Wednesday, July 10th, 2024 at 12:00 noon, free!

Heather McClure, from the Chavez Library at the New Mexico History Museum, will be giving a Brown Bag presentation on the Edgar Lee Hewett collection at the New Mexico History Museum. In addition to Edgar Hewett's collection of written material and photographs, Heather will explore his early archaeology work in New Mexico and Guatemala and the various people he included in his research in the Southwest and Central America.

The New Mexico History Museum is digitizing and making publicly available the manuscript and photograph collections of Edgar L. Hewett (1865-1946) thanks to a major grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.

An inescapable presence in early 20th century Southwestern cultural life, Hewett earned his nickname of “El Toro”. Among his many accomplishments, Hewett was at the forefront of modern Southwestern archaeology. He trained a new generation of archaeologists, invited women into the field, and worked tirelessly for the United States Antiquities Act (1906). He led the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Archaeology (today known as the School for Advanced Research) and preserved New Mexican cultural patrimony. He used his political skills and stubbornness to centralize cultural preservation and promote and establish New Mexico as a hub for "The Groundwork of American Archeology”, one of Hewett’s first publications.

By making Hewett’s papers widely available, researchers can grapple with the history of Southwestern archaeology and the methods and systems Hewett built as he elevated American archaeology on the world stage. These collections will be publicly accessible via a digital platform. The photographic materials will be available for the first time as an organized research collection.