510 N. Santa Fe
El Paso, TX 79901
| Tuesday - Saturday | 9:00 a.m. - 4:50 p.m. |
| Monday | closed |
| Sunday | 1:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. |
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Jennifer E. Nielsen
phone:
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Jessica S. Santascoy
phone:
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Jim Murphy
phone:
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Barbara Angus
phone:
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Cindy Kieffer Diaz
phone: 915-351-3588
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The El Paso City Museums derive originally from the International Museum, a one-time private institution, which was located in the old Turney home at 1201 Montana. The collections were eclectic, containing items of natural history and world culture, as well as some art and local history.
In the late 1950s, an arrangement was made with the Kress Foundation for a "permanent" loan of medieval and renaissance art. At that time, the building and the collections were turned over to the City, in return for City staffing and maintenance. The International Museum was redesignated the El Paso Museum of Art, and those items that did not fall under the categories of painting, print, sculpture, or decorative art were put into storage on the premises.
In the mid 1970s, two new museums were built -- the El Paso Cavalry (History) Museum and the Wilderness Park Museum. The money for the buildings and the land was donated or acquired at little cost to the City. The new museums had their exhibits designed and built by art museum staff, and were provided with only guards/janitors/maintenance men. Professional staff was hired for the History and Wilderness Park Museums in the late 1970s.
In 1980, the name and focus of the Cavalry Museum were changed to the El Paso
Museum of History. The History Museum remained a municipal museum, but received community support from the El Paso County Historical Society. The El Paso Museum of History became a separate city department with its own director in 1989, but continues to share support staff with the two other municipal museums. Since 1989, the History Museum has increased its programming and temporary exhibits, won awards for education and publications, and started its own support group, the Friends of the El Paso History Museum.
The El Paso Museum of History collects, by City ordinance, material from the coming of the Spanish to this area (late 1500s) up to the present. Items must either have been used in the El Paso region, been brought to El Paso by people who settled there, or be accurate examples of what was used or was brought there. Ninety-nine percent of the collections were received through donations.
The History Museum has collections in: fans, shawls, lace, typewriters, blacksmithing tools, carpentry tools, western bootmaking and saddlemaking tools, glass bottles, A large collection of 19th- and 20th-century clothing, including material from The Popular, a local department store.
The museum has little in the way of archival collections. The El Paso Public Library maintains archives divisions, and the local Historical Society collects photographs and other paper
memorabilia.
Exhibitions, docent program, "hands-on" tours of museum, pre- and post-visit packet, lectures, demos, craft classes, summer programs, working on traveling trunks; not currently available for tour/loan; materials are fairly local and particular to the area and subjects; loan fees determined on case by case basis.
Annual report by Advisory Board, Friends of the El Paso History Museum newsletter. An article on the bottle collection (El Paso was once a center for bottling soft drinks) has been published in the local Historical Society's journal. A booklet on El Paso saddle and holster makers is in progress.
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