The Trinidad History Museum is a museum of History Colorado, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and an agency of the State of Colorado. History Colorado strives to be a place of belonging for all Coloradans and to serve as a platform for community connection and diversity.

“How we manage our land parallels how we manage our health and our bodies. In this borderlands space of southern Colorado, we can understand our relationship to health and well-being – all within the context of coexistence and conflict of culture, nature and borders,” said Kirby Stokes, director of Trinidad History Museum. “This exhibit explores the tapestry of multicultural medical traditions, histories and geographies of Las Animas County.”

Borderlands of Southern Colorado: Remedios, Medicine and Health was created with input from community members, families, scholars, archaeologists and historians from southern Colorado, who participated in meetings during itsnearly three-year planning process and who shared their stories about traditional and home-based health practices. From childbirth to spirituality, religion, nature and coal mining, themes include relationships with the land, as well as relationships with doctors, grandmothers, nature and the community.

“We are eager to create conversation and expand our cultural, environmental and theoretical knowledge of borderlands and the impact of southern Colorado. We are proud to collaborate and share this history with a broader audience to expand the way Coloradoans understand the history of our state and community,” said Dawn DiPrince, chief community museum officer of History Colorado. “We are sharing stories that connect the past with contemporary issues and that influence U.S. history. More than ever, Colorado’s historical stories of land, health and medicine are just as relevant today.”  

The new exhibit is part of a long-term strategy of History Colorado in community engagement, memory work, lectures and artifacts around the topic of borderlands, which includes an expansion into several of its museums, covering this subject from different angles and themes. Currently, Borderlands of Southern Colorado is at History Colorado’s El Pueblo History Museum; and as announced, Borderlands of Southern Colorado: Remedios, Medicine and Health will soon be open at its Trinidad History Museum. As part of its integrated commitment, History Colorado will extend Borderlands of Southern Colorado to a third community museum, with the opening of Borderlands of Southern Colorado: Shadows of Slavery at Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center in Summer 2019, focusing on indigenous slavery in southern Colorado. While details will be announced later this year, according to DiPrince, “Very few museums in the country are telling this story, and people are going to feel very connected to the emotions of this culturally sensitive theme.”

About Borderlands of Southern Colorado: Remedios, Medicine and Health Exhibit

In its exhibit, Remedios, Medicine and Health will feature the stories, in English and Spanish, and photos of midwife Mary Scavotto, Sister Blandina, Dr. Stanley Biber, coal miners, curanderas and others who created cultural shifts in history, health care, medicine and culture. The exhibit is well timed to generate new knowledge and perspectives for today’s health care. For background on selected stories, quotes and a list of artifacts, click here.

An opening reception will be held on May 3 from 4-8 p.m. In addition, a community celebration and family day will take place on May 4, with free admission, lawn games, live music, food trucks and programs for the entire family.

In addition, for the first year of the exhibit, any resident of Las Animas County will receive free admission to the museum. According to Stokes, “Residents of Las Animas County have been so important in planning this exhibit. It’s for them. And we want to thank them with free admission from May 3, 2019, through May 3, 2020.” For residents beyond that date and for non-residents, ticket prices are: $5 for general admission; $3 for 11 and under/60 and over; free for 3 and under/military; and $10 for guided tours, which include general admission.

The new Borderlands exhibit will open in the Santa Fe Trail building, a historic adobe horse stable and worker housing that’s part of the city-block-sized museum campus. It will extend into the outdoors with a native plant and healing garden.

About Trinidad History Museum

Founded in 1955, the Trinidad History Museum explores Trinidad’s past and its place in the American West, while interpreting, promoting and preserving the history and traditions of the Santa Fe Trail and the local area. Trinidad History Museum, a museum of History Colorado, is home to four historic houses and a city block of lawns and gardens right in the heart of downtown Trinidad. Located at 312 E. Main St., in Trinidad, museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, please visit its website or Facebook page, or call 719-846-7217.

About History Colorado

History Colorado’s mission is to create a better future for Colorado by inspiring wonder in our past. The charitable organization and historical agency serves as the state’s memory, preserving the places, stories and material culture of Colorado through educational programs, historic preservation grants, research library, collections and outreach to Colorado communities. With eight museums around the state, History Colorado shares the cultures and stories that define Colorado’s past and present, including: Trinidad History Museum (Trinidad); History Colorado Center (Denver); Center for Colorado Women’s History at Byers-Evans House (Denver); El Pueblo History Museum (Pueblo); Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center (Fort Garland); Healy House Museum & Dexter Cabin (Leadville); Ute Indian Museum (Montrose); and Fort Vasquez (Platteville). Visit HistoryColorado.org, or call 303-HISTORY, for more information.

Stories and Artifacts

For a list of artifacts, as well as background on selected stories that will be featured in the exhibit, click here.

Visuals

For photos of Borderlands of Southern Colorado: Remedios, Medicine and Health and the Trinidad History Museum, please click here. (All photos are courtesy of History Colorado unless otherwise noted.)

Media Contact

Tera Haselden Keatts, Philosophy Communication

thaselden@philosophycommunication.com

720-341-7989