Highlands Center for Natural History: No Place for a Lady by Shelby Tisdale – Author Presentation & Book Signing

No Place for a Lady: The Life Story of Archaeologist Marjorie F. Lambert by Shelby Tisdale, Ph.D.

In the first half of the twentieth century, the Southwest beckoned and the burgeoning field of archaeology thrived. Among those who heeded the call, Marjorie Ferguson Lambert became one of only a handful of women who not only left their imprint on the study of southwestern archaeology but flourished. Through Lambert’s life story, we gain new insight into the intricacies and politics involved in the development of archaeology and museums in New Mexico and the greater Southwest. We also learn about the obstacles that young women had to maneuver around in the early years of the development of southwest archaeology.

Saturday, May 10th

Presentation at 1:00 pm followed by book signing

$15 for members, $20 for nonmembers

*We will only have a small number of books on hand for purchase at the event. Please buy your books before coming to the event if possible, for the author to sign.

About the author:

Shelby J. Tisdale, Ph.D.

Retired Director, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College Research Associate, School of Anthropology, University of Arizona. Award-winning author, Shelby Tisdale, is the retired Director of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and a Research Associate in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. She has over forty years of combined experience in museum administration; anthropological, tribal museum, and cultural resource management consulting; and university teaching. She is the former Director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos. She also served as the Vice President of Curatorial and Exhibitions at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Dr. Tisdale received her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1997. Her B.A. is from the University of Colorado-Boulder where she studied anthropology and southwestern archaeology, and her M.A. is from the University of Washington where she majored in social anthropology and museum studies.

Dr. Tisdale has published forty-five articles and book chapters relating to American Indian art and culture, and women in the West. She contributed to and directed the publication of the Oklahoma Book Award-winning Woven Worlds: Basketry from the Clark Field Collection, for the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma (2001). Her book, Fine Indian Jewelry of the Southwest: The Millicent Rogers Museum Collection (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2006) received the Ralph Emerson Twitchell Book Award from the Historical Society of New Mexico and the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association. Her book, Pablita Velarde: In Her Own Words (Little Standing Spruce Publishing, 2012), is a full-length biography of this famous American Indian painter. She recently edited Federico: One Man’s Remarkable Journey from Tututepec to L.A. by Federico Jimenez Caballero (University of Arizona Press, 2021), which received an Honorable Mention for Non-Fiction Biography in English from the International Latino Book Awards in 2021. Her most recent book, No Place for a Lady: The Life Story of Marjorie F. Lambert, was published by the University of Arizona Press in June 2023. She currently calls Tucson, Arizona her home.