The New Mexico History Museum is the center of a diverse campus dedicated to New Mexico History, education and research. The 96,000-square-foot facility includes permanent and temporary exhibitions that span the history of indigenous people, Spanish colonization, the Mexican Period, and travel and commerce on the Santa Fe Trail through World War II to present-day New Mexico.

On February 19, 1909, the New Mexico Territorial Legislature passed a law establishing the Museum of New Mexico, designating the historic Palace of the Governors^[1] on the north side of the Santa Fe Plaza as its home - three years before New Mexico became a State. The New Mexico History Museum began as the development of a storage facility for collections at the Palace of the Governors decades ago and has evolved into a first-class museum project, spurred by the national rethinking of the role history museums play in communities. They are no longer attics or basements full of long-forgotten objects. They are now places that partner in education, civic engagement, and social change. Today, museum professionals are working hard to ensure that what is now a construction site behind the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico, becomes a museum that will change the way Americans look at their history.

Originally constructed in the early 17th century as Spain's seat of government for what is today the American Southwest, the Palace of the Governors chronicles the history of Santa Fe, as well as New Mexico and the region. This adobe structure, the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States, was designated a Registered National Historic Landmark in 1960 and an American Treasure in 1999.

Along the south side of the Palace of The Governors, Native American artists and craftspeople sell their handmade goods to tourists and local Santa Feans almost every day of the year, rain or shine. The 900+ vendors represent forty-one tribes, Pueblos, chapters and villages in New Mexico, the Navajo Nation, and parts of Arizona. The Vendors Committee creates and enforces rules for those who sell their work under the portal. The rules emphasize authenticity (a maker's mark is required on all goods), traditional materials, and handmade work produced as generations of Native artisans have created it.

Situated in rooms adjoining the Palace courtyard is the Palace Press. New Mexico’s first printing press arrived at the Palace via the Santa Fe Trail in 1834. The current Press is a working exhibit of 19th and 20th century letterpress printing techniques and equipment. Founded as a “living history” exhibit in 1970, it has expanded its role to become a hub of book arts activity, and is also a highly regarded publishing concern in its own right.

A non-circulating, closed stack research facility, it preserves historical materials documenting the history of the state, the greater Southwest, the American West, and Meso-America from pre-European contact to the present. The library holds approximately 40,000 book and serials titles, 6,000 maps, 2,000 microfilms, and 600 linear feet of archival material. The library features a marvelous Works Progress Administration wall mural by Olive Rush. Holdings may be searched online.

This spectacular assemblage of photographic works contains more than 750,000 images from covering many subjects, styles and eras since the early 1850s. The archives has been the recipient of many large and small collections covering subjects emphasizing the history of New Mexico, the American West, indigenous peoples, anthropology, archaeology, ethnology, mining, railroads, agriculture, as well as images from many areas of the world. Images may be searched online.

The core exhibition of the New Mexico History Museum is divided into six sections. Five represent chronological periods from the pre-colonial era to the present. The sixth offers a panorama of New Mexico today, presented primarily through the voices and stories of its people. As the section titles imply, each is set apart by time frames and contrasting views from first-person accounts of the people who lived during the different periods.

This first section of the museum focuses on the indigenous people of New Mexico, namely the Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache peoples. The Museum uses artifacts and hands-on displays to show what life was like for these people before the Spanish colonials and missionaries arrived. Stories from the oral histories of these people are used in conjunction with multi-media displays to tell the 'pre-history' of New Mexico^[2]

The second section of the museum covers the time from when the first Spanish explorers entered New Mexico up through the Mexican War of Independence. Beginning with the fabled search of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado for the fabled Seven Golden Cities of Cibola^[3], through the mission of Juan de Oñate and the founding of Santa Fe by Don Pedro de Peralta, Popé and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680^[4], the peaceful return of Don Diego de Vargas, and the Segesser Hide Paintings, depictions of the ambush of a 1720 expedition led by the Lt. Governor of New Mexico^[5].

With the founding of the Republic of Mexico, New Mexico, the northern-most territory of the new nation, was now free to engage in trade with the United States. In 1821 Captain William Becknell of Franklin, Missouri arrived in Santa Fe with the first party of traders. The Santa Fe Trail, as his route came to be called, was one of the most defining factors in the history of New Mexico. Merchants traveling south on the Santa Fe Trail would meet Mexican traders traveling north on the Camino Real, the old Spanish highway from Mexico City, or east, on the Old Spanish Trail^[6], from Los Angeles. The third section of the museum spends a great deal of time exploring the stories of families who came to New Mexico or made their fortunes on the Santa Fe Trail; like the Manderfields, Spiegelbergs, Oteros, Delgados, and countless others. This section of the museum also covers many characters and events surrounding the Mexican-American War, including Kit Carson, John C. Frémont, General Stephen Watts Kearny, Charles Bent, and the Taos Revolt.

The fourth section of the museum covers the 60-some years that New Mexico spent as a territory of the United States. This turbulent time in New Mexican History saw such violent events as the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, the Civil War, the Railroad Wars, and the Lincoln County War. This section explores the stories of noted New Mexicans like Geronimo, Manuelito, Barboncito, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Dave Rudabaugh, and Billy the Kid. In spite of the violence of the times, this was also when photography and the Arts began to flourish in New Mexico. With noted artists, writers, and archaeologists such as Adolph Bandelier, Ernest Blumenschein, and D.H. Lawrence writing back east, tourists soon began to visit New Mexico, and before long, New Mexico became the the 47th state in 1912.

New Mexico joined the Union just in time to experience notable moments like the Women's Suffrage Movement, Pancho Villa Expedition, and the Great Depression. Fortunately, the Works Progress Administration and federal aid for agriculture helped sustain New Mexico through the depression. The fifth section of the Museum focuses heavily on the contributions New Mexicans were able to make during the Second World War;