Inside the Archives
In an effort to increase community understanding of the Archive and the important role it plays in the community, we launched a social media campaign #InsideTheArchives. Inside the Archives communicates the purpose of the Los Alamos Historical Society Archives and gives people a chance to see parts of the collection that are not on exhibit. It was so popular, that some of the posts have been saved on this site!
Organization
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One way we organize artifacts in our collection is by era or time period of relevance. Here in Los Alamos those eras are: Ancestral Pueblo (1200s–1500s), Homestead (1887–1942), Ranch School (1917–1942), Manhattan Project (1942–1946), Early Los Alamos (1947–1957), and Recent Los Alamos (1957–present).
Another way we organize is by type of object: archaeological artifact, geological artifact, ethnological artifact, book, periodical, textile, document, photograph, etc. This additional layer of organization helps us to location research requests by 3D or 2D artifact type. |
Here are a couple of the way-finding aids that are posted on the moveable shelving in our archives.
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On the Shelves
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On our shelves you’ll find collections of photographs, audio/visuals, documents, scrapbooks, textiles, and maps. You will also find homestead, archaeological, ethnological, recent Los Alamos, and early Los Alamos objects.
The boxes and bags you can see are archival quality—they're made from materials designed to preserve items for generations to come when kept in the controlled environment of the Archive. |
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Content for Exhibits
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The Archive and Collections provides content for our exhibits. The exhibit process starts with research in our document, photograph, and artifact collections to help develop the narrative of our panels. Once the narrative is developed, artifacts are selected to help support the history being told.
The staff works together to select objects that tell a story or that have a story of their own. The history of our objects, or provenance, becomes very important in this process; having those histories in our records helps bring our exhibit to life. |
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Provenance
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Every object has a story and it is thanks to donors that we have those stories to tell Los Alamos’ history. An artifact without a story (provenance) is interesting to look at, but with its history it can bring a story to life.
One of the artifacts we selected to help tell the story of the Cerro Grande Fire is a quilt made by students in Liz Martineau’s fourth grade class at Mountain Elementary School. (Liz donated it to us before she became our executive director!) At the time, the quilt helped the students to reflect on their feelings and memories of the fire. Now, the quilt helps us tell the story of how the fire affected children who lived through it. |
Quilt made by students from Mountain Elementary School in 2000.
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The Los Alamos Historical Society Archives are located in the Los Alamos Municipal Building
1000 Central Avenue, Suite 180, Los Alamos, New Mexico
1000 Central Avenue, Suite 180, Los Alamos, New Mexico
