Fray Angélico Chávez History Library

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:historylibrary@state.nm.us historylibrary@state.nm.us].

Address:


 * Fray Angélico Chávez History Library
 * New Mexico History Museum
 * 120 Washington Avenue
 * Santa Fe, NM 87501

Telephone: 505-476-5090 (Library) or 505-476-5092 (Photo Archives) Fax: 505-476-5104

Hours and holidays: Tuesday-Friday, 1 to 5pm Closed major holidays.

Map, Directions, Parking, and Public Transportation


 * Map: Google map: Fray Angélico Chávez History Library (behind Palace of the Governors)


 * Directions:
 * From Southwest of Santa Fe on I-25 (Canam Hwy): Merge onto I-25 N/US-85 North toward Santa Fe. Take the US-84 N/US-285 N/St Francis Dr exit, EXIT 282B-A, toward Santa Fe-Plaza, 0.3 mi. Merge onto S Saint Francis Dr/US-84 N/US-285 N via the ramp on the left toward Santa Fe Plaza/LOS ALAMOS/Taos, 4.3 mi. Turn right onto Paseo de Peralta, 1.0 mi. Turn right onto Washington Ave/NM-590, 0.2 mi. 120 WASHINGTON AVE is on the right.
 * from North of Santa Fe on US-84 S/US-285 (Taos Hwy): Turn onto US-84 S/US-285 (Taos Hwy) South toward Santa Fe. Take the exit on the left toward Downtown Plaza, 0.3 mi. Stay straight to go onto N Guadalupe St, 0.4 mi. Turn left onto Paseo de Peralta, 0.7 mi. Turn right onto Washington Ave/NM-590, 0.2 mi. 120 WASHINGTON AVE is on the right.
 * from East of Santa Fe on I-25 (Canam Hwy): Merge onto I-25 S/US-85 S/US-84 North toward Santa Fe. Take the NM-466/Old Pecos Tr exit, EXIT 284, 0.2 mi. Turn slight right onto NM-466/Old Pecos Trl, 1.3 mi. Turn slight right onto Old Pecos Trl, 1.6 mi. Turn slight left onto Old Santa Fe Trl, 0.7 mi. Turn left onto E Water St, 0.02 mi. Take the 1st right onto Old Santa Fe Trl, 0.1 mi. Turn right onto W Palace Ave, 0.01 mi. Take the 1st left onto Washington Ave/NM-590, 0.04 mi. 120 WASHINGTON AVE is on the left.


 * Parking in downtown Santa Fe is hard to find. This pay-parking lots and garages map shows B, C, D, E and F parking areas surrounding the Plaza Park (town square and Governors' Palace).


 * Public transportation Santa Fe Trails city bus routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and Route M stop at the downtown Sheridan Avenue Transit Center three blocks northwest of the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library doors (at 120 Washington Ave).

Internet sites and databases:


 * Fray Angélico Chávez History Library contact info, search catalogs, digitized collections, lectures, online exhibits, digital books, Chavez Symposium schedule, links, collections, exhibitions, educational programs, and photo archives.
 * New Mexico Digital Collections from The Fray Angélico Chávez History Library search and browse options for documents, graphics, and maps.
 * Online Archive of New Mexico (part of RMOA) browse by subject, or search by word, subject, or title.
 * Salsa: Chávez History Library online union catalog search by keyword, browse, phrase and more.
 * Searchable collections for vertical files, railroad maps, obituaries, and Fairview Cemetery of Santa Fe.

Collection Description
The Fray Angélico Chávez History Library of the New Mexico History Museum  is successor to New Mexico's oldest library (1851) and is part of the Palace of the Governors complex, just around the corner from that palace pictured above. It is a non-circulating, closed stack research facility, preserving the history of the state, the Southwest, and meso-America from pre-European contact to now.

Library strengths include topics like the Santa Fe Trail, Civil War in New Mexico, Spanish American War, Rough Riders, World War I, historical New Mexico celebrities, Spain, Mexico, Central America, the American Southwest, and the Historical Society of New Mexico. Collections of Railroad maps  show land use, water rights, settlements and aspects of development in New Mexico. The obituary database  from the 1870s to 2005 started more statewide, but gradually became more focused on Santa Fe in recent years. Vertical files  are about Santa Fe, towns of New Mexico, and New Mexico. The Museum collection  has more than 15,000 cataloged objects.

The Photo Archives  have images since 1850 about the history and people of New Mexico and U.S. westward expansion. Images also cover the anthropology, archaeology, and ethnology of Hispanic and American Indian cultures. Lesser collections document Europe, Latin America, the Far East, Oceania, and the Middle East.

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a source at the , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * National Archives I, Washington DC, census, pre-WWI military service &amp; pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons, and federal employees.
 * New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe, Roman Catholic church records, censuses, district court, land grants, wills, diaries, family papers, prisons, family and local histories, newspapers. NM's best genealogy repository because of its original territorial, state, and county records.
 * New Mexico State Library, Santa Fe, history, biography, ethnic studies, newspapers, government documents, maps, periodicals, and genealogies. Largest book collection in New Mexico.

Similar Collections


 * UNM Center for Southwest Research, Albuquerque, Includes manuscripts of Southwestern U.S. families, organizations, and businesses, 40,000 books and periodicals, and 120,000 images since the 1850s.
 * Hispanic Genealogical Research Center (HGRC) of New Mexico, Albuquerque, maintains the Great New Mexico Pedigree Database (GNMPD)  for Hispanic ancestors of New Mexico.
 * National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, photographs, maps, manuscripts, and genealogies. The library contains 12,500 book titles about the history and culture of the Hispano world from the U.S. Southwest, Mexico, Central America, Latin America to Spain, and Portugal.
 * NMSU Rio Grande Historical Collections, Las Cruces, early colonial Spanish records since 1598 for families along the Camino Real (Spanish mission road) from southern Colorado to Mexico City.

Neighboring Collections


 * Santa Fe County Clerk marriages (restricted for 50 years), death certificates, wills, deeds, mortgages, DD Form 214 soldier discharges.
 * Santa Fe County Probate Court recent wills.
 * Santa Fe County Coroner selected death records.
 * First Judicial District Court of New Mexico, Santa Fe, civil, and criminal court records.
 * New Mexico Dept. of Health Vital Records, Santa Fe, adoption, births (restricted for 100 years), and deaths (restricted for 50 years).
 * Historical Society of New Mexico, Santa Fe, offers links to organizations, museums and other historic points of interest in New Mexico.
 * Archdiocese of Santa Fe Archives, Santa Fe NM, created in 1850, it once also included Arizona, and Colorado. The Archives houses records from 1678-1950 for dozens of parishes in three states.
 * Repositories in surrounding counties: Bernalillo, Los Alamos, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval, and Torrance.
 * ABC Library Genealogy Center, Albuquerque, genealogy and Southwestern history, including New Mexico vital records, history, biography, periodicals, and family folders.
 * ABC Library Special Collections Albuquerque and New Mexico history and culture. In-house use only.
 * New Mexico Genealogical Society, Albuquerque, manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, histories, directories, maps, photos.
 * Repositories in surrounding states (or nations): AZ, CO, OK, TX, UT, and Mexico.
 * Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA, premier Western Americana, and Latin Americana collections, including Native Americans, Spanish encounter and colonial settlement, exploration of western America, maps and atlases, the Mexican War, westward migration, the Gold Rush, mining, land surveys, ethnic groups.
 * Family History Library, Salt Lake City, 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, Mormon records.
 * National Archives Rocky Mountain Region (Denver) Includes old New Mexico court records and naturalizations, federal and Indian censuses, passenger arrival lists, World War I draft registrations.
 * Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), Mexico City, church, civil, census, court, history, military, migration, land. Copies of colonial New Mexico records of were often sent to Mexico and Spain.