Silver Images on Glass Plates: Early Photography in Arizona, 1850-1920

Eloy Santa Cruz Library 1000 N. Main St., Eloy, AZ, United States

Photographs have helped shape both historical and contemporary public perception of Arizona and the West. This program presents a chronological history and social development of photography in Territorial Arizona. Included are rare and unique historical images of daily life, public events, personalities, mining, Native Americans, and environment of early Arizona. Accompanying images are high-quality copies […]

Free

Eloy’s Gun and Cotton Stories: Romanticizing the Real

Eloy Santa Cruz Library 1000 N. Main St., Eloy, AZ, United States

This presentation focuses on the lively and lawless days of Eloy, Arizona. Eloy might have had a reputation that rivaled that of Tombstone, with its killings, graft, good time houses, and mysterious murders. Explore this turbulent time in Territorial Eloy, when the influx of seasonal cotton pickers "raised hell" on the weekends.   Geta LeSeur […]

Free

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and Stage Coaches and Boats, too): Women Travel in Arizona

Tohono Chul Park 7366 N. Paseo del Norte, Tucson, AZ, United States

Arizona has some of the most stunning scenery in the world, but until recently, traveling over this terrain was quite an adventure. Meet women like army wife Martha Summerhayes, suffrage leader Josephine Brawley Hughes, the Harvey Girl waitresses, Barry Goldwater's personal pilot Ruth Reinhold, as well as other daring women who braved Arizona's extreme elements. […]

Free

Along Old Route 66

Tohono Chul Park 7366 N. Paseo del Norte, Tucson, AZ, United States

This presentation is based on segments from two television documentaries that were produced in Arizona and broadcast on public television stations and cable networks throughout the United States. Longtime residents of Northern Arizona recount tales of the impact of “the mother road” (Route 66) on their communities. A history of the road is illuminated by […]

Free

Fascinating Florence, AZ: Not Just a Prison Town

Saddlebrooke Mountain Clubhouse 38759 South Mountain View Boulevard, Tucson, AZ, United States

Florence began as a small rural desert town. In 1875 a major silver strike and designation as Pinal County seat changed the character of the town. Despite the past tales of shootouts and stage robberies that echo off the historic adobe walls, many people still find Florence the essence of a “small town” that is […]

Free

Desperado Trails: Outlaws on the Arizona Frontier

Joel D. Valdez Main Library 101 N. Stone Ave., Tucson, AZ, United States

Hang on to your hats as you ride the trails beside some of Arizona’s most wicked renegades during a time when massacres, mayhem and mischief ran rampant throughout Arizona Territory. Learn the sordid details of desperadoes such as cattle/horse rustler and murderer Augustine Chacon who claimed he killed over fifty men, ladies-man Buckskin Frank Leslie […]

Free

How Wild Was It? Crime and Justice in Arizona Territory

Copper Queen Library 6 Main St., Bisbee, AZ, United States

Arizona’s territorial era has the reputation of being a violent and crime-ridden place with ineffective criminal justice institutions. This presentation provides an overview of crime and justice in Arizona Territory. Based on data from court cases and newspapers, it describes the types of crimes most commonly committed and the justice system’s response to them. Contrary […]

Free

Southwestern Rock Calendars and Ancient Time Pieces

Smoki Museum Pueblo 147 N. Arizona Avenue, Prescott, AZ, United States

Ancient Native American cultures of the Southwest, including the Mesa Verde culture of southern Colorado and Utah, the Chaco culture centered in northwestern New Mexico, and the Hohokam culture of southern Arizona, developed sophisticated skills in astronomy and predicting the seasons centuries before Old World peoples first entered the region. In this presentation Dart examines […]

We Must Grow Our Own Artists: Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton

La Posada Hotel 303 E. Second St., Winslow, AZ, United States

Discover art educator Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton’s contributions to the progressive education movement and the American Indian arts and crafts movement. Artist, author, ethnographer, educator, and curator, these were but a few of the talents of Colton, co-founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona and early art advocate on the Colorado Plateau. Colton labored to increase […]

Free

Father Kino: Journey to Discovery

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

Through his many diaries and letters it is obvious that Father Kino was more than a missionary who worked among the Native Americans. While his name is often associated with the San Xavier del Bac Mission, he was also a skilled mathematician and cartographer. He made more than 40 expeditions during his life while living […]

Free

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