Past Events

Join us for our annual Summer Solstice Window Viewing in the museum, at the dawn of summer - Thursday, June 21st! Doors open at 6:00 am. A spiral of sunlight appears on the gallery wall as the sun moves higher in the morning sky.

Long before her death in 1986 at the age of 98, Georgia O’Keeffe had become a cultural icon, America’s most famous woman artist. Buried in the O’Keeffe legends there are many unknown images, rarely discussed facts, and a troubling medical history. Judith Reynolds will discuss O’Keeffe’s precipitous rise to national prominence, her move to the American Southwest, and the way she navigated the seasons of her life.

Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist, art historian, and political cartoonist. After a career in academia, she switched to the for-profit world of newspaper journalism and eventually became arts, then managing editor of an upstate New York paper. In 1994, Reynolds and her late husband, David, moved to Durango where she began freelancing for the Durango Herald and teaching occasionally at Fort Lewis College. 

The Center's Doctoral Fellow in Southwest History, Benjamin DuMontier, will present his research project findings while in residence for the academic year at the Center of Southwest Studies. His spring presentation is titled, From Rainbow Bridge to Durango War-Rations: Research & Archiving Local History in the Four Corners Area.

Ben will discuss the Ansel Hall collection, and the potential it has for researchers. This includes Hall's expeditions to Costa Rica, recruiting Boy Scouts, and his development of nature-park resources in the Rainbow Bridge - Monument Valley areas.

Ben will also speak on his work-in-progress, a digital humanities webpage showcasing the Center of Southwest Stduies' oral history collections. He hopes to display anecdotes of daily life and local ideas about the "Japanese enemy" from Colorado newspapers - as well as Durangoan's conception of the nation's defense during WWII. 

Location: CSWS Lyceum Room 120; 5:30 p.m.

The Delaney Library Book Sale: 5:00-7:00 pm

The Center will offer competitively-priced books on the following topics: Genealogy and Archives Studies, Native American and Indigenous Studies, U.S. and Frontier History, Western states (Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Alaska), World History and Geography, History of Technology (Mining, Railroads, Material Culture), Art and Architecture, Public History and Historic Preservation, Anthropology and Archaeology (including Marine Archaeology and Archeology in Alaska), Agriculture and Forestry, and more!

Make an early offer on items worth $50-$200 before they sell online; e.g., Don Juan de Onate, Colonizer of New Mexico 1595-1628; Mesa Verde Centennial Series boxed set; Railroads of Arizona 2 vol. set; many limited edition books on archeology and material culture.

All proceeds go towards Delaney Library acquisitions, to raise money to purchase the rare items and books on Southwest topics that make Fort Lewis College’s Special Collections unique.

Genealogy Research in Archives: 5:30-6:30 pm, Lyceum Room #120

Center of Southwest Studies’ Archives Manager, Nik Kendziorski, will discuss the various resources that the Center’s archives has to conduct genealogy research, and how best to find them on the web. Along with census records, La Plata County marriage records and newspapers on microfilm, the Center’s is home to some harder to find collections like the Parral Archives from the Municipal Archives of Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico and the First National Bank of Durango records with correspondences dealing with local people and businesses.

Also, Ruth Lambert, Ph.D. will discuss a recent San Juan Mountains Association (SJMA) three-year project recording burials at small rural La Plata County cemeteries and the resulting searchable data base. Ruth is the Cultural Program Director with SJMA. Information on the local genealogical society, the Southwest Colorado Genealogical Society, will be available at the event.

"The Greatness of the Bears Ears National Monument: Five Tribes Define a Spiritual Cultural Area in Redrock Utah and Make It Law”
Charles Wilkinson, Distinguished Professor, and Moses Lasky, Professor of Law, from the University of Colorado-Boulder present the 2018 Duane Smith Lecture in Southwest Studies. FLC Student Union Ballroom,  7:00 pm.

CSWS curator Jeanne Brako will present her expertise on Textile Conservation.

Location: CSWS Lyceum Room 120

Toh-Atin Gallery owner Jackson Clark will evaluate the public’s best Western fine art pieces before an audience.
Max. 3 works, $5.00 apiece.
1:00-2:00 pm ~ Gallery tour and talk on Western fine art collecting.
2:00-4:00 pm ~ Roadshow, fine art evaluations.

Author and photographer Eric Mindling will present Living Threads: A Portrait of Cultural Diversity, Roots & Belonging Told Through Cloth about his Living Threads Project, an ambitious two year photo-documentary of the traditional dressways and the people who continue to wear the clothing of their community.

Location: CSWS Lyceum Room 120