1921 The Town of Santa Fe, New Mexico Guide to the Oldest Capital / Facsimile

This facsimile reproduces The Town of Santa Fe, New Mexico [A.D. 1604]; The Bishop's Lodge, Santa Fe, designed and printed by The Taylor Company of Boulder, Colorado, and copyrighted in 1921 by James R. Thorpe. The publication combines a guide to one of the oldest cities in America with a promotional booklet for The Bishop's Lodge — a guest ranch located about three and a half miles north of Santa Fe in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo range, on land that had once been the small ranch and private devotional chapel of the late Archbishop Lamy. The booklet captures Santa Fe as a destination in the early 1920s, when railroad tourism over the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and the Denver & Rio Grande Railway was opening the city's centuries-old Spanish, Indian, and frontier heritage to a new generation of American travelers. Summary of Contents The booklet opens with an extended quotation from Charles F. Lummis's The Land of Poco Tiempo, evoking the sun, silence, and adobe character of New Mexico. A descriptive section then traces the history of Santa Fe — founded around 1540 by the Spanish explorer Don Antonio de Espejo and made the capital of New Spain in 1605 — covering the historic Plaza, the Palace of the Governors (where Lew Wallace wrote the concluding chapters of Ben Hur), the New Museum of New Mexico opened in 1917, and the old churches of San Miguel and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. The main body of the booklet describes The Bishop's Lodge in detail, including its setting at 7,200 feet elevation, its climate and seasonal character, its accommodations across the North, South, and Central Lodges, and its tent houses constructed with tongue-and-groove floors and double canvas roofs. The text covers the Lodge's American Plan operation, its dairy herd of Jerseys and Holsteins, its poultry farm, the famous Bishop's Spring water supply, and excursions available to guests — including horseback trips into the Rockies, motor trips to the Rito de los Frijoles cliff dwellings, the Indian Pueblos of Taos, San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, and others, and access to the Lavato Links golf course of the Santa Fe Club. The booklet is extensively illustrated with photographs of Santa Fe landmarks (the Plaza, the Governor's Palace, the New Museum), the Sangre de Cristo Range, desert mesas, the Sanctuario at Chimayo, the Buffalo Dance at San Ildefonso Pueblo, and the Pueblo of Taos, alongside interior and exterior views of the Lodge's buildings, dining room, lounge, porches, kitchen, pantry, heating plant, and tent houses. Four full-color plates by the celebrated Western painter W.E. Rollins are reproduced: The Sun Symbol, The Prayer Stone, The Earth Symbol, and The Ceremonial Altar of the Zuni — each accompanied by Rollins's own descriptive text explaining the Pueblo and Navajo symbolism depicted. Maps include a general map of Santa Fe and vicinity and a plan of the Lavato Links golf course. The booklet closes with testimonial letters from guests including the singer Alma Gluck Zimbalist, an extract on Santa Fe from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a reading list of works on the Southwest by A.F. Bandelier and C.F. Lummis, and advertisements for the Santa Fe Indian arts dealer Julius Gans (Southwest Arts & Crafts), Art and Archaeology magazine, and the First National Bank of Santa Fe. An essential reference for historians of Santa Fe and early twentieth-century Southwestern tourism, collectors of vintage hotel and resort ephemera, researchers of Pueblo and Navajo iconography in early twentieth-century American art, admirers of W.E. Rollins and the Santa Fe and Taos artist colonies, and anyone drawn to the rich cultural moment when the American Southwest was being introduced to mainstream American travelers. 78 pages. Color. 6" x 9".…