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, which is open 7:30 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, continues through Aug. 31.
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," said Brown-Martinez. "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.”
If you'd 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. 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 spDavid Brookshire east of the Sandia Mountains as “immense herds of wild horses.” It's all here.
Every community's history has to live somewhere and Albuquerque's lives in the extensive archival collections at the Center for Southwest Research. Take a walk through Albuquerque's past and learn about the fascinating characters that make the city what it is today.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at February 7, 2006 04:50 PM