09/01/2021 with Devorah Romanek

Nativescape welcomes Devorah Romanek, Curator of Exhibits at Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, discusses her book: Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow: An Officer’s Photo Album of 1866 New Mexico Territory. A book set in the aftermath of the Civil War --- New Mexico Territory endured painful years of hardship and ongoing strife. During this turbulent period, a U.S. military officer stationed in the territory assembled an album of photographs, a series of still shots taken by one or more anonymous photographers. Now, some 150 years later, your book Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow reproduces the anonymous officer’s “souvenir album” in its entirety. The book reveals what we know about the collection, its compiler, and the photographer—or photographers—who captured such a fraught and complex moment in the history of the American Southwest. Romanek is a PhD, is an anthropologist, art and visual culture historian, and museum curator. Currently she is Head of Interpretation and Curator of Exhibits at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, having worked in universities and museums in Germany, the UK and throughout North America.