Windsor & Wren Antiques

08/17/2026

07/17/2026

😂🤣 ~ Laurie ~ 😂😴

07/13/2026

07/11/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1AgqSrYGfy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

The Standard Oil Heiress Who Made Taos Jewelry Famous

Millicent Rogers was a Standard Oil heiress from New York who could've spent her life anywhere on earth. She chose Taos, New Mexico, in 1947, and she's a big part of the reason a certain look of silver and turquoise now reads as unmistakably Southwestern to the rest of the country.

She didn't just wear the jewelry. She studied it, collected it seriously, and pushed local silversmiths to keep making it the old way instead of cutting corners for tourists. By the time she died in 1953, her collection was one of the most significant private holdings of Native American and Spanish Colonial art in the country. Her son later turned it into the Millicent Rogers Museum, which still sits a few miles outside Taos today.

You've probably seen a version of her style on someone's wrist and had no idea where it started.

Ever bought a piece of jewelry somewhere and had it change how you see a whole place?