Dorothy Newkirk Stewart

In May 2026, I will be driving cross-country from Winston Salem, North Carolina, back to Canyon Road in Santa Fe. While I initially planned to fly, that has changed:I will transport 33 framed block prints of New Mexico, hand-carved by Dorothy Stewart in the late 1920s.

This journey marks the 100th anniversary of the Stewart sisters’ arrival on Canyon Road. Almost to the day of their centennial, the Historic Santa Fe Foundation will host an exhibition of my collection featuring Dorothy’s earliest artworks of the region. Many of these block prints are facsimiles of the very pieces that debuted at the “New Museum” in 1928.

That museum, now known as the New Mexico Museum of Art,was founded in 1917 by archeologist and anthropologist Edgar L. Hewestt. As one of the first cultural preservationists in Santa FE, Hewett helped establish the museum on the central Plaza, where it became a magnet for celebrated artists such as John Sloan, Robert Henri, and Gustave Baumann. They came were seeking new landscapes and found them inthe high desert’s exquisite light, pristine climate, and rich cultural diversity.

As part of the exhibtion opening on May 29th, I will present a slideshow exploring Dorothy’s artwork, her extensive travels,and her intimate friendship with Maria Chabot.This history feels like the definitive answer to the question I first asked myself in 2015: who were these ancestors of mine?