This is a stunning lesson in WWII history, geography, and geopolitics
Enjoy,
Tom
The talking part was fun, but I really enjoyed the question and answer portion. They asked for more about the uniqueness of the Indian Pueblos, their sovereignty and cultures, our flying saucer incidents (Roswell and Albuquerque), Oñate and the Duke of Alburquerque, “the missing R,” Spanish and Mexican impacts on New Mexico, New Mexico authors, and New Mexico futures.
This is a photo of me with Rick Chase, the District Director of Purdue’s Extension Service and one of the organizers of the conference. Rick was the gent that came across the 5 Perspectives on Albuquerque YouTube video and asked for an introductory presentation on Albuquerque’s and New Mexico’s history.
Great fun. Good people.
Talk about social networking — I got a FaceBook note last week asking if I could present the Timeline at the annual National Extension Leadership Development Conference here in Albuquerque! This came from the conference organizer from Purdue University who happened to come across the 5 Perspectives on Albuquerque video on YouTube.
I can’t quite say how tickled I am to have the opportunity to tell them some Albuquerque and New Mexico stories from the timeline. This is what I put the two years in for – so there would be a one-stop-shop for 600 years of our histories and cultures for people who would like such a summary. I’ll be taking one of the 2 ft x 8 ft copies to speak from, mounted on a plastic backing board so it can stand on two easels, and leaving it there the whole day so the 44 attendees from 13 North Central states can read it more closely on their breaks. Interestingly, their mission statement is … to build leadership in Cooperative Extension at all levels and provide current and future Extension leaders with the vision, courage, and tools to lead in a changing world.
I hope to get some pix of the event that I can post later this week.
A number of people ask me, “Where and how can I buy a copy of the Timeline?” Here is the info if you are one of those folks and have a couple of hundred bucks lying around – and – a large wall space to fill.
There are a couple of things you will want to know if you would like to purchase your very own copy of the Albuquerque Historical Timeline:
New Mexico Big Prints are the good folks that produced the 4 ft x 16 ft copies of the Timeline at the Convention Center and at the Airport. They also produced the smaller, 2 ft x 8 ft copies for high school and middle school use throughout Albuquerque and the Archdiocese, and it’s this size that is available for purchase. I suppose you could order a 4 ft x 16 ft size, but expect to come up with about $3,750 or so per copy.
The URL to contact the good folks at New Mexico Big Prints is http://www.nmbigprints.com/index3.html.
While I acknowledge this is a bit of a quibble, I’d like to see if I can explain and defend the differences and distinctions between a ‘Chronology‘ and a ‘Timeline.’
To me, the distinctions have to do with the different insights, understandings, and experiences that arise from viewing information in one format versus the other.
Let me show you what I mean with a simple example using the same basic dates and information displayed in the two formats:
Chronology
and then —
Timeline
To my eye, the time context of the dates seem to tell a different, and somehow more effective, story in the timeline format. I believe one gets a deeper feeling for the relative periods of time and cultural influence from this format.
That is why I chose to use a timeline format, even though it required a lot (a lot) of trial and error to:
From most comments, it seems to work OK and support individuals in seeing the fascinating interactions between time, geography, demography and culture.
Welcome to the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Historical and Cultural Timeline blog.
The idea for the Albuquerque Historical and Cultural Timeline arose from a 2004 conversation with Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez. His mention of the upcoming 300th birthday of the founding and naming of Albuquerque stimulated me to put two years into creating the Albuquerque Historical and Cultural Timeline, correlating and displaying 600 years of historical and cultural events across New Mexico, the U.S., Mexico, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
I need to express deep appreciation here for the following individuals who very graciously provided information, assistance, support and guidance throughout:
Without their support and assistance, the Timeline would not be visible to the public in the East Wing of the Convention Center and in the passenger waiting area of the Albuquerque International Sunport.
I intend through this blog to explore and present interesting historical and cultural stories contained within the Timeline in a series of blog-post and video formats. I hope you enjoy the very first video, “5 Perspectives on Albuquerque,” which is an overview of the structure and ‘how to read’ the timeline.
Your comments, thoughts and suggestions are welcome.
Tom