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Silver City
Museum hosts talk on the Spanish Flu of 1918 in Grant County
The Silver City Museum hosts local historian Stephen Fox, who will present a virtual slide lecture on the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918-19 in Grant County at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23. Register and attend at www.SilverCityMuseum.Org or join Zoom with meeting ID 872 1894 7573.
The story has many echoes of the current pandemic. The Spanish Flu came late to Grant County, not until the first week of November. The county closed, mandated masks, had only a few cases and deaths, and seemed to have escaped major damage until mid-December. A second wave then began, with some 30 new cases in Santa Rita alone, and lasted into the new year of 1919. Fox’s research in the two Silver City newspapers of that time has turned up a possible explanation of why the second wave happened. It involves John M. Sully, the general manager of the mine at Santa Rita and of the mill at Hurley, and his daughter Ruth Sully, then a student at a school in Los Angeles.
Info: 575-538-5921, education@silvercitymuseum.org or visit the museum's website.
Silver City Museum hosts online store
The Silver City Museum Store is available online at www.SilverCityMuseum.org and www.SilverCityMuseumSociety.org. Customers can shop over 80 book titles on local and regional history, handmade Mata Ortiz pots from Mexico and jewelry including necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, and a variety of items with New Mexico’s iconic Zia symbol.
Both shipping by mail and free, safe pickup are available. All funds from the store support the Silver City Museum and its free public programs and exhibits, many of which are now available on the website as well.
Las Cruces
Popular exhibit, ‘Home on the Range: From Ranches to Rockets,’ now online
A popular exhibit at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum that explores the incredible transformation of the Tularosa Basin during World War II is now online. Visitors to the museum’s website at www.nmfarmandranchmuseum.org can view the online version of “Home on the Range: From Ranches to Rockets.” This virtual exhibit is more than just photographs and words. It also features videos and oral history audio files.
Visitors will learn about ranch life in the Tularosa Basin during the early 20th century and how events taking place halfway around the world brought about changes that for many ranchers were permanent. The area eventually became White Sands Missile Range, drawing some of the world’s greatest minds in science and engineering.
While the basin was used to test rockets, missiles and bombs – including the atomic bomb in 1945 – it was also used to launch America’s space program and other scientific programs, some in the private sector.
Thomas Branigan Memorial Library call for poets
In February and March 2021, the Las Cruces community is reading “When the Emperor was Divine” by Julie Otsuka for the Big Read. “When the Emperor was Divine” follows the experiences of a Japanese American family as they are incarcerated by the United States government following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
In conjunction, Thomas Branigan Memorial Library will host a virtual poetry reading. Writers are invited to submit up to three poems on themes of incarceration, historical trauma, New Mexican history, healing from trauma, Japanese American identity and creating community among differences. Poets will be selected by Albuquerque Poet Laureate Mary Oishi for participation in a pre-recorded poetry reading.
Send submissions by Saturday, Jan. 16, to Mary Oishi at poetoishi@yahoo.com. Submissions may be sent as pdf, word document or RTF. Include name, phone number and email address. Poets selected to participate will be contacted and recording arranged. Info: bsauer@las-cruces.org; 575-528-4085.
New Mexico
Cultural Affairs Department offers variety online
Explore the latest online programming from the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), bringing the state’s unique blend of cultures into your home through its museums, historic sites and cultural institutions.