Exhibit draws visitors into 1920s-era farm house.

It's a colorful, nostalgic "slice of life" illuminating the Main Gallery of the Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces.

The new addition to the gallery is called "Home Sweet Home," a component of the exhibit: "Farm Life in New Mexico: Then & Now."

"Home Sweet Home" is a cozy, two-room floor plan that includes a kitchen and a parlor created to look like the inside of a rural New Mexico home in the 1920s-30s. The exhibit includes a walkway between the rooms so Museum visitors can get close to the objects and enjoy the feel of actually walking through the home.

"Home Sweet Home does two things," said Museum Curator of Exhibits Dave Lundy. "It shows off some of the depth of our collections, getting objects out for people to see, especially smaller items. It also creates an environment that lets people feel like they're visiting a slice of life. They can imagine what it was like during that time period."

The Museum's staff researched the subject - including studying old photographs - and designed and built the two-room exhibit.

Among the many interesting artifacts in the exhibit are a 1927 General Electric Monitor-Top refrigerating machine, a 1923 Brunswick Model 101 portable phonograph, a wood-burning stove and Mission-style furniture, along with numerous kitchen gadgets, canning jars, crockery and personal items that give a glimpse into life on a New Mexico farm in the early 20th century.

Home Sweet Home is one of the four major components of the Farm Life in New Mexico exhibit. The other three are "Moving Around," which focuses on transportation and includes wagons, maps and a facade of a railroad depot; "On the Farm," which includes a tool shed and various farm implements; and "Going to Town," which focuses on community life and will include an expanded mercantile that also has a walk-through environment and features a post office display. The train depot and mercantile components are still being developed.

"These exhibits allow the Museum visitor to become immersed in a historical environment," said Museum Education Curator Leslie Bergloff. "Visitors will have the feel and sense of being in a general store or in a train station."

The Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The Museum will be closed July 4.

Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and $2 for children ages 5 to 17.

For more information, please call (575) 522-4100.