Adobe Gallery Blog

The famous Route 66 highway was a financial blessing in the 1930s for Acoma and Laguna Pueblo artisans who found it worthwhile to set up tables on the roadside to sell their wares to tourists traveling between Chicago and Los Angeles.  They also sold pottery to merchants in the area, one of whom was Abdoo H. Fidel (1880-1947), a Lebanese immigrant, who set up a curio shop in San Fidel, only a few miles from Acoma Pueblo.  A 1934 photograph of his shop showed over 500 Acoma pottery items on shelves, stacked atop each other, and scattered all over the floor.  He obviously was a major buyer from the potters, having purchased thousands of potteries from them during the years he operated his curio shop.

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