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​History Blog

Master Cottage #1 And The History It Has Seen

2/1/2021

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Master Cottage #1 shown in 2018, now known as the Hans Bethe House and Harold Agnew Cold War Gallery. Photo by Todd Nickols
By SHARON SNYDER

The Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS) was in its seventh year when Director A.J. Connell had a small wooden building constructed to the west of the Big House to use as director’s quarters, giving him some privacy and freeing up space in the main building. 

However, there was a slight miscalculation, and long foul balls from the nearby baseball field had the potential to land on his roof. When Fuller Lodge was under construction in 1928, Connell moved to the third floor and turned over the small plank house to two young masters—Lawrence Hitchcock and Art Chase.

In 1931, during a cold winter, the wooden cottage caught fire. With nearby Ashley Pond frozen over, there was little water to fight the flames, and the structure burned to the ground. There was, however, something odd about the fire. May Connell, A.J.’s sister, noted that one corner of the house burned much longer than the rest of the building. The explanation revealed that a 30-gallon keg of corn whiskey was stored in that corner! (Prohibition was still in force but winding down, and the young men said they were aging the keg in case prices increased when prohibition ended.)

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Edith Warner’s Christmas Letter, 1943

12/20/2020

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By SHARON SNYDER
​

In this very different Christmas season, I find comfort in the words of Edith Warner, the woman who lived at Otowi Bridge. Life hands us challenges in many different ways. 

The challenges we are facing now are different from the ones she faced during World War II, but the way she faced them with strength and hope can be a comforting inspiration. 
Edith wrote Christmas letters to her friends each year. In sharing this one with you, I’ve had to delete some parts to stay within the publishing space available, but the flow of her thoughts and the message are still there.

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Manhattan Project Secrecy

11/4/2020

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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.

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Special Dog Remembered From Manhattan Project Days

8/10/2020

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WAC and chemist Helen Gowen feeds Timoshenko and friend. Courtesy/Reid Cameron family and Los Alamos Historical Society Archive
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
Many famous names emerged from the Manhattan Project years on the Pajarito Plateau, but not all were scientists.
Haskell Sheinberg, who came to Los Alamos as a member of the Special Engineer Detachment and stayed at the lab after the war years, remembered one such name. When Sheinberg was interviewed by the Atomic Heritage Foundation for the Manhattan Project Voices, he commented that dogs “were just allowed to roam” and remembered one such dog named Timoshenko, “the only dog allowed into the Tech Area, the main Tech Area.”

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Water, People, and the Past

4/14/2020

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In this photo, María and Marcos Gomez are revisiting the site of their homestead on Two-Mile Mesa. Behind them is what was left of a corral. (Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives.)
By Aimee Slaughter
Los Alamos Historical Society


​How did people in the Pajarito Plateau’s past get their water? How did they live in a dry environment like ours?

Ancestral Pueblo people who lived here hundreds of years ago used ingenious dryland farming techniques, and homesteading farmers at the turn of the twentieth century also conserved water for their farms and families. The Los Alamos Ranch School had to provide water for students, staff, and animals at the school. When the Manhattan Project took over the area, a rapidly growing population strained infrastructure, and providing enough water to homes was a constant concern. For hundreds of years, people have solved the challenges of finding water in a dry environment and have created diverse and vibrant communities here on the Pajarito Plateau.

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Descendant Of “Almost Royalty” Visits Los Alamos To Find the Past

10/1/2019

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​Barbara Bohr connects with thoughts of her great-grandfather Niels Bohr as she stands on
Sawyer’s Hill where he once skied during the Manhattan Project. (Photo by Liz Martineau)
By Sharon Snyder
Los Alamos Historical Society


In mid August, the historical society was contacted by a young woman who wanted to
visit Los Alamos to see where her ancestors had been during the Manhattan Project. She
would be flying from Denmark and wanted to learn what might still be here from that era.
While there aren’t many buildings in existence on the community side of the fence, there
is still an aura of that time, those years in the mid-1940s when scientists came together
from many parts of the world to focus on a singular goal.

Flash forward to this past Thursday. The woman stood inside the Hans Bethe House,
looking at the panels that show the names of Nobel Prize winners connected with Los
Alamos. It must have been a moment of pride for her because Barbara Bohr has two
family members shown on those panels—her great grandfather Niels Bohr and her
grandfather Aage Bohr.

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End of WWII in Los Alamos

8/9/2018

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By Heather McClenahan
Los Alamos Historical Society
​

This week marks the 73rd anniversaries of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the end of World War II, the bloodiest conflict in human history.
Reaction to the end of the war in Los Alamos, according to those who lived it, was mixed.
Eleanor Jette described events in her classic book, Inside Box 1663: “About two o’clock, bedlam broke loose; word of the surrender request had reached the [army] barracks. GIs in trucks, jeeps, and on foot assembled in front of Theater Two, and a good part of the civilian population joined them. An impromptu parade started. Willy Higinbotham, playing his accordion, balanced precariously on the radiator of the leading jeep, and lids snatched from garbage cans clashed merrily.

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Iconic Objects Represent Many People and Their Stories

5/10/2018

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By Heather McClenahan
Los Alamos Historical Society
​

A wrought iron gate, a smudged letter, and an old drum might rarely have intrinsic value. Rather, at least in the case of a museum, their value is in the stories behind them—what they represent—that gives them meaning.

Such is the case at the Los Alamos History Museum.

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​Secret Letters

4/5/2018

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By HEATHER MCCLENAHAN
Los Alamos Historical Society
 
Do you remember the last time you received an important letter—a real letter written in ink on real paper?
 
In today’s world of texts, instant messages, and e-mails, it’s rare to get a genuine letter anymore. Yet historians are privileged to make discoveries with historic letters anddocuments on a regular basis, and sometimes, something really special comes along.
 
A few months ago, one of the volunteers at the Los Alamos Historical Society Archives and Collections was going through a box donated over a decade ago by Los Alamos resident Bill Bernard when she discovered a letter marked “SECRET.”

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​Unexpected Encounter Leads to Special Oral History Interview

2/28/2018

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By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
 
Sometimes a chance encounter can result in something unexpected. That was the case last August when I visited Mesa Verde National Park. I was wearing my Los Alamos Ranch School shirt with the embroidered logo when I met a volunteer ranger in the park.
 
We were enjoying a nice conversation when she noticed the logo and said, excitedly, “My husband’s uncle was at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project!”

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    These articles are written by the Los Alamos Historical Society Staff. Many of these articles were originally published by the
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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Careers
    • Who We Are
    • Contact
  • Museum
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Tours
    • Museum Campus
    • Oppenheimer House
    • Exhibits >
      • Online and Temporary Exhibits
    • Victory Garden
  • Archive
    • About the Archive
    • Research Appointments
    • Inside the Archives
    • Share Your Stories
    • 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
  • Programs
    • Upcoming Events
    • Lecture Series
    • History Award
    • Los Alamos / Japan Project
  • Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate to Projects
    • Legacy Society
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    • Donate Your Time- Volunteer
  • Shop
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