
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627
kwent2@unm.edu
February 7, 2006
The Roots of Albuquerque History Now on Display at Zimmerman Library
Albuquerque's history is rooted in the documents that made it first an official Spanish villa, and later the leading city of the Southwest. A colorful range of artifacts and documents tracing the city's history since the founding in 1706 is now on display at the Center for Southwest Research in Zimmerman Library on the UNM main campus. The exhibit will run through November, 2006. It is open every day of the week from 9:30 to 5:30 (plus the other hours that Zimmerman Library is open.)
Curator Nancy Brown-Martinez says she was given the assignment of locating items in the manuscript, pictorial and architectural collections of the Center that would illustrate the history of Albuquerque. “The idea was to find some piece for the various eras, 300 different possibilities in all those years about Albuquerque within the center's collection. My challenge was to find something that would be visually interesting for a young seventh grader taking New Mexico history or a junior in college taking American or Southwestern history.”
Her efforts are now on display. Would you like to take a look at the first maps of the new settlement, or see a photo of the man who may have been the first to misspell Alburquerque? It's here. Or take a look at life an Albuquerque a hundred years ago and see how historic downtown buildings have changed through the decades. Or go backward in time with the first U.S. explorer, whose map simply labels the wide open spaces east of the Sandia Mountains as “immense herds of wild horses.”
Every community's history has to live somewhere, and Albuquerque's lives in the extensive archival collections at the Center for Southwest Research. Come take a walk through our past and learn about the fascinating characters that make Albuquerque what it is today.
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