New: Exhibition's run extended to December 30, 2012.

Considered the Sistine Chapel of the modern era and overseen by the Benedictine monks at Saint John's Abbey in Minnesota, Illuminating the Word: The Saint John's Bible features portions of the first modern-day Bible entirely handwritten and illuminated in 500 years. World-renowned calligrapher Donald Jackson, senior scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Crown Office at the House of Lords, serves as the project’s artistic director from his scriptorium in Wales. Also on exhibit will be a page from an original Gutenberg Bible. A series of lectures, musical performances and calligraphy workshops accompany the exhibit, which serves as a companion to Contemplative Landscape.

Contemplative Landscape is a photographic exploration of how people have responded to and interacted with New Mexico’s landscape through art, architecture and sacred rituals. Drawing on works from the Photo Archives at the Palace of the Governors and contemporary photographers, the exhibition prominently features the work of Tony O’Brien, whose 1994-95 sojourn at a New Mexico monastery forms the heart of his new book, Light in the Desert: Photographs from the Monastery of Christ in the Desert  (Museum of New Mexico Press), debuting with the exhibition. A companion exhibit to Illuminating the Word: The Saint John's Bible.

Blending an eclectic mix of Eastern and Western poetry and printing techniques, From a Distant Road features hand-colored Japanese albumen prints and original haiga by Santa Fe poet John Brandi. The exhibit runs Sept. 16-March 4, 2012, in the John Gaw Meem Room.

The exhibit includes: Eighteen of Brandi’s contemporary haiga (haiku poems accompanied by brush art work) that find their source in the poet-painters of 17th-century Japan. The haiga will be displayed on papers marbled by Palace Press Curator Tom Leech in the Japanese technique of suminagashi (black ink floating).  Six hand-tinted albumen photographs from a collection of late 19th-century images of Japan from the Photo Archives at the Palace of the Governors, paired with excerpts from the travel diaries of 17th-century haiku master Matsuo Basho. A new marbled broadside from the Palace Press featuring a prose poem by Brandi.

Now 400 years old, Santa Fe was once an infant city on the remote frontier.  Santa Fe Found: Fragments of Time, on long-term exhibit in the Palace of the Governors, explores the archaeological evidence and historical documentation of the City Different before the Spanish arrived, as well as at the settling of the first colony in San Gabriel del Yungue, the founding of Santa Fe and its first 100 years as New Mexico’s first capital.

Co-curated by Josef Diaz of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors and Stephen Post of the DCA/Office of Archaeological Studies, Santa Fe Found collects more than 160 artifacts from four historic sites, along with maps, documents, household goods, weaponry and religious objects. Together, they tell the story of cultural encounters between early colonists and the Native Americans who had long called this place home.

Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now, the main exhibition of the New Mexico History Museum, sweeps across more than 500 years of stories - from early Native inhabitants to today's residents - told through artifacts, films, photographs, computer interactives, oral histories and more. Together, they breath life into the people who made the American West: Native Americans, Spanish colonists, Mexican traders, Santa Fe Trail riders, fur trappers, outlaws, railroad men, scientists, hippies and artists.

Just in time for the holidays, the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library will hold its first ever book sale on Saturday, December 3, from 10 am to 4 pm, in the Meem Room (enter through the museum's Washington Avenue doors). Sale items included books on New Mexico, Southwestern and Western history, US and world history and political science on the “atomic age,” biographies, coffee table books, and some literature.

Most hardbacks will go for $3, paperbacks for $1 to $2, and coffee-table books for $5. A selection of higher-priced,  hard-to-find items on Southwest history will also be available, along with prints from the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives.

Proceeds will help the library purchase materials for its collection.

In order to prepare for this book sale, the Chavez Library and the Photo Archives will be CLOSED on Friday, Dec. 2.

Santa Fe's beloved Christmas at the Palace brings the community together for a 27th-anniversary evening of hot cider, live music, entertainment -- and the visit of Mr. and Mrs. Claus -- in the legendary magic of the Palace of the Governors. A free, family event for all.

The History Museum and Palace will close at 3 p.m. to prepare for this event. Enter through the Palace at 105 W. Palace Ave. The History Museum will remain closed during the event.

The annual candle-lit procession of Las Posadas travels around the Santa Fe Plaza and concludes in the Palace Courtyard. This version of an old Hispanic tradition recreates Mary and Joseph's search for a place to give birth to the Baby Jesus – and throws in a few devils for good measure. Stay for carols in the Palace Courtyard, along with cookies and refreshments. Free and open to the public.

The History Museum and Palace will close at 3 p.m. to prepare for this event.

Join Adam Johnson as he speaks on “Preservation in the Early 20th Century: Edgar Lee Hewett and the Monumental Ruins of the Southwest,” at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 21, part of the Brainpower & Brownbags Lecture Series. Lectures are held in the John Gaw Meem Room. Enter through the museum's Washington Avenue entrance. Free.