Ralph Emerson Twitchell (1859–1925) was an American attorney, historian, and politician who served as the mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico and chairman of the Rio Grande Commission, which drafted a treaty between the United States and Mexico leading to the building of the Elephant Butte Dam.

He is credited with rescuing the Spanish Archives from the territorial capitol building when it caught fire on May 12, 1892, and also designing the first Flag of New Mexico in 1915.

[2] In 1897, Governor Miguel Otero appointed him judge advocate of the New Mexico militia and granted him the title of colonel.

[2] For forty-three years Twitchell worked in the legal department of the Santa Fe Railroad.

He founded and edited a historical quarterly called Old Santa Fe: A Magazine of History, Archaeology, Genealogy and Biography, which covered the activities of the Museum of New Mexico, Historical Society of New Mexico, and the Santa Fe branch of the School of American Archaeology.