Nancy Tucker Postcard Collection, 1898-1959

The postcrads depict early scenes of New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, various southwestern crops and livestock, ranches, farms, and artesian wells, water canals, and reservoirs. The bulk of the collection is made up of southern New Mexico agricultural landscapes captured by local photographers and artists. Many postcards have inscriptions and postal cancellations. The detailed analysis of the postcards as means of promoting southern New Mexico as a land of opportunity and prosperity can be found here.

Nancy Tucker, known in Albuquerque historical circle as a ‘postcard lady,’ donated this collection to NMSU Archives and Special Collections in 2005.

The digitization of the Nancy Tucker Postcard Collection was made possible by the NMSU COVID19 Performance Fund granted to the NMSU Library by the U.S. Department of Education, Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) in December 2021. One of the goals of this project was to engage NMSU students in learning about versatility of digital collections through students' active participation in the collections’ development. Based on their hands-on experience in digitizing and curating archival materials, students had an opportunity to understand the importance of access to reliable sources, see the potential for analyzing real data and reflect on preservation efforts of their own cultural legacy. This collection was described and digitized by Emily Duke, an NMSU student majoring in Communication Disorders.