http://youtu.be/zNwkFh9Vwu0
The New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum recently opened a new long-term exhibit, a Spanish Colonial Home that helps you experience life in 1815.
Toni Laumbach, Chief Curator at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum says the new exhibit helps you see life in the colonial era.
“This type of exhibit is what we call an immersion exhibit,” Laumbach said. “People will walk into this exhibit, which is a New Mexico Colonial Home, and they will transform themselves back to 1815. Everything you see in here is based on archaeological excavations and historical records, so visually it’s very accurate. And of the objects that are here all of them are very accurate to the time period also.”
She says a lot of research was done to make sure that home looked as close as possible to the real thing.
The Museum includes a mix of historical artifacts, and interactive portions that let you experience what life was like in 1815.
“This type of exhibit really does bring them into 1815,” Laumbach said. “And they’ve got a lot of hands on items here that they are very permitted to touch and interact with, play with, pretend with. And all of that as we understand from educators and people who are interested in educating young children is that facilitates they’re learning, and so yes, they learn a lot.”
She says this is a good part of local history because it is they type of home you would see in Las Cruces in 1815.
‘This is referred to as a Mediterranean-style home,” Laumbach said. “And this is the building template that the Spanish brought with them, and when they settled here in Southern New Mexico and in the El Paso area, and certainly up in the Santa Fe northern New Mexico area this was the architectural template that they built with. Which was to create a hacienda type house with an interior courtyard and multiple rooms around it.”
She said the exhibit also gives you an idea of how the Native Americans worked with the Spanish settlers when they first arrived.
“When the Spanish arrived,” Laumbach said. “The Native Americans that were already here were very much engaged for several thousand years in agriculture, and it was their stored crops and understanding of the environment that enabled the Spanish to survive their early years here. The Spanish also introduced new food items, for example two of the most important ones that they introduced were wheat and barley. Native Americans had corn at the time.”
The new exhibit is located in the Heritage Gallery at the museum.
