Collections at the New Mexico History Museum include a multitude of items associated with our state’s unique blend of cultures, histories, lifeways, occupations, and diversions. They cut across time, reflecting ancestral occupation of the region by Indigenous peoples, and continue—through Spanish colonization, Mexican administration, American settlement, and twentieth-century development—to the present moment.
Many items represent tangible aspects of our region's larger stories. Other times, items provide a concrete connection to an individual person or small moment from the past.
Below, you'll find a deeper dive into a few featured collections.
Ben Wittick Collection
Glass plate negatives, photographic prints, and studio props from southwest photographer Ben Wittick
The Frank Collection
Devotional art, especially Nuevomexicano santos, collected by Larry Frank
Books printed by Padre Martinez
Books printed on New Mexico's first printing press by an influential 19th century priest