Amelia Elizabeth White and Martha Root White Photograph Collection

Collection

Identifier: PAAC-101

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Collection of photographs and 5 photograph albums. Photographs document the White sisters' trips to Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras and include images of archaeological sites, ruins, landscapes, villges, and people, including Percy and Alice Jackson, Herbert Spinden, and Edgar L. Hewett. The collection has duplicates of many of the photographs in varying sizes, including small Kodak 2.25 x 3 in. photographs. Many of the duplicates appear in the albums.

Dates

1914 - 1927

Creator

White, Elizabeth, 1878-1972 (Person)

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to researchers on an appointment basis only, pending approval of application to view original material.

Copy Restrictions

Permission to publish must be obtained from Photo Archives. Online Request Permission form available at: http://www.palaceofthegovernors.org/photo_request.html. User responsible for all copyright compliance.

Biographical / Historical

Amelia Elizabeth White and Martha Root White, collectively known as the White Sisters, were born in New York to journalist and financier Horace White and Amelia Jane McDougall White in 1878 and 1881, respectively. Amelia Elizabeth, who went by Elizabeth, was named after her mother, white Martha was named after Horace's first wife, Martha Hale Root White, who died in 1873 at the age of 36.

Both Elizabeth and Martha attended Bryn Mawr College. In 1901, after graduating, the White sisters (or perhaps just Elizabeth), came to Wagon Mound, New Mexico to visit former Bryn Mawr classmate, Alice Day Jackson. During this trip, Elizabeth was introduced to Jesse Nusbaum, Sylvanus Morley, Herbert J. Spinden, and Frederick Webb Hodge. Her interest in archaeology grew, and in 1914 she traveled to Guatemala as the guest of Herbert J. Spinden to Quirigua, where an expedition had been sent by Edgar L. Hewett to cast molds of the stellae.

As World War I raged, Elizabeth and Martha joined the Red Cross and served as nurse assistants with French forces in Belgium. In 1916, their father died, leaving them a substantial inheritance, which they used to buy a plot of land in Sante Fe in 1921. Here they built an estate, designed by architect William Penhallow Henderson, and called it "El Delirio" (The Madness), named after a favorite bar in Seville, Spain. El Delirio became a social hub, hosting parties and gatherings attended by artists and intellectuals from Santa Fe. Adding to its draw, El Delirio also boasted the first swimming pool in the city. (For photographs of a Mayan themed pool party held at El Delirio, see the Gustave Baumann collection, PAAC.076).

Elizabeth and Martha were instrumental in founding the Indian Arts Fund, the Old Santa Fe Association, the Laboratory of Anthrolopolgy, and the Garcia Street Boys and Girls Club. They also worked together in support of Native Americans, most notably in protecting pueblo land, preserving Native American arts, promoting health in indigenous communities, and resisting forced assimilation. Following the death of Martha in 1937, Elizabeth gifted an animal shelter to the city of Santa Fe in memory of Martha and her love for animals; the White's bred and kept Irish Wolfhounds and Afghan hounds at El Delirio.

Martha died of cancer in 1937, at the age of 57. Elizabeth placed her ashes in a niche in the gazebo at El Delirio. Elizabeth died on her 94th birthday, August 28th, 1972 and was buried in front of the gazebo, Martha's ashes interred with her. El Delirio was donated to and is used by the School of American Research.