Recent Acquisitions Two items provide future generations a window into how we live.
TWO RECENT ACQUISITIONS ILLUSTRATE
National Pressure Cooker Company, Pressure Cooker, heavy aluminum cast with brass rods and bakelite handles and thumbnuts, Albuquerque Museum gift of Kate Padilla
HISTORIC MOMENTS in New Mexicans’ lives. One represents the
Francisco Rodriguez, Small Coronavirus Piñata, papier mache, Albuquerque Museum gift of anonymous donor
struggles of rural women during the 1930s and '40s. The other item shows history in the making in the form of a piñata. Curator of History Leslie
Another recent acquisition
Kim says she was intrigued
comes from Casa de Piñata.
by the story of a 1940s
The 30-year-old business,
pressure cooker, donated
in its struggle to survive the
by Kate Padilla. “We want
homesteaded land in Des
to them as if they were
pandemic, began making
to collect material that is
Montes in northern New
currency,” Padilla says. “My
coronavirus-shaped piñatas
authentic history and tells a
Mexico, where they had a
grandmother’s cellar was
and now has a months-long
story about the people here.
farm with fruit trees, pigs,
lined with jars of cherries,
waiting list. “We are thrilled
This pressure cooker gives us
horses, and chickens. She
apples, even meat. The thing
to have it in the Museum, as it
a window into rural women’s
tells how her grandmother
that they valued was that they
represents both a moment in
lives in New Mexico.” The
and mother drove their
could also preserve meat.
time and how we celebrate”
Museum also acquired the
horse-drawn wagon from
It was a miracle for them.”
says Kim.
1940s-era cookbooks and
Des Montes to Arroyo Seco
Padilla says her mother saw
manuals that came with the
to learn to use the pressure
the pressure cooker as a
pressure cooker, some in
cooker. “In the schoolhouse
lifeline in case there was
DO YOU HAVE ITEMS
Spanish and some in English.
they were taught how
another Depression. “My
REPRESENTATIVE OF
to use the cookers. My
mother treasured her pot,
COVID-19 THAT WILL
extension agents traveled
grandmother and mother
and so did my grandmother.
to rural counties to teach
had enough money to
I was supposed to keep them
In the 1940s, university
INFORM FUTURE GENERATIONS?
women how to preserve food
purchase their own but it was
because, my mother said,
Contact the Museum to
using large pressure cookers.
at a great financial sacrifice,
‘you never know when you
inquire about donating.
Padilla’s grandparents
which is why she held on
might need them.’”
AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org 9
