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Story

More Experts. More Material.

Dear Members and Friends,

Expertise and access are at the center of this month’s news.

Lucha Martinez de Luna

Lucha Martinez de Luna

On February 5, Colorado Public Radio and Denverite announced our new partnership with the Gill Foundation to make Emmy-winning historian Aaron Marcus our associate curator of LGBTQ history. Right on the heels of this major addition to our staff and our purview, History Colorado also welcomed our first associate curator of Hispanic, Latino and Chicano History last month. Lucha Martinez de Luna joined our staff on February 10. Martinez will travel throughout Colorado to expand and interpret our collection in ways that embrace the vital role that Hispanics, Latinos, and Chicanos have played in Colorado’s development and success. Martinez has been an associate in the Anthropology department of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. She was also the head of conservation and registration for the state of Chiapas, Mexico, where she was a visiting professor at the University of Chiapas.

Oral History Archives

Rehoused oral-history materials organized by Rachael A. Beyer

Meanwhile, our new John W. Emery Family assistant curator of oral history, Rachael A. Beyer, has spent her first months on the job increasing access to our collection and preparing for new collecting efforts. In addition to rehousing more than 700 reels, cassette tapes, CDs, and print transcripts to better support our staff members who assist visitors to the Stephen H. Hart Research Center, Beyer has digitized 219 print transcripts and 143 audio recordings, all of which are now available through our online catalog.

On the collecting front, development began for a new oral history project focused on Colorado agribusiness, a project intended to support History Colorado’s strategic action plan on multiple fronts. Finally, Beyer began 2020 with her first interview, sitting down to record the memories of former State Senator Polly Baca, a member of the governor’s Women’s Vote Centennial Commission.
 

These are the realities of a bolder History Colorado—initiatives we are implementing to reach hundreds of thousands more Coloradans in the coming years. History Colorado is poised to maximize its statewide impact with confidence and a grandness of scope. With your generous support, we make it all happen.

–Steve

Steve W. Turner, AIA
Executive Director and State Historic Preservation Officer
History Colorado