2 pm

Join us for the opening lecture of the La Canoa: Legacy Talks 2017-2018 season for an exploration of a late 1800’s travel diary through New Mexico and into Chihuahua, Mexico.  Joy Poole, Deputy State Librarian, New Mexico State Library will take us through a three years journey with Dr. Rowland Willard, a physician, who traveled the Santa Fe Trail to Taos, NM in 1825.  Hear how the Fourth of July was celebrated in Taos. Learn how an American doctor practiced medicine on the Mexican frontier.  How did the Chief of Taos Pueblo pay the doctor for his services?  Learn some of the 19th century ailments of his patients.   Some of his patients included the ranchers around Cordova, the Padres and their wives, and the Taos Alcalde.  Dr. Willard shares many first impressions of Hispano culture including fandangos, Catholic faith, his host families and his first meal in Taos.  How did the composition of companions travelling with him from Missouri to Mexico change?  He arrived in Chihuahua during a measles epidemic.  Compare and contrast his first impressions of the Mexican frontier in Taos with his final impressions of the Mexican frontier in Chihuahua before returning to the United States in 1828.

Free Community Event