Kim Walters, Interim Curator Southwest Museum, and Director of the Braun Research Library. Photo by Michael Kelley.
“[Charles F. Lummis] also established an endowment to acquire publications in his areas of interest, which included archaeology, folklore, and the history of colonial Mexico.”
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The library at the Southwest Museum began acquiring collections in 1908 with Dr. Joseph Amasa Munk’s donation of thousands of books, archives, maps, and documents relating to the Arizona Territory. In 1910, the founder of the museum, Charles F. Lummis, bequeathed his collection of 5,000 books to the library, along with his personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, and music. He also established an endowment to acquire publications in his areas of interest, which included archaeology, folklore, and the history of colonial Mexico. Other important book collections followed, such as the George Wharton James Collection, the Grant Jackson Memorial Library, the Eva Scott Fenyes Collection of Californiana, the T. A. Willard Collection of Mesoamerican Culture, and the Walter McClintock Library of Archaeology.
In 2003, the Braun Research Library became part of the Autry National Center’s Institute for the Study of the American West. For more information about the Braun Research Library, its collections, and how to use them, please click here.
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