Rock Hounds and River Rats: The 1937 Carnegie-CalTech Grand Canyon Expedition

Parker Public Library 1001 Navajo Ave, Parker, AZ

In 1937, a team of CalTech geology professors and rough-and-tumble boatmen set out in three small wooden boats on a six-week journey through the Grand Canyon to study the ancient rocks of the canyon’s Inner Gorge. At the time, fewer than a dozen river parties had successfully run the canyon–often with a loss of boats […]

The Shadow Catchers: 150 years of Arizona Photography

Himmel Park Public Library 1035 N. Treat Avenue, Tucson, AZ, United States

For more than a century and a half some of the world’s best photographers focused their lenses on Arizona. In addition to the renowned Edward S. Curtis, Kate Cory lived with the Hopi and represented them in photographs and on canvas, while C. S. Fly gave us the famous Geronimo pictures. In the 20th century […]

From “Chief” to Code Talker: Four Profiles of the Navajo Code Talkers

Quartzsite Community Center 295 E. Chandler, Quartzsite, AZ, United States

During WWII a group of young Navajo men enlisted in the Marines without knowing that they would be called on to develop a secret code against the Japanese military. This select group of Code Talkers devised a Navajo language code that was accurate, quick, never broken, and saved many American lives. This talk profiles 4 […]

The Ballad of Arizona

Arivaca Old School House 17080 W. 4th St, Arivaca, AZ, United States

Originally conceived to celebrate Arizona’s Centennial in 2012, “The Ballad of Arizona” has been updated to provide a more complete survey of important, but often little-known, chapters of Arizona’s unique history. A blend of music, video, and lecture, “The Ballad of Arizona” is similar to “A Prairie Home Companion” but with an Arizona twist. The […]

“Hyenas in Petticoats”–How Women Struggled Against Every Dirty Trick in the Books to Win the Vote!

Burton Barr Central Library 1221 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ, United States

As we celebrate the 100th birthday of the 19th Amendment in 2020, it’s time to look back at the enormous effort it took for women to be granted full citizenship and the vote. History has downplayed suffrage, as if it were just a footnote in American history, when in fact, it was the nation’s largest […]

For the Love of Turquoise

Mohave Museum of History and Arts 400 W. Beale St., Kingman, AZ, United States

Turquoise has a long standing tradition amongst Native cultures of the Southwest, holding special significance and profound meanings to specific individual tribes. Even before the more contemporary tradition of combining silver with turquoise, cultures throughout the southwest used turquoise in necklaces, earrings, mosaics, fetishes, medicine pouches, and made bracelets of basketry stems lacquered with piñon […]

The Shadow Catchers: 150 years of Arizona Photography

Agave Library 23550 N. 36th Ave., Phoenix, AZ, United States

For more than a century and a half some of the world’s best photographers focused their lenses on Arizona. In addition to the renowned Edward S. Curtis, Kate Cory lived with the Hopi and represented them in photographs and on canvas, while C. S. Fly gave us the famous Geronimo pictures. In the 20th century […]

Three Generations of the American Indian Boarding School Experience

Paradise Valley High School 3950 E. Bell Rd., Phoenix, AZ, United States

This event is closed to the public The U.S. federal government’s harsh policy of compulsory Indian education in the form of boarding schools began in 1879 and continued through the Great Depression, with boarding schools on and off Indian Reservations remaining prominent through 1970. Presently, boarding schools are still the main means of K-8 education […]

Aviators and the Archaeologists: The Lindberghs’ 1929 Aerial Survey of the Southwest

Apache Junction Library 1177 N. Idaho Rd., Apache Junction, AZ, United States

Famous pilot Charles Lindbergh (the “Lone Eagle”) is best known for his pioneering 1927 flight across the Atlantic Ocean, but few people know that Lindbergh, and his wife Anne, also played an important role in southwestern archaeology. Come see some of their amazing aerial photographs, and learn how Charles and Anne helped share Chaco Canyon, […]

The Gila: River of History

ASU Colleges at Lake Havasu City, ASU Gym 100 University Way, Lake Havasu Ctiy, AZ, United States

Six hundred miles long from its source in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico to its confluence with the Colorado River above Yuma, the Gila has been an important avenue for the movement of birds, animals, plants, and peoples across the desert for millennia. Many cultures have sprung up on its banks, and millions of […]

Fill out the info below to sign up for our E-Newsletter.