A museum director who wears pantaloons
New head of El Rancho de las Golondrinas does his part to bring the past alive at living history site
Daniel Goodman still remembers his fourth-grade class field trip to the Missouri Botanical Garden, where he felt compelled to step in as an impromptu tour guide.
“I could tell my teacher didn’t know what was going on,” he said, “and like a precocious kid, I piped up and started telling everybody the history of the [founder’s] house.”
That might have been the moment when he first considered museum work as a career. “Or maybe I’d just seen Indiana Jones,” he said.
Growing up in St. Louis, he also spent a lot of time in museums during his childhood — “It was free entertainment for me and my brother.”
Goodman, 38, named director of El Rancho de las Golondrinas in October, after serving as interim director of the living history museum since June, has never worn a fedora and tromped around in jungles, exploring ancient temples, like his childhood hero. But occasionally
he does don the costume of a “1700s average New Mexican,” complete with boots, a vest and pantaloons.
“You have to be engaged with what’s happening out here,” he said of the living history ranch, where staff and volunteers demonstrate 18th- and 19th-century lifeways and traditions. “You can’t be distant from it.”
He started at Las Golondrinas as the curator of collections in 2012. His primary focus in museum and historical site work has been in curation. He’s also worked as the collections manager for the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, and as the registrar for the New Mexico Museum of Art.
As a curator at Las Golondrinas, he said, his goal was to help visitors see historical figures as people just like them, and to help guests understand ties between history and modern life.
“I think that a lot of people have a perception of museums as being the white palace on a hill — inapproachable, sterile, stuffy. I think that intimidates some people,” Goodman said. “I like everything to feel very approachable, very honest, everyday — and maybe even bring in a bit of humor in some way.”
To Goodman, an entertaining exhibit might be something like a historical collection of chamber pots.
Though he’s never curated such a display himself, his graduate school thesis was on a collection of archaeological material — everything from guns to hot sauce bottles to pottery — excavated from tenement house privies in St. Louis.
At Las Golondrinas, he said, he tries to incorporate that kind of lightheartedness into staff dynamics.
“This job is supposed to be fun,” Goodman said. “You don’t get into the arts to make a lot of money.”
Sean Paloheimo, director of operations at the ranch, said Goodman has taken a hands-on role, doing everything from walking around in costume to fixing technical issues in the front office and gathering employees to celebrate birthdays.
“What’s so great about Dan is just seeing him out and about and interacting so much with our volunteers and staff,” Paloheimo said. “It just feels like he’s cultivating this family environment, where everyone on staff really cares about each other and wants to work as a team to get things done.”
Moving forward, Goodman hopes to maintain what he calls a “legacy of high-quality programming” at Las Golondrinas and to initiate new programs. This year, his staff hosted a first-time food festival and Halloween event called Spirits of New Mexico’s Past.
Goodman also wants to forge new fundraising connections, build on partnerships with museums and other institutions around Santa Fe, and continue to encourage families and community members to come explore Las Golondrinas.
Too often, he said, he hears people in Santa Fe say, “I love that place, but I was last out there in the fourth grade.”
He wants locals to view the living history ranch as a resource, a place in the country where they can spend an afternoon, have a picnic and learn some hands-on history.
Goodman also would love to see the status of El Rancho de las Golondrinas elevated to a national level, recognized as something like the “Williamsburg of the West.”
“This is a real ranch, where history happened,” he said. “Real people lived and died here, and they have stories to tell. It’s the closest thing we’re going to get to time travel.”
Moving forward, El Rancho de las Golondrinas Director Daniel Goodman hopes to maintain what he calls a ‘legacy of high-quality programming’ at Las Golondrinas and to initiate new programs.