Kate Nelson

2 months ago | l8r.it | Kate Nelson

What compelled you to write this book? There were so many points of entry for me to study the women of the Santa Fe Trail. I have lived along the Santa Fe Trail and have been the chief executive of museums in Santa Fe and St. Louis that hold important artifact, archival, and photographic collections relating to the history of the Santa Fe Trail. In my early professional life as an archaeologist, I excavated sites with ceramics that marked the change in goods the trail brought to New Mexico.

2 months ago | newmexicomagazine.org | Frances Levine |Kate Nelson

BY THE TIME SUSAN WALLACE’S WAGON TRAIN CRESTED RATÓN PASS IN 1878, the Santa Fe Trail had accomplished its goal of knitting the Wild West into the American story. The trail’s 1821–1880 heyday as a trade route filled with mules, oxen, and covered wagons was steaming into a new era. But one thing would remain the same: The stories of women travelers like Wallace were relegated to hard-to-find letters and diaries, largely lost to history.

2 months ago | newmexicomagazine.org | Kate Nelson

What compelled you to write this book? There were so many points of entry for me to study the women of the Santa Fe Trail. I have lived along the Santa Fe Trail and have been the chief executive of museums in Santa Fe and St. Louis that hold important artifact, archival, and photographic collections relating to the history of the Santa Fe Trail. In my early professional life as an archaeologist, I excavated sites with ceramics that marked the change in goods the trail brought to New Mexico.

Mar 26, 2025 | l8r.it | Kate Nelson

MOST JAZZ MUSICIANS PREFER A double bass with a sprightly pizzicato tone. But Charlie Haden chose a model made around 1843 in France by the renowned J.B. Vuillaume, one of only three known to exist. The late musician, composer, and bandleader’s instrument now sits on the sun-filled second floor of Robertson & Sons Violin Shop, which itself is situated amid the strip-mall clutter of Albuquerque’s Carlisle Boulevard.

Mar 26, 2025 | newmexicomagazine.org | Kate Nelson

MOST JAZZ MUSICIANS PREFER A double bass with a sprightly pizzicato tone. But Charlie Haden chose a model made around 1843 in France by the renowned J.B. Vuillaume, one of only three known to exist. The late musician, composer, and bandleader’s instrument now sits on the sun-filled second floor of Robertson & Sons Violin Shop, which itself is situated amid the strip-mall clutter of Albuquerque’s Carlisle Boulevard.