Museum Guide

Nestled in the mountain town of Ruidoso, New Mexico, the Wingfield Heritage House Museum invites visitors to immerse themselves in the rich tapestry of local history. Originally built in the 1920s by Ike and Lula Wingfield, the house served as a family residence for three generations before eventually becoming part of the heart of the community. Today, beautifully restored to reflect its original character, the museum stands as both a tribute to the Wingfield legacy and a living record of Ruidoso’s development. Inside, each room is thoughtfully curated to tell stories about early settlement life, native cultures, and the growth of the region’s industries, arts, and tourism.  One of the museum’s signature projects is Ruidoso Rewind, a weekly radio show aired on KRUI The Mountain. The program, written and narrated by the museum’s curator Stephanie Long with production by Greg Widener, explores the hidden histories and significant events that shaped the Ruidoso area. In 2025, the show earned a prestigious Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), recognizing its role in bringing local heritage to life.  The Wingfield Heritage House Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and admission is FREE. The museum also hosts community-oriented events, such as Hands-on History Family Day, which features interactive activities like retro games, historic handwriting practice, and artifact mystery challenges.  To help support its mission, the museum works closely with the Friends of the Wingfield Heritage House Museum, a nonprofit dedicated to fundraising, collecting artifacts, and engaging new volunteers. For those planning a visit or looking to contribute historical items from life, business, or tourism in the Ruidoso area, the Wingfield Heritage House Museum stands as a cherished gateway into the past—anchoring community memory and inspiring future discovery. https://www.ruidoso-nm.gov/wingfield-heritage-house-museum  

The Wisconsin Maritime Museum, in Manitowoc, WI cares for a collection of nearly 20,000 objects and a substantial archive pertaining to the maritime history of Wisconsin, Manitowoc shipbuilding, and USS Cobia. This includes more than 60 boats, approximately 300 regionally-built outboard motors, and over 250 ship models. Shipbuilding tools, marine navigational equipment, naval uniforms, and maritime archaeological artifacts also make up significant and growing portions of the collections. When objects are accepted into the museum’s collection, we agree to take care of them in perpetuity. This is an ongoing commitment, and a responsibility we take very seriously. The museum also cares for more than 10,000 Great Lakes shipwreck artifacts, curated on behalf of the State of Wisconsin, in its role as the preferred repository for recovered Wisconsin shipwreck artifacts. (Note, federal legislation in 1987 codified that it is expressly illegal to remove items from historic shipwrecks). The WMM collection is one of the largest maritime collections on the Great Lakes and reflects the museum’s mission of connecting all people with Wisconsin’s waterways, by engaging and educating the public about the Great Lakes, Wisconsin’s maritime history, Wisconsin’s WWII submarines, and USS Cobia. As the museum has grown over the past half-century, caring for our expanding collections has, likewise, become more challenging. While our Franklin Street facility allows us to house over 12,000 objects, items are now vulnerable to damage and deterioration. Through the years this facility has become overcrowded, making a more efficient storage system necessary. So preliminary work, largely grant funded by two programs with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), plans for expansion has begun! We invite you to visit our museum an experience the history of Maritime in Manitowoc, WI and more! https://www.wisconsinmaritime.org/visit/    

The New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum and Gellert Center for Education uses lessons and personal stories of the Holocaust and other genocides to educate and inspire communities of upstanders. This unique museum experience reinforces the idea that every single one of us can make a positive difference. Located in the heart of downtown Albuquerque, the New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum provides a unique educational experience for visitors from around the world. The only museum of its type in the state, it opened in January of 2001. The institution was founded by Werner Gellert, a Holocaust survivor, his wife, Frankie, and Juliana K. Lerner, also a Holocaust survivor. Their intent was to show--along with the Holocaust--genocides and other instances of organized hate in the hopes that such atrocities might never happen again. We embody that mission through our exhibits which describe hate groups in America, propaganda, the Armenian genocide, the Chinese exclusion Act, colonization as it affected Native Americans, and the African-American experience. Our collections include a diverse array of unique artifacts, including the Flossenbürg Flag, a replica of the United States flag made by prisoners of the Flossenbürg concentration camp to welcome their liberators.  In keeping with our focus on education and outreach, we revived school visits which had been suspended due to COVID. Recently, nearly 200 middle and high school students were welcomed at the museum. After a guided tour of the exhibits, they had the incredible opportunity to hear the story of a local Holocaust survivor who was a hidden child. By studying the Holocaust, these youngsters learned about historical consequences of prejudice, hate, and intolerance, and how to combat these forces in their own lives. They learned what it means to be an upstander rather than a bystander. The New Mexico Holocaust & Intolerance Museum is a one-of-a-kind highlight to any Albuquerque vacation. Visit us to learn what you can do to prevent hate and intolerance and make our world a better, more equal place for all! https://nmholocaustmuseum.org/