Browse Palace of the Governors Photo Archives

Browse T. Harmon Parkhurst Collection

Browse Ben Wittick Collection

Browse Chávez Library Historic Maps

Browse Chávez Library Historic Documents

Browse Jesse Nusbaum Collection

About the Palace of the Governors Digital Collections

The Fray Angélico Chávez History Library is the institutional successor of New Mexico's oldest library (1851) and is part of the Palace of the Governors. A non-circulating, closed stack research facility, it preserves historical materials in many formats documenting the history of the state, the Southwest, and meso-America from pre-European contact to the present.

The Palace of the Governors Photo Archives contains an estimated 800,000 items including historic photographic prints, cased photographs, glass plate negatives, film negatives, stereographs, photo postcards, panoramas, color transparencies, and lantern slides. This important collection includes material of regional and national significance, dating from approximately 1850 to the present, covering subject matter that focuses on the history and people of New Mexico and the expansion of the West; anthropology, archaeology, and ethnology of Hispanic and Native American cultures; and smaller collections documenting Europe, Latin America, the Far East, Oceana, and the Middle East.

Some of the most important 19th and 20th century photographers of the West are represented in the collection including: Adolph Bandelier, George C. Bennett, Wesley Bradfield, Nicholas Brown, W. C. Brown, W. H. Brown, Joseph Burge, John Candelario, D.B. Chase, W. H. Cobb, Edward S. Curtis, Nathaniel Frucht, Carter Harrison, F. Jay Haynes, John K. Hillers, William Henry Jackson, Charles Lindbergh, Charles Lummis, Karl Moon, Jesse Nusbaum, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, T. Harmon Parkhurst, H. F. Robinson, Adam Clark Vroman and Ben Wittick among others.

The Photo Archives is actively seeking materials from contemporary photographers documenting the past 50 years of visual history in New Mexico. Please contact the Photo Curator to discuss gifts, bequests, and purchases.

The Photo Archives staff will provide approximately 1 hour of research on succinct questions for patrons. Otherwise, staff encourages patrons to visit the Photo Archives or contact the Photo Archives for a list of researchers in the Santa Fe vicinity.

Most material is available, as high quality digital scans and digital prints, for editorial reproduction and use in advertising, publishing, media projects, and TV news media stories for reasonable imaging and use fees. It is the responsibility of the archive to present images as they are. Images are not retouched. Fine art large format, and custom printing of images is available upon request. The Photo Archives does not allow patrons to scan or digitally photograph material onsite.

Please see the Photo Archives website www.palaceofthegovernors.org/photoarchives.html for current fee schedule and other policy guidelines.

New Mexico's Digital Collections are funded in part by the Center for Regional Studies, University of New Mexico.