Chasing History

Based on a career as a historian as well as his work for cultural institutions, Thomas Chavez uses the organizational and literary model of "Don Quixote" to create a personal account and modern history that champions the value of the work done in museums and the arts. The message resonates to all people who work in support of the humanities and arts. Such stories are interesting, many times humorous, even unorthodox, but always important, influential, and timeless. Here are the nuances from happenstance to politics and fundraising. Here are the true stories of determination seeking to do the impossible. As Chavez writes, "I worked with intelligent, creative, and sensitive people. My colleagues were dreamers and doers. We could have been neither but we came to our life's work intentionally with the realization that there was something inherently important in what we were doing." THOMAS E. CHAVEZ, a historian with a PhD from the University of New Mexico, was director of the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico for twenty-one years and, for three years, executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has received awards from the City of Santa Fe and organizations such as the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Fundacion Xavier Salas in Spain, and the University of New Mexico Alumni Association. Currently a consultant, he is the author of many books and at the time of the publication of this book is working on a multi-volume catalogue of all the documents pertinent to Benjamin Franklin that exist in the archives of Spain.