Visual Materials

Acoma, New Mexico. Prehistoric vertical trail leading from the desert plain below the cliff to the top of the great rock on which the town of Acoma is located

Description: A man climbing the vertical rock trail up to Acoma Pueblo.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: approximately 1886 - 1911
Call number: photCL 312
Creator: Monsen, Frederick (1865-1929)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased by Henry E. Huntington from Frederick Monsen, 1923.
Dimensions: images approximately 11 x 14 in. on oversize mounts approximately 21 x 26 in. +
Find out more: View in the Huntington Digital Library

The Giant Cliffs of Acoma

Visual Materials

Acoma Pueblo seen at a distance on top of mesa, with desert in foreground. Two men are walking on a trail toward the cliffs.

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Trail leading to village of Acoma, in West Central New Mexico

Visual Materials

View of men climbing rock steps between walls of rock. An unidentified photographer with camera on tripod stands to the side of the steps.

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Prehistoric trail leading to the pueblo of Acoma

Visual Materials

This set of photographs by Frederick Monsen focuses on Native Americans of the Southwest in mostly candid views taken in Pueblo communities, approx. 1886-1911. Photographs include portraits, ceremonies, dances, pueblos, livestock and scenes of daily activities. A smaller portion of the collection consists of landscapes, cliff-dwellings, ruins, gold miners, wagons and scenes of pioneer life in the West. Some photographs were made by Monsen while he was with U.S. Geological Surveys (including the Brown-Stanton survey of 1889), and others during his own photography trips. The majority of Native Americans pictured are Hopi and Navajo, but there are also Paiute, Apache, and Pueblo Indians. There are a few views of Mojave Indians of Southern California, and natives of Baja, Mexico. There are several views of Indian children, shown with and without clothes, in their daily activities. Scenes of non-Indian Western life include men in covered wagons on trails, gold prospectors and stagecoaches. There are many artistic landscape views of canyons, buttes and mesas; Death Valley; salt beds; ancient ruins; cactus and other desert plants. Unusual subjects of note are three photographs of skeletons in the deserts of Arizona and one view of the covered bodies of prospectors being carried on burros. The prints are all signed by Monsen and have typed or handwritten captions on the back, written by Monsen.

photCL 312