About the Millicent Rogers Musem
The Millicent Rogers Museum partners with communities of the Southwest to share their stories, arts, and cultures.
The Museum was established as a memorial to Millicent Rogers, whose inspiration, patronage, and collections form the core of its holdings.
Paul Peralta-Ramos
At the young age of twenty-five and in honor of his mother, Millicent Rogers’ son, Paul Peralta-Ramos (1931-2003), established the Millicent Rogers Museum in 1956 to showcase the arts and cultures of the region–the astounding creativity that had deeply inspired Millicent during her years in Taos. Paul Peralta-Ramos became an integral part of the Taos community as a home he shared with his mother. He eventually raised his children here.
Paul Peralta-Ramos dedicated his adult life to curating the museum's extraordinary collection, which now boasts over 7,000 objects. These objects represent a rich tapestry of Southwest art forms, embodying the continuum of the regional arts and cultures. The museum's permanent exhibitions showcase a diverse range of art forms, including Native pottery, Hispanic weavings and jewelry, basketry, devotional arts, WPA furniture, and contemporary works from artists of various cultures. The museum's temporary exhibitions and educational programs continue to celebrate the richness of Southwest arts and cultures, with an eye to the future of what is to come from the next generations.
Peralta-Ramos felt strongly that the museum needed to be in Taos and serve the local communities. The museum's current location is its third in its history, at 1504 Millicent Rogers Road, where it has resided since 1968. This much larger location became the museum's new home when family friends Claude and Elizabeth Anderson donated their mid-twentieth-century hacienda-style home to house the museum’s growing collections. The museum's location changes reflect its growth and evolution, as it expanded to accommodate its growing collections and better serve the local communities.
Millicent Rogers
During her lifetime, Millicent Rogers (1902-1953) was a designer, artist, humanitarian, and friend to people across cultures. Millicent was the granddaughter of Henry Huttleston Rogers, a co-founder of the Standard Oil Company. She spent much of her life in homes in New York, Virginia, Italy, and elsewhere abroad. She was born into a high society position within an internationally known family. As such, she entertained people from around the world, from the American industrialists to the European nobility of her time. However, she battled life-long health challenges due to complications of rheumatic fever during her early childhood. She had much time to herself and developed her creativity by sketching drawings in notebooks and writing her thoughts in her journals. From early adulthood onwards, Rogers was both an icon and an enigma, a fashionista of her day and a trendsetter. Later in her life, Rogers pushed forward several humanitarian efforts. She founded the Medical and Surgical Relief Committee to aid hospitals in keeping medical supplies stocked during World War II.
Millicent Rogers' influence extended beyond the art world. Magazines and newspapers frequently featured her throughout her life, showcasing her unique take on Southwest fashion. Her 1948 photoshoot in Harper’s Bazaar was particularly iconic, highlighting her innovative approach to fashion. She was known for her signature look of many silver and turquoise bracelets on each arm, combined with large earrings and vibrant beaded and silver necklaces. Her creativity knew no bounds, extending to drawings, jewelry, and clothing designs.
In Rogers' later years, she visited and eventually settled in Taos, New Mexico, in 1947. Here, she felt "a part of the earth," like she had in no place she previously called home. She loved the intensity of the mountains and the seasons in Taos. She delighted in the people, the arts, the land, and the sky. She became close friends with several members of the Taos artists colony, including Dorothy Brett. She established a rapport with members of the Taos Pueblo community through many friendships and her patronage of Native American arts. Millicent Rogers embraced the arts and cultures of the Southwest in both public and private circles. The MRM is Millicent's family legacy.