LOS ALAMOS HISTORY
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Online and Temporary Exhibits

rotating exhibit gallery
municipal building exhibit
online exhibits
past rotating gallery exhibits
past municipal building exhibits

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
Resilience and Regrowth: Twenty Years After Cerro Grande
2020
Los Alamos is a community changed by fire. Resilience and Regrowth focuses on stories of how a community—a community wider than Los Alamos—came together after the Cerro Grande Fire and rebuilt, together. In the aftermath of Cerro Grande, Los Alamos and its neighbors found strength in community—in offering and accepting support in all areas of our lives. We continue to grow.
This exhibit is made possible by donations from individual community members and our Hero Sponsors: Century Bank, Cruiser's Custom Embroidery, Del Norte Credit Union, Enterprise Bank & Trust member FDIC, Holiday Inn Express & Suites at Entrada Park, the Los Alamos Community Foundation, Jennifer Loveless Design, and N3B Los Alamos.

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.
Current Exhibit
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.

Online Exhibits

Resilience and Regrowth: Twenty Years After Cerro Grande
Created in 2020

In the online exhibit of Resilience and Regrowth, explore photographs and artifacts, reflect on our journey of resilience, and share your stories of the Cerro Grande Fire.
visit resilience and regrowth
logo for Resilience & Regrowth exhibit

Pierotti's Clowns: Creating Community
Created in 2018

Created to accompany the 2018–19 fall/winter exhibit in the Municipal Building, Pierotti's Clowns: Creating Community has statistics, historic footage, and a documentary about this unique fast-pitch softball team. Read memories of the Clowns and share your own.
visit Pierotti's Clowns
posed team photograph of the original Pierotti's Clowns softball team in clown makeup
Ryan Collection, Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.

Selected Past Rotating Gallery Exhibits
Test Tube Community: Constructing Normalcy in Cold War Los Alamos
September 2019–March 2020

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 was generously sponsored by Enterprise Bank & Trust, member FDIC.
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.
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.
​

Selected Past Municipal Building Exhibits
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.
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The Los Alamos Historical Society preserves, promotes, and communicates the remarkable history and inspiring stories of Los Alamos and its people for our community, for the global audience, and for future generations. 
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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
    • Quarterly Magazine
  • Museum
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Tours
    • Museum Campus
    • Exhibits >
      • Online and Temporary Exhibits
    • Victory Garden
  • Archive
    • About the Archive
    • Research Appointments
    • Inside the Archives
    • COVID-19 Collecting
  • Learn / Research
    • Information For Teachers
    • Information For Caregivers
    • Explore Los Alamos
    • Topics & Resources >
      • History Blog
      • National History Day
      • Homestead Driving Tour
      • History at Home
      • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
      • Development of the Atomic Bomb
      • Links and Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • 2020 Gala
  • Programs
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
  • Donate
    • Oppenheimer House Fund
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Audio Books & DVDs
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts