Jesse L. Nusbaum and family-The first tenants of the Director’s Residence
Jesse L. Nusbaum worked as an archeologist and anthropologist for the Museum of New Mexico during its establishment and early years of operation and for the National Park Service during an important period of its development in the American Southwest.
Born in 1887 in Greeley, Colorado, the Progressive community organized by newspaperman and politician Horace Greeley who coined the term “Go west young man,” Nusbaum attended public schools in Greeley and the Colorado State Normal School, graduating with a degree in Pedagogy in 1907. Nusbaum procured his first position as an instructor at the New Mexico Normal School in Las Vegas, New Mexico teaching manual arts. He worked over the summers as an assistant on archeological digs, under the supervision of anthropologist Dr. Edgar Hewitt, first director of the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Archeology. Hewitt recommended Nusbaum for a position as an assistant archeologist and photographer, documenting Mesa Verde National Park. A long association and friendship developed between the two men and between Nusbaum and the important ancestral Pueblo site. At Hewitt’s invitation, Nusbaum joined the staff of the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe in 1909, where he oversaw the refurbishment of the museum’s headquarters in the Palace of the Governors. In 1915-16, Nusbaum supervised the influential “Painted Desert” exhibition at the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, sponsored by the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Throughout the years, Nusbaum continued his archeological work in the Southwest at Mesa Verde, Pecos Pueblo, Zuni Pueblo and other Pueblo sites and in the ruins at Maya, Yucatan. In 1921, Nusbaum began a long association with the National Park Service as Superintendent of Mesa Verde National Park. There he met businessman and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, who funded projects at Mesa Verde and later underwrote the start-up costs for the Laboratory of Anthropology, a private research institution focusing on Southwest Native antiquities in Santa Fe. The Lab’s distinguished board of directors appointed Nusbaum the first Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology in 1930, and in this capacity he moved his family, including wife Aileen, an artist, and son Deric, into the Director’s Residence as its first occupants in 1931.
During the time the Nusbaum family lived in the Director’s Residence, from 1931-1936, Nusbaum was busy serving his dual role, as the first Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology and as the first Superintendent at Mesa Verde. After his tenure at the Lab, Nusbaum continued to work as a senior archeologist with the National Park Service until his retirement in 1957 and as a resident of Santa Fe until his death in 1975. Nusbaum’s photography talent resulted in one of the most extensive and important collections in the Palace of the Governor’s Photo Archives, documenting the history of the built environment of Santa Fe and of the Southwest region. Son Deric is often featured beaming in photos in the collection, displaying a familial side to Nusbaum and of private family life in Santa Fe’s art and archeology community. Nusbaum appeared a proud father whose son accompanied him on his archeology adventures in the Southwest.
During Nusbaum’s tenure as Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology and his occupancy in the Director’s Residence, he oversaw many significant undertakings at the developing research facility. Of particular significance were the collection and documentation of the domestic material culture of regional Indigenous tribes. During this time, the Lab also served as a home-base for managing archeological digs and field schools, often affiliated with the academic programs of universities across the country.