Promoting the Southwest: Edgar L. Hewett, anthropology, archeology, and the Santa Fe style
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During the first half of the twentieth century, the southwestern region of the United States drew the attention of scholars, artists, and tourists. Much of that attention focused on the city of Santa Fe.
Edgar L. Hewett directed the School of American Archaeology and Museum of New Mexico from their founding in 1907 and 1909, respectively, until his death in 1946. Hewett used his position as the director of the school and museum to promote an image of the Southwest that would draw scholars, artists, and tourists to the region. He relied heavily on the Colonial Spanish past and the Native American present of New Mexico to construct an image of the architecture, art, and cultures of the Southwest.
Hewett began his professional activities as the president of New Mexico Normal University in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He encouraged the faculty and students of New Mexico Normal to conduct archaeological field work. He led several expeditions into the New Mexico countryside to survey and excavate archaeological sites. He also interviewed Native Americans to determine the fate of abandoned pueblos, particularly the Pecos Pueblo.
To advance the preservation of the archaeological sites of the Southwest, Hewett lobbied the United States Congress for the passage of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The Antiquities Act allowed the president of the U.S. to designate national monuments to protect cultural resources. The Antiquities Act served to protect cultural resources from unregulated excavation.
Hewett advocated the use of public education and fieldwork in his efforts to promote the Southwest. He gave public lectures and sponsored public displays of Native American art and Spanish Colonial history. During one of those public displays, the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, Hewett encouraged the building of the New Mexico state building to represent the mission church at Acoma Pueblo. In1917, the New Mexico building modeled for the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe. The Museum of Fine Arts, along with the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, provided a template for the Santa Fe Style, a regional architectural style.
Hewett's promotion of the Southwest relied heavily on the Native American cultures of New Mexico. Hewett used those cultures to boost the Southwest, but did so in a paternalistic fashion that did not necessarily promote Native American interests.