Los Alamos
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Visit the Museum Campus
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A museum visit begins in the restored Los Alamos Ranch School Guest Cottage where exhibits take visitors from the Pajarito Plateau’s Ancestral Pueblo people to its homestead history, through the Ranch School era, and ultimately into the Manhattan Project.
The Hans Bethe House on Bathtub Row, includes the Harold Agnew Cold War Gallery, exhibits highlighting 70+ years of post-World War II history of the Los Alamos community and the laboratory. Visitors will see scientist profiles, a Nobel Prize display, key awards for scientific excellence, information about Los Alamos as a model community for civil defense, and a replica of a Cold War Los Alamos living room. A visit to the Romero Cabin is a 100-year step back in time—one of only three remaining area homestead cabins and the only one open to the public. Experience a bygone way of life and learn why homesteading on this plateau differed from anywhere else in the country. Open occasionally. |
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Rotating Exhibit Gallery
The Rotating Exhibit Gallery in the Guest Cottage showcases a diversity of changing exhibits about people, place, and community life on the Pajarito Plateau. Through photographs, artifacts, artwork, and story, visitors will learn about the unique histories and world changing experiences that continue to shape Los Alamos history.
Current Exhibit
Test Tube Community: Constructing Normalcy in Cold War Los Alamos
September 2019–March 2020
September 2019–March 2020
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Test Tube Community looks at Los Alamos during the years Norris Bradbury led the Laboratory: October 1945 through September 1970. In some ways these years were the height of the Cold War. The exhibit looks at how the people of Los Alamos navigated the changes of the Cold War and how they created a community from what had begun as a dusty, temporary army base. This exhibit is generously sponsored by Enterprise Bank & Trust, Member FDIC.
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Municipal Building Exhibit
1000 Central Avenue, Main Lobby
The Municipal Building Gallery houses smaller exhibits highlighting stories from Los Alamos’s past. These exhibits are generally on view for six months. The Municipal Building is open 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
The Municipal Building Gallery houses smaller exhibits highlighting stories from Los Alamos’s past. These exhibits are generally on view for six months. The Municipal Building is open 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Current Exhibit
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Rock, Paper, Secrets!
2020 What was it like to grow up in Los Alamos when it was a secret city? The men and women who worked for the WWII laboratory were young, and many brought their young children with them. Clambering in canyons, avoiding security fences, and having to make their own fun in a controlled town not designed for youngsters, the children of Los Alamos created a culture all their own.
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Past Rotating Gallery Exhibits
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Atoms and Art: The Intersecting Lives of Maria Poveka Martinez and Bernice Bidwell Brode
January 2019–August 2019 Maria Poveka Martinez, famed potter of San Ildefonso Pueblo, and Bernice Brode, wartime computer and postwar author, were brought together by the extraordinary circumstances of the Manhattan Project. The intersection of their lives is represented by beautiful pottery which Bernice and her husband, Robert, purchased from Maria in the mid-1940s.
This exhibit was generously sponsored by Enterprise Bank & Trust, member FDIC. |
Be Prepared: A Century of Boy Scouting in Los Alamos
August 2018 - December 2018 This exhibit explores the deep roots of scouting in Los Alamos, from the Ranch School’s Troop 22, one of the oldest troops in the United States, to the changes in scouting throughout the years and the activities of today.
This exhibit was generously sponsored by Vernon Kerr and the Historical Society of New Mexico. |
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J. Robert Oppenheimer: Photographs From His Life, 1904 – 1967
May 2–August 2018 This exhibit, curated and owned by the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee of Los Alamos, is a collection of 50 black and white photographs chronicling Oppenheimer's life. The J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee was established in 1971 to honor the memory of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The Committee sponsors a yearly memorial lecture and awards scholarships to selected students from high schools in Los Alamos, Pojoaque, and Santa Fe. |
Nobel Heroes Portraits by Peter Badge
January 12 - April 27, 2018 Peter Badge has photographed well over 400 Nobel Laureates, capturing the unique personality of each. His effort began in 2000 with a small portraiture project commissioned by a number of renowned organizations including the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Since then, the project has been based with the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and has evolved into a long-term mission that will be celebrated in Los Alamos. This exhibit was generously sponsored by Mars, Incorporated; the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings; and the Los Alamos Historical Society. |
Past Municipal Building Exhibits
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Women of the Homesteading Era
2019 Through artifacts, photographs, and biographical profiles, this exhibit illuminates the sometimes invisible work that women did as homesteaders on the Pajarito Plateau in the years before the arrival of the Manhattan Project. Thirty local Hispano families and six Anglo families homesteaded the land that is now Los Alamos. Homesteading was hard work for the entire family, and women's contributions were essential to a farm's success. This exhibit was generously sponsored by Enterprise Bank & Trust, Member FDIC. |
Pierotti's Clowns: Creating Community
June 2018–February 2019 This exhibit shares the celebrated accomplishments of Pierotti’s Clowns and how this five-man, fast-pitch softball team shaped the development of Los Alamos with their athletic skill, charming clowning, and philanthropy. We have a special website set up for this exhibit. Click here to learn more about Pierotti's Clowns and share your memories of the team. |
The Los Alamos History Museum is supported and maintained by the Los Alamos Historical Society, which is responsible for historical collections, document and photo archives, outreach, and educational programming. The Society is an educational partner with the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
