The Millicent Rogers Museum in New Mexico is as bold and unique as its namesake, an American heiress whose life story is worthy of a Hollywood movie.
The Millicent Rogers Museum
The humble setting for the Millicent Rogers Museum.
Opened in 1956, the Millicent Rogers Museum moved to its current location near Taos, New Mexico in 1968.
This traditional hacienda – donated by Claude and Elizabeth Anderson, friends of Millicent Rogers – is an appropriate setting for the collection. The museum’s collection includes items from the Navajo, Zuni, Pueblo, and Apache tribal entities. Because Northern New Mexico served as a trade center, the Millicent Rogers Museum also has a collection of Plains Indian and Mexican Indian art. 
Black rag cotton cutout against a painted yellow wall.
Navajo squash blossom necklace (circa 1900).
Wooden loom and painted window.
Navajo turquoise and silver ketoh (bow guard) bracelets.
Carving of Taos Pueblo family.
Stacks of turquoise and silver bracelets.
Seated Navajo Woman, cast bronze by R.C. Gorman.
The museum collection includes Maria Martinez pottery.
Maria Martinez (1887-1980) may be best-known for her jet-black pottery.
Over the years, the Martinez/Da family saved examples of Maria’s finest works with the intention of placing them in a New Mexico museum. It was the family’s wish that the pottery be shared on a permanent basis with the public. In 1984, the Millicent Rogers Museum was selected as the recipient of a collection of Maria Martinez pottery, which is part of the museum’s permanent exhibition. Millicent Rogers Jewelry Millicent Rogers loved jewelry with rugged textures. She didn’t just collect jewelry; she created it. One example of her work is this large, hammered silver plaque, with a fringe of smaller silver plaques bezel-set with cabochon moonstones, on a hammered silver chain. 
Silver and moonstone necklace (1940s).
This silver and moonstone necklace was a gift from Millicent Rogers to a friend, Princess Natalia Paley.
At Sotheby’s in 2019, the necklace had an auction estimate of $2,000 to $3,000 (US dollars). The necklace sold for $11,250. 
Rose gold necklace (early 1940s).
This rose gold necklace (Sunset Straws) is on display at the museum. Designed and made by Millicent Rogers, the necklace consists of 313 cast 14K gold “straws”.
Each tube has 6 tubes dangling from it which gives movement to the necklace. A small, rounded punch was used to add a dimpled texture to the dangling tubes. Like most jewelry created by Millicent, this necklace is heavy with almost 14 ounces of rose gold. 
Silver necklace designed by Millicent Rogers.
This repoussé silver necklace (Crocodiles and Birds) is also displayed at the museum. Repoussé creates a 3-dimensional relief through hammering on the reverse side.
In contrast to Millicent’s other jewelry designs, while the necklace is a massive breastplate, the metal is light and thin.
Who was Millicent Rogers?
Millicent Rogers was fearless.
In 1938, she was living in Austria when the Nazi flag was hoisted near her home in St. Anton. Millicent erected a taller flagpole on her property with the American flag. On several occasions, she stood down the Gestapo officer who ordered her to remove the flag. She claimed that since she owned the property, the house was on American soil. She delayed her departure from Austria to help Jewish friends and acquaintances escape. She bribed the Swiss border patrol for passage across the Alps. Her wealthy friends – including an Italian duke who had once proposed to her – helped her carry out her plan. A friend whose family owned a shipping company made space on their tankers for her stowaways. Some would say that Millicent, an heiress to the Standard Oil fortune, was accustomed to getting her way. Others might say that surviving the rheumatic fever that should have killed her as a child had made her reckless as an adult. Millicent married three times and had three children. After her third divorce in 1941, she returned to her maiden name and had romances with author Ian Fleming and movie star Clark Gable. Like other women of her status, Millicent had learned French and German from her tutors. Unlike other women, she taught herself Latin and Greek to read books that were not available in English. 
Millicent Rogers at age 17 in 1919.
The rheumatic fever of Millicent’s childhood made her susceptible to illness throughout her life.
On display in the Millicent Rogers Museum is a diary from her youth which shows an artistic nature even when often confined to a sick bed. 
Millicent Rogers diary from 1917.
Her childhood illness had weakened Millicent in other ways, causing paralysis in her right arm and tremors in her hands.
When Millicent appeared in photographs, she posed to conceal her frailty and wore large jewelry to anchor her body. 
Millicent Rogers poses in a fashion magazine.
“Millicent’s heavy jewelry also served as a foundation garment…Their weight kept her hands and head in place…her heaviest necklaces were often anchored to her bra strap to keep her upright, as would a brace.” In the 1940s, Millicent started designing and making jewelry – both as artistic expression and as therapy for her hands. She even traveled with her jeweler’s tool bag. Of course, she liked the weight and feel of heavy metals. In 1947, Millicent moved to Taos, New Mexico, and quickly became known as a collector, including pottery, textiles, and jewelry. She would buy and stack Navajo turquoise and silver bracelets on her arms. If she thought the asking price was fair, she didn’t haggle. Said one local, “She didn’t bleed them like other Anglos.” An excerpt of a letter from Millicent to her youngest son, Paul: “If anything should happen to me now, ever, just remember all this. I want to be buried in Taos with the wide sky. Life has been marvelous, all the experiences good and bad I have enjoyed, even pain and illness, because out of it, so many things were discovered.” On New Year’s Day 1953, Millicent Rogers died at the age of 50, after suffering an aneurysm. She was buried in Sierra Vista Cemetery at the entrance to Taos Pueblo. In the few years she had lived in Taos, Millicent had collected more than 5,000 objects. According to her heirs, an estate lawyer asked, “What are we going to do with all this junk?” That “junk” became the central collection of the Millicent Rogers Museum. About the Millicent Rogers Museum With more than 7,000 objects – and nearly 1,000 pieces of Native American jewelry, mostly collected by Millicent Rogers herself – the museum continues to accept art which celebrates the cultures of the Southwest. The collections are rotated frequently through the museum galleries and small exhibit spaces. Annual events at the Millicent Rogers Museum include the Taos Pueblo Artists Winter Showcase (March); Miniatures Show & Sale (February to March); and Pastel Painting Exhibition (summer). Millicent Rogers Museum Hours The museum is open daily from 10am-5pm with these exceptions:
Millicent Rogers Museum 1504 Millicent Rogers Road El Prado, New Mexico (4 miles north of Taos Plaza and half-mile south of Highway 64) Tel: 575-758-2462 See more at the Millicent Rogers Museum website. Want to know more about Millicent Rogers? Read the biography written by Cherie Burns, Searching for Beauty: The Life of Millicent Rogers
See more Places to Go:
Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Ride Authentic Native American Jewelry Jane Austen House Lacock Abbey England Cape Cod Lavender Farm Harwich 
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