The Rio Nuevo Visual Archive Project

The Visual Archive project is designed to help interpret Tucson's history by establishing a database of images that illustrate various aspects of daily life in the historic periods of Tucson's Past. Consider this image:

Escena del Mercado by Agustin Arrieta (1850)
from the INAH collection.

Aside from being a beautiful painting, the image informs us on a wide variety of visual details concerning life in a Mexican town (like Tucson was) in the mid 1800's. Note the how the clothing differs among people of different social classes. Also notice the goods for sale, the layout of the plaza, and the way buildings were decorated in the background. For facilities and museums in the Rio Nuevo area yet to be constructed, these database of images will be a crucial resource!

More images from the Rio Nuevo Visual Archive will be available soon.