajo weaving traditions, in the santero art form, in the science that won a war, and now cures cancer.
II. At the New Mexico History Museum, you can explore the state’s past through exhibitions on atomic history, railroad workers, WWII, Spanish Colonial life, and more. The exhibits are brought to life with historic photographs, documents, and an extraordinary array of historical objects, each with its own story to tell. Uniquely, the History Museum campus includes the Palace of the Governors, a symbol of all the cultures that have touched this state over more than four centuries. Within its walls, a long succession of Spanish, Mexican, and American government officials administered programs affecting the health, safety, and well-being of people throughout the region we now know as New Mexico. For the past Virgin of Guadalupe, 17th-Century style traveling icon, replica.
century, that includes serving as the state’s history museum.
III.
Fort Selden Historic Site, near Las Cruces, stands as a physical
Jemez and Coronado Historic Sites bear witness to the Native people
reminder of the many cultures that have inhabited New Mexico,
whom the earliest Spanish explorers encountered. The ruins of
from members of the Mogollon culture to the traders that later
Kuaua Pueblo at Coronado, in Bernalillo, hold the memories of those
traveled the fabled El Camino Real, Spain’s “royal road.” This ancient
peoples’ resilience, and eventual dislocation, to nearby pueblos. To
trade route leads through the Taylor-Mesilla Historic Property, the
the north, at Jemez, many tribes found refuge—and clashed with
Palace, and then to Los Luceros Historic Site, near Española.
the Catholic friars. Today, the region’s pueblos join with New Mexico
IV.
Historic Sites to widen the perspectives of what visitors learn there.
For too long, we haven’t tied together the threads of these places into Lincoln Historic Site, in the heart of New Mexico, is one of the best-
a tapestry that tells a larger and more connected story. As people
preserved frontier towns in the United States. It connects us to New
around the globe have begun questioning notions of place and identity,
Mexico’s volatile territorial period that gave rise to such legendary
we believe New Mexico has much to contribute. To take on this
figures as Billy the Kid. The Lincoln County War holds military ties
important role we need to upgrade buildings, educational programs,
to nearby Fort Stanton Historic Site, later a center for the treatment
research, and outreach so that New Mexico history can help the
of tuberculosis, and came shortly after the tragic Long Walk of
citizens of our state and nation find their ways to a brighter future.
Mescalero and Navajo peoples to Fort Sumner along the Pecos River. The Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner Historic Site speaks to
That’s where you come in.
the incarceration of 9,500 Native Americans and their extraordinary resilience in the face of unconscionable government policies.
Jemez and Coronado Historic Sites are the locations of the earliest encounters of Europeans with Native people who had been living here for countless generations.
Jemez Pueblo
Coronado Historic Site with Sandia Mountains
Ft. Stanton
PEOPLE MAKE HISTORY MATTER
continued preservation and maintenance of the Palace, provide a longterm coordinator for the Native American Portal Program, finance development of a film program showcasing New Mexico, and enable the
I. The Campaign for New Mexico History is a public-private fundraising effort with the goal of raising $10 million. Our goal combines public investments in structural improvements with private resources for exhibition development and education programs. This is the first statewide fundraising effort by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and the first campaign to benefit collaborations among all of the state’s history-based properties.
publication of an archaeological report on the Palace of the Governors. New Mexico Historic Sites will receive $5 million to preserve and restore historic structures, add important infrastructure, update long-neglected exhibitions, and breathe new life into educational programs at all eight sites throughout the state. Altogether, these changes will vastly improve the ability of the museum and historic sites to work together and connect with
II. The New Mexico History Museum will receive $5 million to dramatically
people throughout the state and from all around the world.
reimagine exhibitions in the Palace and the Domenici Building, expand access to the ChĂĄvez History Library and Photo Archives for researchers, and boost educational programming. The funding will also support
Hanging out in the ruins at Jemez.
These changes will vastly improve the ability of the museum and historic sites to work together and to connect with people throughout the state and visitors from all around the world.
Torreon in Lincoln
5th Grade Class at Lincoln Historic Site
III.
IV.
You’re invited to participate in the Campaign for New Mexico History
New Mexico is a land that is both beautiful and demanding. It has been
two ways: To encourage your state and federal legislators to make
shaped by many individuals, cultures, and institutions. Some were part of
public investments in the New Mexico History Museum and New Mexico
the region, others were external to it. Collectively this history is a source
Historic Sites, and to make a personal contribution to the campaign.
of pride for many residents, while for others it a reminder of injustice
Your efforts will change the face of history in New Mexico.
and broken promises. In either case, there is widespread agreement that we are all better for understanding our past than for being ignorant of it.
In appreciation of your financial support, the Museum of New Mexico Foundation will offer naming opportunities in the New
Let’s join together to make the most of our state’s legacy.
Mexico History Museum and permanent recognition at the
Let’s make history matter.
museum and all eight Historic Sites. This is our way of honoring your generous commitment to New Mexico history.
Chapel at Los Luceros
Jemez Pueblo Historic Site
Fort Sumner Bosque Redondo
505.216.1592 • NMHistoryMatters.com
Photography courtsey Tom Conelly, Dan Monaghan, Paul Ratje, David Sorensen, Palace of the Governors Photo Archives/New Mexico History Museum, and the New Mexico Historic Sites
Museum of New Mexico Foundation PO Box 2065 • Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-2065