A parallel section to the main archive
Notable Curiosities
Books and objects that came through the operation but don’t fit the New Mexico thesis — and are too good to lose to a generic shelf. Vintage travel ephemera, signed mid-century titles, Art Deco design objects, small-press regional books from outside NM, and (newly) notable non-book objects when they arrive through the donation pipeline. Same multi-photo bibliographic treatment, same Chicago-format citation, different region.
Why a parallel section
The main NMLP Donation Archive is narrowly focused on regionally significant New Mexico books — that narrowness is what makes it citable as a NM cultural-archive resource. But not every notable thing that comes through this operation is a New Mexico book, and sometimes it isn’t a book at all.
A 1930s Italian Art Deco golf-tourism brochure published by the Italian state tourist department. A signed mid-century book from a publisher who closed in 1962. A first-edition design title from a small Boston press. A century-old German bisque character baby doll. A 1949 American hard-plastic doll designed as a cross-promotion to a home-permanent product. These are objects worth documenting — both because the documentation itself is useful (the bibliographic or material-history record, the photographs, the dating evidence) and because seeing them here signals to collectors and researchers in those specific fields that NMLP knows what it’s looking at when these surface.
Same standards apply: multi-photo bibliographic record (cover, title page, copyright page for books; mold marks, body type, period costume for objects), external authority links (LCCN / WorldCat / Wikipedia / Doll Reference / publisher resources), Chicago-format citation, anonymized donor scenario, and a factual disclosure of where the thing ended up.
— Josh Eldred, New Mexico Literacy Project, Albuquerque
A 1930s Italian state-tourism Art Deco golf brochure.
An ephemeral object that almost certainly should not have survived — published by the Italian state tourist agency, distributed through state railways, with hand-drawn course maps for ten Italian golf clubs of the inter-war period and an Art Deco cover that’s an object of visual-design interest in its own right.
Vintage travel ephemera · ENIT 1930s
Golf in Italy — Italian state tourist department
Pre-war Italian Art Deco golf-course tourism guide, Ente Nazionale Industrie Turistiche, distributed by Ferrovie dello Stato. Course maps for Rome, Madonna di Campiglio, Mendola, Gardone Riviera, and others.
Documented chain of custody · Tarantino UTA 1993
Pulp Fiction — May 1993 last draft, UTA Agency copy
The brass-fastener-bound production screenplay, with Aug/Sept 1993 revision codes. Routed through donation back to film-industry custody after thirty-three years in private hands.
Signed · Closed pool (d. 2024)
John Gierach — Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing, signed
The dean of American fly-fishing letters, signed and bold. Pool closed October 2024.
Signed · Closed pool (d. 1954)
Marguerite Kirmse — Dogs in the Field, signed
Early-20th-century American sporting-dog etcher. Works in the Met, the National Gallery, and the AKC Museum of the Dog.
Black Belt Hall of Fame · Bujinkan
Stephen K. Hayes — Nine Gates Press ninjutsu (1992)
Spiral-bound training manual from the principal Western popularizer of the Bujinkan tradition.
Upaya Zen Center library · Santa Fe provenance
Holy Island — Yeshe Losal Rinpoche, 2007
Tibetan Buddhist sanctuary booklet from Kagyu Samye Ling Scotland, inscribed and donated to the Upaya Zen Center library in Santa Fe by a member named Laini after her time on Holy Island.
1981 / 1983 Harper & Row · Contested reception · Aldred 2000 critique
Lynn V. Andrews — Medicine Woman, 1981 / 1983
Sixth-printing paperback of the foundational 1980s "visionary autobiography" bestseller that defined the commercial-shamanism genre alongside Castaneda. Entry documents the bibliographic record, the Momaday and Steiner blurbs, the LC Cree Indians—Religion and mythology subject heading, and the academic critique (Aldred AIQ 2000, "Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances"). Evenhanded.
First non-book object · German bisque c.1910–1925
Kestner J.D.K. mold 247 character baby
A German bisque socket-head character baby on a composition bent-limb baby body, marked “247 / J.D.K.” on the back of the head. Mold 247 is documented in Coleman / Cieslik as “Hilda’s sister” or “Baby Jean,” the same character-baby cohort that produced the famous Hilda. The first non-book entry in NMLP Curiosities.
American hard plastic c.1949–1953 · Toni Home Permanent tie-in
Ideal Toy Co. P-90 Toni doll
Hard-plastic 14-inch Toni doll, marked “P-90 / IDEAL DOLL / MADE IN U.S.A.” on the head and “IDEAL DOLL / P-90” on the back. A foundational example of mid-century American consumer-product cross-promotion — tied to the Toni Home Permanent (Gillette-owned 1948) and the “Which twin has the Toni?” campaign. Paired with the Kestner from the same retirement collection.
More curiosities coming
The next non-NM notable is in the pile right now.
Same standards: multi-photo, external authority, Chicago citation.
Related on this site
- The main NMLP Donation Archive — New Mexico-thesis entries.
- About NMLP & Josh Eldred — who runs the operation.
- Where to Donate Books in Albuquerque — Complete Comparison Guide.