American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Gold Mining, NM. [Santa Fe, NM]: 1870s. 6 1/4 x 3 1/8 in. stereoview on cardstock mount (toning, some residue in top margin, short tear at top edge of print, print trimmed along top and bottom edges; mount with trimmed edges and clipped corners). Verso with title accomplished in manuscript. -- Works of the New Mexican Mining Co. No. 3. [Santa Fe, NM]: 1870s. 6 1/4 x 3 1/8 in. stereoview on cardstock mount (toning to print, some soiling; mount trimmed, edge wear and some staining to mount). Image number and title printed on applied paper label to recto, and period inscription "NM Mining Co. Mines" to verso. 

[With:] Exchange Hotel. [Santa Fe], NM: 1870s. 6 x 3 in. stereoview on cardstock mount (toning, occasional spotting to print; corner and edge wear to mount). Verso with photographer's imprint and title on applied paper labels. A faded ink stamp appears at lower portion of applied label reading, "[indecipherable], Photographer / Olathe Kan." A group of men are shown gathered at the Exchange Hotel in Santa Fe, with a sign promoting "Wholesale Liquor Dealers" visible at right. 

Photographer H.T. Heister, interchangeably spelled Hiester, was active in New Mexico from 1871-1878.  He traveled from Iowa or Texas to Santa Fe in the summer of 1871 at the invitation of Dr. Enos Andrews. He purportedly brought the first solar camera to New Mexico for making life-size enlargements, and often had them painted by Santa Fe artist John D. Howland. Heister is best known for stereoviews of the Rio Grande Basin in New Mexico and Arizona as well as the Navajo Reservation.