Historic Chaco ImagesMaps, drawings, and photographs from the early projects in Chaco Canyon are critical to understanding the pre-Hispanic occupation of this important region.

Thanks to the generous collaboration of several institutions — most notably the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives, the American Museum of Natural History Division of Anthropology and Research Library, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, and the Chaco Culture National Historical Park Museum Collection — over 15,000 historic images from research in Chaco Canyon have now been digitized and are searchable. The Chaco Research Archive has processed so that users can search various categories of image metadata.

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Please note:

  • All accompanying captions for these images are taken verbatim from the original images.
  • Images showing human remains have been excluded from the searchable database because of their cultural sensitivity.
  • All images are the property of the repository institution. They should not be reproduced for commercial purposes without the express permission of the repository institution.
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