Research Wednesday: Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow

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, Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow reproduces the anonymous officer’s “souvenir album” in its totality.

 In her introduction accompanying the photographs, curator and scholar Devorah Romanek places the photographs in historical context and explains their unusual provenance. The 1866 album integrates a number of important themes in connection to the Civil War and Reconstruction periods, including the French intervention in New Mexico and the internment of Navajos at the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation. The story of the album’s provenance reads like a mystery: some loose ends remain untied and some questions remain unanswered. In addition to containing what may be the earliest extant photographs of Navajo Indians, the album features both studio and field images of U.S. Army officers, Mexican politicians, and various sites throughout New Mexico.

Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow An Officer’s Photo Album of 1866 New Mexico Territory  published by University of Oklahoma Press 2019. Preface by Daniel Kosharek, Foreword by Jennifer Nez Denetdale. Purchase it online at the Maxwell Museum Store.

Image: Detail of "The Belle of the Navajos," Navajo girl en route to Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory, September 1866