Rex Studio. Photographer or photographer's assistant near Las Vegas, New Mexico, ca. 1910. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, Negative No. 070835
Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Thank you for contacting Photo Archives at the New Mexico History Museum. Requests for information or rights and reproduction services will be addressed according to the order in which they are received. Based on the number of requests we are currently receiving, you can expect a response within 4 weeks.
A long-established department of the New Mexico History Museum, the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives houses approximately one million photographic items of local, regional, and international significance, dating from approximately 1845 to the present. The archives specialize in photographs illustrating the history and people of New Mexico, the American Southwest and westward expansion, and Hispanic and Native American cultures. In addition, the collection includes acquisitions and donations that cover the history of photography worldwide.
The photo archives can be accessed online or in person with an appointment. High-quality digital scans and prints may be ordered for display, publication, or multimedia projects. Proceeds support operation of the archives.
Research
Librarian Katherine McMahon, Riechmann, and writer Howard Bryan at the Albuquerque Library, ca. 1980. Negative No. HP.2015.31.26
Researching in the Photo Archives
Researchers use the photo archives to explore aspects of New Mexico history and regional histories or to do original research on historic photography and photographers. They may also be looking for photographic images to support projects from books and brochures to documentary films.
Please call or email us with specific questions concerning photo archives holdings, research, and image reproduction.
Search from Home
New Mexico Digital Collections (see the Digital Collections section on this page) is often a great way to begin exploring our vast collections. Thumbnails for thousands of popular and frequently requested images are already posted. Searching and browsing the catalog will introduce you to the kinds of material collected at the archives, and the digitized collections will help you answer many broad research questions.
Not everything is digitized. We also contribute text-based descriptions (finding aids) of some of our holdings to New Mexico Archives Online.
Our digitized collections and archival descriptions only cover a portion of our holdings, so keep checking back.
Reference
We can respond to some focused research questions via email. If you have questions that would take more than a half hour to research or respond to, we recommend scheduling a research appointment or hiring a contract researcher to visit the archives.
Making Research Appointments
There is no charge to work with photo archives staff using the subject file index to the collection, which provides access to approximately 150,000 images. Additionally, archives staff may provide up to one hour of research assistance on site if researchers need to explore additional, unindexed holdings in our collection.
Appointments are available between 9 am and 4 pm Monday through Friday and must be made in advance. Assistance from staff depends on their schedules and workloads. When you contact us to schedule a research appointment, please describe the nature and scope of your project, your deadline, and what kinds of materials you are looking for.
Imaging
As a general rule, the photo archives does not allow patrons to scan or digitally photograph material on site. Exceptions may be made for significant, collaborative digitization projects planned in advance. If you find something during your research that isn’t in the digital collections, you can order image files or prints — see the Order Photos section on this page.
Books about Photography
In addition to our photographic collections, we also have books and periodicals on and about photography. These materials cannot be removed from the archives but can be read during research appointments. For titles, search our catalogued holdings via DCA's Library Consortium catalog.
Search Digital Collections
J. Lee Knight. Two people holding stereoscopes, Topeka, Kansas, ca. 1865-1875. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, Negative No. 151184.
Explore the Photo Archives Digital Collections
Providing access to our collections is a priority for photo archives.
There are two primary places to check for digital collections:
- The Palace of the Governors Photo Archives has digitized nearly 30,000 images, which are keyword searchable through the University of New Mexico’s New Mexico Digital Collections.
- New projects since 2024 will be uploaded to our new platform, New Mexico History Museum Digital Collections. New content includes images from collections including:
In addition to our digital collections, we have joined ArchivesSpace to increase access to additional information about our holdings, most of which are not digitized. A small number of archival collection finding aids and a larger number of accession records are available by searching within UNM's New Mexico Archives Online.
What’s online represents a small fraction of our holdings. We are continuously scanning and uploading new images, and processing and describing old and new collections, so keep checking back. If you need additional assistance, review our research policy (see the Researching in the Photo Archives section on this page) or contact us.
Search UNM's Digital Collections
About Photo Archives
John K. Hillers. Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, ca. 1880. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, Negative No. 016096
About the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Collections
The Palace of the Governors Photo Archives houses photographic material of local, regional, and international significance, dating from approximately 1845 to the present—a gold mine for researchers and scholars. The collection includes historic photographic prints, cased photographs like daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, glass plate negatives, tintypes, stereographs, albums, film negatives, photo postcards, panoramas, color transparencies, lantern slides, as well as magnetic video, film, and born-digital photographs.
The archives specializes in photographs illustrating the histories and cultures of the people of New Mexico and the southwest, as well as westward expansion and Hispanic and Native American cultures generally. However, the collection should not only be thought of as a regional archive: past acquisitions and donations have addressed the history and development of photography, and smaller collections document Europe, Latin America, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East.
Broadly, Photo Archives holdings also address important trends in historical photographic processes; in documentary, vernacular, and commercial photography; in ethnographic, anthropological, and archaeological photography; in examples of fine artistic expression and popular visual culture; and in bodies of work by regional photographers.
Legacy
From the first 19th-century daguerreotypists who accompanied western expeditions to the U.S. Territory of New Mexico to today's photographic innovators, two things have gone hand-in-hand—the invention of the camera and photographic representations of our state's landscape and cultures. The Historical Society of New Mexico began a photography collection in 1859. In 1881 the famous expeditionary photographer William Henry Jackson visited Santa Fe, presented a collection of images to the Society, and was voted an honorary member.
Today, contemporary photographers are donating their archives to the Photo Legacy Project, an initiative of the New Mexico History Museum to document the past 50 years of New Mexico's visual history. Current contributors include Sam Adams, Cary Herz, Herbert A. Lotz, Tony O'Brien, Jack Parsons, and Donald Woodman. Please contact the Photo Archives to inquire about making a donation.
Publications
Recent publications from the Photo Archives available from the Museum of New Mexico Press include Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe, Poetics of Light: Pinhole Photography, and ORALE! LOWRIDER: Custom Made in New Mexico. Now available from OU Press: Hardship, Greed and Sorrow: An Officer’s Photo Album of 1866 New Mexico Territory.
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