The Roswell Museum (formerly Roswell Museum and Art Center) was founded in 1936 and is located in

Roswell, New Mexico Roswell () is a city in, and the County seat, seat of, Chaves County, New Mexico, Chaves County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Chaves County forms the entirety of the List of micropolitan areas in New Mexico, Roswell micropolitan area. As of ...

, United States. The museum features exhibits about the art and history of the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

, as well as the

Robert H. Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first Liquid-propellant rocket, liquid-fueled rocket. ...

laboratory. The museum operates the Patricia Lubben Bassett Art Education Center, opened in 1998, as a learning facility. The facility houses two classrooms, a ceramics studio, and research library, all of which supports a museum-school-community creative exchange that provides arts education opportunities for all ages. The Robert H. Goddard Planetarium was built through an initiative shared by the museum and the Roswell Independent School District in 1968. Once considered the largest planetarium in New Mexico, it is capable of reproducing the night sky as seen from any point on earth. The Robert H. Goddard Planetarium is home to a state-of-the-art, full-dome digital theater system with

Digistar Digistar is the first computer graphics-based planetarium projection and content system. It was designed by Evans & Sutherland and released in 1983. The technology originally focused on accurate and high quality display of stars, including for the ...

6 programming.

History

The museum was founded in 1936, after funding from New Mexico's

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) (authorized by manager Lea Rowland), with the goal of storing Southeastern New Mexican items for the local historical and archaeological society and acting as a community center. The museum opened on December 10, 1937, as one of the numerous cultural centers established by the WPA during the Depression-era. Early museum exhibits included regional archaeological and

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

objects; artifacts; paintings by

Peter Hurd Peter Hurd (February 22, 1904 – July 9, 1984) was an American painter whose work is strongly associated with the people and landscapes of San Patricio, New Mexico, where he lived from the 1930s. He is equally acclaimed for his portraits and hi ...

and

Henriette Wyeth Henriette Wyeth Hurd (October 22, 1907 – April 3, 1997) was an American artist noted for her portraits and still life paintings. The eldest daughter of illustrator N.C. Wyeth, she studied painting with her father and brother Andrew Wyeth at the ...

(daughter of

N.C. Wyeth Newell Convers Wyeth (October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945), known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American painter and illustrator. He was the pupil of Howard Pyle and became one of America's most well-known illustrators. Wyeth created more than 3,000 ...

); and others. After the restructuring of the WPA in 1941, the City of Roswell assumed control of the museum. From 1952 to 1955, Vernon Hunter served as the museum director; followed by the directorship of

David Gebhard David S. Gebhard (1927 – 1 March 1996) was a leading architectural historian, particularly known for his books on the architecture and architects of California. He was a long-time faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara ...

from 1955 to 1961; and Joseph M. Stuart from 1961 to 1964. By 1986, museum attendance reached over 45,000 visitors yearly. From 1967 to 2002, the Roswell Museum oversaw the operation of the Roswell Artist-in-Residence (RAiR) program. The museum has been accredited by the

American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

since 1978.

Collections and exhibition galleries

The Roswell Museum’s permanent collection features a historical collection, and a visual art collection. The historical collection includes the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

historical collection, Native American collection, Spanish colonial historical items, and the liquid-propellant rocketry collection. The visual art collection includes regional art,

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

works from Santa Fe and Taos; 20th-century artworks, Southwestern Art;

and

Collection; contemporary art, international print collection;

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

-era art;

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

; and landscape artists. A donor program brought in works by

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...

Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 – September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Early life and education Hartley was born ...

, Stuart Davis,

John Marin John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors. Biography Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. His mother died nine days after his birth, ...

, and others.

Goddard Galleries

Esther Goddard gifted the museum with one of its most significant historical collections, Dr.

's material research on

liquid-fuel rocket A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid rocket propellant, liquid propellants. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high Specific impulse, specific impulse (''I''sp). T ...

s. In 1959, the museum added a new wing dedicated to Goddard, and includes a reproduction of his laboratory. Goddard's rocket tower now stands in the museum's courtyard. In the Robert H. Goddard exhibit, visitors may see a moon rock donated by

Harrison Schmitt Harrison Hagan Schmitt (born July 3, 1935) is an American geologist, retired NASA astronaut, university professor, former U.S. senator from New Mexico, and the most recent living person—and only person without a background in military aviation ...

from the

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on ...

Mission.

Rogers Aston Gallery

In 1980, the museum received a collection of western art and historical artifacts donated by Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston which prompted the opening of the wing named, the Rogers Aston Gallery of American Indian and Western Art.

References

External links