The exhibit, organized by University Archivist Martha Shipman Andrews, captures the self-reliance of women ranchers, the craftsmanship and industry of Native American women, the comfortable lives of a prominent Hispanic mercantile family and the opportunities created for women created by educational institutions.
The photos from the NMSU Library's Rio Grande Historical Collections and Hobson-Huntsinger University Archives also appear in Andrews' book "Out of the Shadows: The Women of Southern New Mexico" (Rio Grande Books/NMSU Library, 2012).
Visual images provide an evocative means of examining the dark spaces behind the overshadowing Western myths dominated by the exploits of men. The library's photos give witness to the unexpected experiences of women as they helped to settle the mountains and deserts of New Mexico between 1880 and 1920. The lives of these women were not full of endless toil and deprivation but were rather, in the words of young Mildred Barnes from the mining community of Lake Valley, "delightful, exciting and filled with a sense of abundance."
For information, call Andrews, 575-646-5028 or email email@example.com.