Three Wise Women

Front: Three Wise Women Eva Scott Fenyes, 1849–1930 Leonora Scott Muse Curtin, 1879–1972 Three generations of one family worked more than 100 years to preserve the cultural heritage of New Mexico. Eva Fenyes created an artistic and photographic record of missions and adobe buildings, and preserved Spanish Colonial and Native American crafts.

Leonora S. M. Curtin wrote Healing Herbs of the Upper Rio Grande, which documented the ethnobotany of the region and the plants used by traditional healers. Back: Leonora Curtin Paloheimo, 1903–1999 Leonora Curtin Paloheimo worked to preserve New Mexico’s varied cultures. She researched Native American languages for the Smithsonian.

During the Depression, she founded The Native Market as an outlet for Spanish American artisans who handcrafted traditional furniture and household items. She and her Finnish husband, George Paloheimo, established New Mexico’s first living history museum, El Rancho de las Golondrinas, in 1972.