New Mexico History Museum

After a very long day of travel yesterday (1500 miles or so as the proverbial crow flies, probably longer as we did), we enjoyed a late breakfast at a neighborhood cafe and a wonderful afternoon at the New Mexico History Museum.

New Mexico has a rich and complex history, and the museum’s diverse and beautifully staged exhibits helped us understand that history in a way that merely reading about it could not.

I couldn’t find the name of the artist who created this work, “Manifest Destiny,” on the description adjacent to it, but I share with you here those words: “Manifest destiny was an idea that the people of the United States would inevitably settle the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. This concept encompassed the belief that white Anglo-Saxons were a special race and rightfully the superiors of other peoples. Their expansion would also spread the “blessings” of Protestant faiths and democracy. Fulfilling this destiny was all-important — and could be accomplished by force, if necessary.”

The phrase was coined in 1845, but echoes still today.

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