“Rollin' on a River: Traversing the inland waterways of the Americas ” highlights the University of New Mexico’s collections on late-19th and early-20th century European and North American narratives of river travel in Latin America. The exhibit will be on view in the Herzstein Latin American Reading Room at Zimmerman Library from Nov. 18 through Jan. 30, 2009. A celebratory opening reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m., Nov. 18, in the Herzstein Latin American Reading Room.
The exhibition features published narratives, images and maps from the general collection at University Libraries as well as postcards and photographs drawn from the “Peter H. Goldsmith’s Album Pages” and “Rubber Plantation Photographs” in the Center for Southwest Research.
The western European impetus to express culture during the late nineteenth century by confronting and cataloging Latin American nature helped pave the way for the extractive missions later. United States investors and diplomats in the early 1900s navigated the same courses plotted decades earlier by French, English and German naturalists. In both cases, high profile outsiders depended on the knowledge and guidance of unnamed natives, whose contributions they failed to recognize as valuable.
This exhibition reflects the collaborative efforts of Tarah Kesse, Master’s Candidate in Latin American studies, Wendy Pedersen, Ibero-American Resources Specialist at the University Libraries and Suzanne Schadl, Coordinator of Inter-American studies at the University Libraries.