On my first trip to Santa Fe in 1974, I was introduced to the International Museum of Folk Art. This was in late August or early September. I had just returned from spending the summer on a shoestring in Europe and had the privilege of visiting many fine museums – the National Museum in London, the Louvre & the Musee de Orsay in Paris , the Hermitage in Leningrad and the Glyptotek in Copenhagen were my favorites. But after all of that - when I started to wander through the Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, my heart sang. It was a magnificent collection that was assembled largely by one couple, the Girards. Alexander Girard was a major designer and he essentially developed ‘brand looks’ for companies like Braniff Airlines and other companies too large to
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