LOS ALAMOS HISTORY
  • 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

​History Blog

Going Inside the Archives to Visit the Pajarito Club

2/3/2021

0 Comments

 
“If Ashley hadn't created the Pajarito Club, he would never have met Harold Brook and started the Los Alamos Ranch School. Without that school on the mesa, the Manhattan Project would most likely not have been located here, and all of us would be living somewhere else today!”
A horse-drawn wagon loaded with provisions sits in front of a two-story building. Two people unload the wagon, three stand in the doorway.
Pajarito Club around 1915 or 1916. Peggy Pond Church Collection, Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.

Read More
0 Comments

Duchess Castle

1/11/2021

3 Comments

 
Picture
In January on Facebook we're going #InsideTheArchives to enjoy one of the treasures of Los Alamos history through the years. Following the Tsankawi Trail, you have a great overlook of what is now known as Duchess Castle. While this weathered structure is on National Park Service's Bandelier National Monument land its history impacts the Pajarito Plateau and continues to capture imaginations today.
Partial adobe walls are in the foreground, students on horseback ride behind the structures.
Peter Dechert took this photo in the early 1940s. Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.
How Duchess Castle looks today. Photo by Bandelier National Monument, NPS.

Read More
3 Comments

The Oppenheimer House Through Time

12/8/2020

0 Comments

 
This month on Facebook we're going #InsideTheArchives to explore the Oppenheimer House at 1967 Peach St. Affectionately called the Oppenheimer House, the log and stone structure was built in 1929 for the Los Alamos Ranch School.
Four students stand in the back row. Two students sit on the ground on either side of the front row, then two students sit on chairs, and in the center of the front row two students sit on a wooden box painted with horses and flowers. All are wearing Boy Scout uniforms.
Laura Gilpin photographed these Los Alamos Ranch School students in front of the Oppenheimer House around 1935. This is probably the Fir or Spruce Patrol, the two oldest patrols at the school. Back row: Chuck Pearce, John Wolf, James Woodhull, and Talbott Mead. Front row: Sandy Chapin, John Kiser, Jamie Soper, John Simondon, Henry Preston, and Paul Frank. Gift of Peggy Pond Church. Gilpin Collection, Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.

Read More
0 Comments

Manhattan Project Secrecy

11/4/2020

2 Comments

 
On Facebook this month we're going #InsideTheArchives to explore Manhattan Project secrecy.
The examiner wrote: “Sorry, Wilder, The idea is that NO EVIDENCE of censorship is to leave the site. (The official card of notification is returned to the security office). Please, no mention of ‘censorship,’ ‘security,’ ‘secrecy,’ etc. / By the way, we don’t discourage the ‘X’s’-- / Good Luck--and we’ll try not to ‘get in your hair’ too often, ‘2034’ “
A military examiner, identified only as #2034, used these two censor form slips to return a letter to Edward Wilder. Wilder Collection, Los Alamos Historical Society Archives and Collections.

Read More
2 Comments

Shopping in Los Alamos

10/20/2020

2 Comments

 
On Facebook we went #InsideTheArchives to explore some of the history of Los Alamos retail. Click through to explore historic photos and artifacts from businesses and shopping in the past.
Proprietors George Hillhouse and Henry Martin are dressed in baker's clothing and stand behind a counter filled with baked goods. Mrs. Henry Martin stands behind the cash register which is to the left of another pastry filled counter. A tall shelf filled with goods stands in the far corner and holds a telephone. Mirrors behind Mrs. Martin produce the reflections of the two men.
George Hillhouse and Mr. and Mrs. Martin in the Los Alamos Pastry Shop, sometime between 1947–1957. Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archive.

Read More
2 Comments

Living and Working in Fuller Lodge

10/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Here's another #InsideTheArchives post from our Facebook page, this one focusing on people whose lives intersected with Fuller Lodge: the waitresses of The Lodge hotel. In our society it is rare to live and work in the same location (although this is now the case for many us during this time of COVID-19). The Lodge had a restaurant and bar which served meals to its guests. The waitresses who served the meals for The Lodge lived there as well. There is even some mystery involved because we have conflicting sources about where the staff bedrooms were located in Fuller Lodge.
Picture
The Fuller Lodge dining room in July 1946, towards the end of Project Y (which ended at the end of that year). Photo by Joseph Gluth. Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.

Read More
0 Comments

Los Alamos Movie Theaters

10/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Earlier this summer, we reflected on the closure of the Reel Deal Theater with an #InsideTheArchives post on Facebook exploring the history of movie theaters in our community. Since the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos has had six separate theaters with some of those being acquired by different owners and renamed. Our Archives has a number of photographs, newspaper articles, and paper artifacts (such as the Zia Co. calendar you can see with this post) that show or reference these local theaters. Many people remember these places as centers for fun, entertainment, and socialization as they grew up.
Picture
Marquee, ticket booth, and entrance to the Centre Theater, Los Alamos Community Center, 1950. Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.

Read More
0 Comments

Are Playgrounds Historic?

10/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Absolutely! Here's an #InsideTheArchives post from our Facebook account that looks at a couple of historic photographs from two local playgrounds alongside a collection of current photos from this year. These snapshots give us changes to the structures over the years. These can inform us about what interested kids at the time, what was considered safe, and show us what has changed or remained over time in our community. Each photograph gives us a glimpse of life from that year in Los Alamos history. Do you have any photographs or objects that reflect what Los Alamos life is like?
Two children slide down a large slide in the center of the photo, while 8 others play on and near a swingset in the background.
Pine Street playlot on August 18, 1950. Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.

Read More
0 Comments

​Preserving Los Alamos History at the Archives

7/12/2018

0 Comments

 
By Stephanie Yeamans
Los Alamos Historical Society

As the community of Los Alamos, a relatively young town in historic New Mexico, grows older, portions of its population are also aging. When retirees downsize or parents pass away, families often wonder what to do with old papers and objects from years gone by. The Los Alamos Historical Society often becomes the repository for those collections.

As caretakers of our community history, the Historical Society has legal and ethical obligations for these donations. If you are considering a donation of papers, photographs, or artifacts to the Los Alamos Historical Society, the archives and collections staff would like to share with you some of the questions we ask and criteria we require for donations.

Read More
0 Comments

​Mysteries at the Museum: Real Life Experiences in Los Alamos

12/24/2017

0 Comments

 
By DON CAVNESS
Los Alamos Historical Society Curator
 
All museums have a characteristic and somewhat capricious weakness when it comes to managing their collections. We all have orphan artifacts that have absolutely no paper trail. In many cases, institutional memories that at one time would have provided important clues to ownership and use have long since vanished.

Read More
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    About

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

    Categories

    All
    Ancestral Pueblo
    Archives
    Ashley Pond Jr.
    Atomic Energy Commission
    Bathtub Row
    Bathtub Row Press
    Bohr
    Camp May
    Cold War
    Community
    Dog
    Fallout Shelter
    Fuller Lodge
    Gardening
    Hans Bethe
    Helene Suydam
    Homer Pickens
    Homesteading
    Interns
    Jennet Conant
    John Saw Meem
    Katherine Stinson
    Los Alamos Ranch School
    Manhattan Project
    Martini
    Movie
    Museum
    Oppenheimer
    Pajarito Club
    Peggy Pond Church
    Pierottis' Clowns
    Raemer Schrieber
    Rose Garden
    Rover Project
    Severo Gonzales
    Sig Hecker
    Stan Ulam
    Trinity
    Walking Tour
    Women's Army Corp (WAC)
    World War II

    Archives

    March 2023
    November 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

Home
About
Contact
Plan Your Visit
Shop
​Events
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. 
Become a Member!
Los Alamos History Museum Logo
Picture
Picture
  • 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