A Family, a Trading Post, and 113 Years on Route 66
Richardson's Trading Post opened in Gallup, New Mexico in 1913, twelve years before Route 66 existed. The highway came later, cutting through town and bringing a new stream of travelers through the high desert. By then, the Richardson family was already established: a fixture in Gallup, already known to the Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi artists who came in from the reservation to trade.
Gallup sits at the edge of the Navajo Nation, close enough to the reservation that it became the natural meeting point between Native American artists and the outside world. Trading posts like Richardson's were the mechanism through which that exchange happened. A silversmith would bring in finished pieces, the trader would buy them outright, and the work would find its way to collectors, galleries, and eventually museums. Richardson's has operated inside that relationship for over a century, and the terms have always been the same: buy directly from the artist, handle the work with care, and sell it to people who understand what they're holding.
Route 66 shaped what the store became. When the highway was at its peak, travelers moving between Chicago and Los Angeles passed directly through Gallup. Many of them stopped. The trading post on Historic Highway 66 was one of the reasons they did. For collectors in particular, it was a destination. A place where you could buy a genuine Navajo rug or a hand-forged silver cuff directly from a family that had spent decades building relationships with the artists who made them. That reputation carried across generations.
The late Bill Richardson ran this store the way his family always had: with a personal investment in the artists and their work that went beyond commerce. His conviction about certain artists was absolute. When Matthew Jack, the Navajo silversmith who has worked with Richardson's for over twenty years, brought pieces in, Bill's standing instruction was simple: "Whatever Matthew brings in, we buy." That kind of relationship, grounded in trust built over years, is not something a newer gallery can manufacture. It is the product of showing up, consistently, for a very long time.
Today Richardson's still operates out of the same building on Route 66. The collection includes Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi jewelry, hand-woven Navajo rugs, pottery, paintings, and work from artists across generations. Every piece is purchased directly from the artist. Nothing is mass produced. When a piece sells, it leaves the collection permanently. What you find here, whether you walk through the door or browse the collection online, is authentic, not because we say so, but because it has been our only way of operating for 113 years.