In the Park's Permanent Collection

April

Santo Domingo Necklace   artist: unknown

Donated by Suzy and Bill Mortimer in memory of Glenn and Louise Mortimer

Dimensions:  necklace: 19” long;   earrings: 1” high

2005.2.1 a,b,c

Santo Domingo , one of the largest pueblos, located on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande , sits between Santa Fe and Albuquerque , in New Mexico and is very traditional. They preserve the tradition of jewelry making much in the same way as their ancestors did with the style mostly unaltered in hundreds of years. Santo Domingo artisans are best known for their distinctive heishi, or shell necklaces, but they also work with stone and create mosaic inlay jewelry. Stone merchants come to Santo Domingo to sell materials such as turquoise, coral, and shell. Competition for these materials is fierce; each artist wants to have high quality materials to work with. Other pueblos have worked in this style of jewelry, but there are usually small differences that set each apart. Santo Domingo jewelry tends to be more abstract than the pictorial mosaics of the Zuni. The mosaic process begins by gluing rough pieces of material to a base and then grinding and polishing until it is all smooth. This technique is referred to as inlay but is technically an overlay because the artist is gluing on top and not imbedding the stone in the material.
The base materials used in mosaic inlay was traditionally a piece of black jet or shell; shell being imported into the desert for artistic use.  In the late 1930’s -1940’s it was difficult to find these materials, so the artisans used what they could find to simulate black jet– pieces of discarded car batteries, then later phonograph records when battery materials changed. A railroad accident near Santo Domingo Pueblo during this period left a cargo of scattered and broken phonograph records nearby, and artisans found free material to use. Santo Domingo artisans used this material with success during the time our country was experiencing the Great Depression. This type of jewelry is known as battery-backed jewelry or Depression jewelry.      
This set of earrings and necklace are made using chips of turquoise, white gypsum, and red plastic on the backing of either a salvaged car battery or phonograph record. Our jewelry uses real turquoise, although there are pieces from the time which use plastic to simulate the stone. The design is of a thunderbird, a bird with outstretched wings, a common design of the time.  Interestingly, the symbol was adopted by the Santa Fe Railroad as its trademark. Even though it was said to have originated in a pictograph, this is probably not a spiritual symbol. It is a simple geometric style, which is typical of the Santo Domingo jewelers. The necklace and earrings were probably not made by the same artist, as they have slight differences in style.
Suzy and Bill Mortimer donated this piece, along with other interesting jewelry pieces, to the Park in 2005 in memory of Bill’s parents, Glenn and Louise Mortimer who originally owned several of the jewelry pieces. The distinctive style of the Santo Domingo jewelry set makes this a valued piece in our collection.

Cirillo, Dexter. “Southwestern Indian Jewelry,” New York : Abbeville Press, 1992

Simpson , Georgia Kennedy. “A Guide to Indian Jewelry of the Southwest,” Tucson : Western National Parks Association, 1999

Tisdale, Shelby J. “Fine Indian Jewelry of the Southwest,” Santa Fe : Museum of New Mexico Press, 2006