Welcome to the student blog for History 1111, US History 1, at Idaho State University!

Here, students will post about objects from before 1865 that interest them, with juicy tidbits about what makes these objects interesting and useful for understanding US history.

For example, we might look at this retablo from Santa Fe, 1840-1850:

A retablo is a painting of an important figure in the Catholic faith used for devotional purposes, either a small one for personal use, or a large one used on a church altar. 

This image from the Smithsonian Institution is called El Santo Niño de Atoche, of the Christ child. This specific image was common throughout Mexico and the American Southwest.

The artist, Rafael Aragón, lived in Santa Fe during the golden age of Spanish colonial art in New Mexico in the first part of the 1800s. 

What does this image tell us about US history? Looking at the history of the Southwest region, New Mexico was initially colonized by Spain, whose Catholic faith came to dominate the region. Because the region was composed of isolated communities with few priests to transmit the faith, personal religious art within the home played a huge role in promoting and maintaining Catholic beliefs and faith. In 1821, New Mexico became a territory of the newly independent nation of Mexico.

Around the time that this retablo was made, Santa Fe was in a region contested between Mexico and the United States. By 1848 New Mexico became formally part of the United States after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This image reflects the cultural continuity of Catholicism in the Southwest despite major conflicts between indigenous peoples, the United States, Spain, and Mexico.