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​History Blog

Photographic Record And Its Importance To History

6/25/2020

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Picture
Los Alamos Ranch School Fir Patrol, 1940, by T. Harmon Parkhurst. Courtesy/LAHS Photo Archive, Parkhurst Collection
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
As noted in the book Los Alamos: The Ranch School Years, “photography played an important role in advertising and promoting Los Alamos” from its early years to the closing in 1945, but photography also made a huge contribution to historians who have worked to document the 25 years of the school’s history.
There are copious pictures of everyday life at the school, from classrooms to sleeping porches to trail rides and camping in the Jemez. A few photos are like the family vacation pictures of a memorable moment not quite in focus—but most are not. Many are works of art and composed beautifully, sharp and framed perfectly through the lens. The reason for that, and for our good fortune all these years later, is that LARS Director A.J. Connell had the foresight to see the importance of a good photographic record and to hire two of the best photographers in the West to help with that record—T. Harmon Parkhurst and Laura Gilpin.

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Thoughts Of Ceremonies On The Pajarito Plateau

6/9/2020

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Picture
Commencement in Graduation Canyon, 1921 (Courtesy of Los Alamos Historical Society Archive)
By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Society


In this time of disrupted events, including the graduation ceremony for the Los Alamos
High School Class of 2020, I chose to do this column on Graduation Canyon to coincide
with a time when many teens in our town had looked forward to wearing caps and gowns
to their ceremony. Fate handed them a disappointment, but commencement is more than
the celebration.

The first graduations on the Pajarito Plateau were held in the early 1920s as the Los
Alamos Ranch School began to send some of its young men off to college. Not all of the
boys who came to the school had intentions of graduating here. Some families sent their
sons for a year or two of “toughening up” to gain stamina, in some cases because the
boys had been ill and needed the fresh mountain air and exercise to improve their health.
The ranch school opened in 1917, and in 1921 it held its first graduation for two
boys—Bill Rose of Santa Fe and Wallace Kieselhorst of St. Louis.

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Camp Hamilton – A Place Of Colorful History

6/4/2020

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Picture
Camp Hamilton as it looked circa 1951. Courtesy/Paul Bombardt
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society

​Two weeks ago I wrote about Camp May, the getaway for senior boys at the Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS), but there was also another camp, one primarily used by the younger boys. Camp Hamilton has a longer, more detailed history.

In 1918, the year after the Ranch School was founded, a man known only as F. Coomer leased a bit of land from the U.S. Forest Service to build a two-room log cabin in Pueblo Canyon east of the Otowi Pueblo site. Coomer was the general manager of the Rocky Mountain Camp Company, and he guided tours out of Santa Fe into Pueblo Canyon to an area he called Tent Cities of the Rockies. He showed his guests the rock-capped, cone-shaped mounds of tuff scattered through the area.


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    These articles are written by the Los Alamos Historical Society Staff. Many of these articles were originally published by the
    ​Los Alamos Daily Post.  

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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Learn / Research >
      • Information For Teachers
      • Teachers and Caregivers
      • Adult Resources >
        • National History Day
        • Homestead Driving Tour
        • History at Home
        • Pioneering Women in Los Alamos
        • Development of the Atomic Bomb
        • Links and Resources
      • Archive >
        • About the Archive
        • Research Appointments
        • Inside the Archives
        • Share Your Stories
        • COVID-19 Collecting
    • Careers/Jobs
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Museum Campus
    • Museum >
      • Exhibits >
        • Online and Temporary Exhibits
      • Victory Garden
      • Explore Los Alamos
    • Tours
    • Oppenheimer House
  • Programs
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • Spring 2023 Tour to Trinity
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
    • Volunteer Training
  • Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
    • Collections Donations
    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • History Blog
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Children's Books & Gifts
    • Apparel
    • Gifts