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Historic New Mexico Photos

Beginning in the late 1930s, the Farmers Security Administration and other New Deal Agencies undertook the task of documenting American life. As part of this effort, Russell Lee and Jack Delano, along with other photographers, captured images of New Mexico's past.

I am pleased to present a few of those photographs here.

My thanks to the Library of Congress for permission to use these photographs.

 

Rain over New Mexico

Capulin National Monument, Capulin, New Mexico

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Photographer: Russell Lee 1903

Created/Published: Sept 1939

 

New Mexico desert

Highway No. 70

Description:  The route many refugees cross

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Photographer: Dorothea Lange

Created/Published: June 1938

 

Spanish-American Village

Along the Rio Hondo near Taos, NM

The residents live in town and commute to their small farmlands on the outskirts of the town

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Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: 1939

 

Southwestern New Mexico

Along the Rio Hondo near Taos, NM

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Photographer:  Dorothea Lang

Created/Published: June 1938

 

Watching the amusements

Roswell, New Mexico

Carnival

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Photographer: Arthur Rothstein

Created/Published: April 1936

 

Spanish-American residents of Mora

Mora, New Mexico

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Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: Sept 1939

 

Corner of adobe house

Taos, New Mexico

web link

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: September 1939

 

Old Spanish Mission Church

Taos Pueblo

web link

Photographer: Arthur Rothstein

Created/Published: April 1936

 

Temporary schoolhouse

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Bosque Farms, NM

URL:  88 of 100

Photographer: Arthur Rothstein

Created/Published: April 1936

 

WPA weaving project supervisor making skeins of thread

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Costilla, New Mexico

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: September 1939

 

Town hall and light standard

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Cimarron, NM

URL:  82 of 100

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published:  August 1939

 

Children of Spanish-American farm family playing on wagon

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Taos County, NM

Russell Lee

URL:  80 of 100

Photographer: Lee Russell

Created/Published: September 1939

 

Indian children

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Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico

URL:  72 of 100

Photographer:  Arthur Rothstein

Created/Published: April 1936

 

New Mexico Capitol building

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Santa Fe, NM

URL:  67-100

Photographer: John Collier

Created/Published: February 1943

 

Riding a buffalo

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Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Bean Day

URL:  57 of 100

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: Sept 1939

 

Tourists waiting to go into Carlsbad Caverns

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Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

Photographer: Rusell Lee 1903

Created/Published: May 1939

 

Sneaking under the Circus Tent

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Roswell, New Mexico

Photographer: Arthur Rothstein

Created/Published: April 1936

 

Spanish-American resident

web link

Mora, New Mexico

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: September 1939

 

Spectators at Bean Day Rodeo

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Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: September 1939

 

Spectators at Bean Day Rodeo

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Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: September 1939

 

Taos Pueblo; Rio de Taos in foreground

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Taos, New Mexico

Photographer: Arthur Rothstein

Created/Published: April 1936

 

Pueblo Indians in the Indian Service School

web link

Taos, New Mexico

Photographer: Arthur Rothstein

Created/Published: April 1936

 

Bosque Farms project.  Making adobe brick for school and permanent houses.

web link

Bosque Farms, New Mexico

Photographer: Dorothea Lange

Created/Published: October 1935

 

Tourists buying Indian pottery from children

web link

Tesuque Pueblo, New Mexico

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: August 1939

 

WPA weaving project supervisor making skeins of thread

web link

Costilla, New Mexico

Photographer: Russell Lee

Created/Published: September 1939