New Mexico History Museum Secures Grant to Preserve Hewett Manuscript

New Mexico History Museum (NMHM) is pleased to announce the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library and Palace of the Governors Photo Archives have been awarded a $149,921 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The grant will fund digitization and increased public accessibility of Edgar L. Hewett’s manuscript and photographic collections.  

“The Hewett collections are among our most actively used materials,” said Billy G. Garrett, executive director of NMHM. “This project will allow people from all over the world to explore these diverse, wide-ranging, and fascinating materials through a publicly available digital platform.” 

The Edgar L. Hewett collections chronicle an expansive career through a vast number of documents and images. His work focused on the unique cultures of the Southwest, but his philosophy of cultural preservation has contributed to greater understanding and intellectual depth of the nation’s vast history. Among his many accomplishments, Hewett was at the forefront of modern Southwest archaeology where he focused attention on training a new generation of American archaeologists. He worked tirelessly for the United States Antiquities Act (1906), the first law to provide legal protection for cultural and natural resources. He led the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Archaeology (today known as the School for Advanced Research) and preserved the cultural heritage of New Mexico. His work is still researched and referenced to this day. 

The process of digitizing the Hewett collections is expected to take two years.