The Desert Maiden

by Kathy Hedges

Right: The Desert Maiden in 2008.

[Thanks to many people who contributed information used in this article, including Phyllis Reiche, Louise Chamberlin, Kay Krehbiel, Valerie Kimble, Kathryn Flynn, Jan Randall, and, of course, Google.]

SOCORRO, N.M., March 14, 2008 – On the 75th anniversary of the New Deal, a sculpture by a prominent New Deal artist has returned to its historic place on the New Mexico Tech campus.

“The Desert Maiden” by Santa Fe sculptor Eugenie Shonnard is back in front of Workman Center, a site it left in 1996. When the Desert Maiden left, Workman Center was a sprawling building, mostly one story high, devoted to research and offices. On her return, she stands in front of a three-story teaching and research building, built in 1997. No doubt, if the Desert Maiden could turn around and look, she would be astonished.

Shonnard was a prominent artist in Santa Fe, and did a number of sculptures for the New Deal, although the “Desert Maiden” was commissioned privately. Travelers interested in seeing another one of her works may visit the fountain at the New Mexico Veterans’ Center in Truth or Consequences, about an hour south of Socorro.

(For more information on the artist, please see Eugenie F. Shonnard.)

The Desert Maiden, designed in 1935, was commissioned by Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, a former Congresswoman from Illinois who, after the death of her first husband, a senator, married Albert G. Simms, a prominent Albuquerque business executive. Simms was the founder of the Sandia Girls School (today, Sandia Prep).

(For more information on Simms, see her Wikipedia entry.)

The Desert Maiden is also known under the titles “Youth in the Desert” (the artist’s original name for her) and “Santa Rita.” She is meant to symbolize the Southwest, with a dove in her arms, juniper trees to either side, a cactus in front, and Southwestern animals around the base.

The artist may have intended the Desert Maiden as a reference to ancient statues of a goddess known as “Artemis of Ephesus.” Artemis, in this context, was often depicted with an animal companion on either side, occasionally with a child in front, and often covered with other animals.

Originally, the Desert Maiden served as the chief ornament of Sandia School in Albuquerque, but it remained the property of the Simms family. During World War II, Sandia School was closed and its property was acquired by New Mexico School of Mines for use as its Research and Development Division. When E. J. Workman, then president of the School of Mines, moved operations to Socorro, Albert Simms presented the Desert Maiden to the school in memory of his wife.

Right: The Desert Maiden and Workman Center in the 1950s.

Under Workman, the School of Mines eventually morphed into New Mexico Tech, and the Desert Maid stood guard in front of what was then called “The Research Building.” Workman lived “above the store” in an apartment on the second floor of the research building. When his wife, Maude, wanted Workman to come home for the evening, she would bang on her floor – his ceiling – to remind him that it was time to stop work.

In 1996, when it became time to replace the aging Workman Center (named after E. J. Workman when he retired), the Desert Maiden went into storage, on March 11. About that time, Sandia Prep was preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary, and they asked permission to display the statue on their campus. They worked out an agreement that they could have it to display for five years, if they would do some much-needed restoration work on her. From 1997 to 2002, she was displayed on their campus, after which she was shipped back to Socorro and stored in the PASSCAL building for six years. On Feb. 15, 2008, the Desert Maiden was returned to campus, near the spot where she originally stood, now in a planter designed specifically for her by campus architect Dan Jones.

“While designing the new Fidel Center landscape, we also wanted to upgrade the traditional sidewalk promenade from Wells Hall to Workman, which includes the beautiful rose garden and the centennial fountain,” said Jones.

“We replaced the overgrown arborvitae trees and bare gravel at the west end of the promenade. We were very pleased to be able to build a more dramatic planter to display the historic Desert Maiden statue,” Jones added.

(Right: The Desert Maiden (between two large bushes) in the 1950s. E. J. Workman lived on the upper floor of the two-story section to the right.)

“Construction manager Leo Guerra and his crew did a great job of building a solid foundation and reassembling all the pieces of the maiden statue after her extensive travels around New Mexico,” Jones said.

One of the crew members who helped re-install the Desert Maiden was Tony Lucero, who designed the irrigation system. Tony recalled that his father, also named Tony Lucero, worked on the Desert Maiden in a previous era.

“When my mother heard I was working on it, she pulled out an old newspaper clipping and showed it to me,” Lucero recalled. “It was my dad installing the Desert Maiden.” Working on the Tech grounds is a family tradition; his grandfather, Julian Ortega, also worked for Tech.

Lucero says that when the landscaping is finished, the Desert Maiden will be surrounded by desert plants and gravel, a fitting setting for her.

Welcome home, desert beauty.

-NMT-