Manhattan Project Leaders, Frozen in Time
IN THE END, J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER and Leslie Groves’s time in Los Alamos flitted past quickly. Their legacy, however, lives on—not only in a pair of bronze statues downtown but also in the city’s…
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Piecing Together Mimbres History
THE COW PASTURE’S RAIN-DAMPENED soil bucks and falls in irregular patterns, evidence of past archaeological digs on the NAN Ranch, near Silver City. Chest-high sacaton grass, interspersed with native…
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Mineral Museum Displays Rock-Solid Collection
THE GEODES AND TURQUOISE draw most visitors, Kelsey McNamara tells me. The curator of the Mineral Museum on the New Mexico Tech University campus, in Socorro, interrupts my reverie at a vitrine…
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What We're Reading: Wild New World
IT COMES OUT IN LATE OCTOBER, but the new Dan Flores book is worth the wait. In Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals & People in America (W.W. Norton), the Santa Fe–based author delivers epic…
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Check Out These Books on Native Pottery
POLYCHROME, BLACK-ON-RED, polished blackware, Jeddito yellow ware … the types of Native pottery and their evolutionary arcs provide a rich field of study for art historians, archaeologists, and…
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Where to Find Authentic Native Pottery
AT THE Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, in Albuquerque, permanent and temporary exhibits focus on New Mexico pueblos and their art, history, and culture. The archaeology collection at the Maxwell Museum…
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A Pueblo Pottery Exhibit Breaks the Mold
IT'S POSSIBLE—likely, even—that when the workday ends and the lights flick off, whispers rise. Here in the collections vault at the Indian Arts Research Center, in Santa Fe, a centuries-old water jar…
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How to Care for Your Pottery
AS CURATOR OF COLLECTIONS at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, in Santa Fe, Patrick Cruz (Ohkay Owingeh) ensures that every piece of pottery is properly cared for. But you don’t have to live in a…
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What We're Reading: On the Trail of the Jackalope
JACKALOPES DON'T EXIST (sorry), but we still love them. So let’s imagine that they not only exist but hold a magical power. In On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World’s…
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Luis Tapia Carves A New Path
JUDGING BY THE MAN'S DROOPED HEAD and slumped shoulders, the bottle of tequila on the table dealt a knockout blow. Carved from wood, in the style of a Spanish colonial bulto, the figure hardly seems a…
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