The Wingfield Heritage House Museum is please to present a new exhibit, “Carmon Phillips: Capturing Mid-Century Ruidoso.” The exhibit, which opened October 22, 2026, features 60 photographs from the 1950s and 1960s by photographer and Ruidoso booster, Carmon Phillips. The Wingfield Heritage House Museum has scanned over 4500 negatives from the Phillips family to ensure they are preserved into the future.
Carmon Phillips and his wife Leona Mae moved to Ruidoso in 1945 and became an influential part of life in the village over the next 50 years. They purchased and restored the old adobe Dowlin Mill, and ran a photo studio and processing lab next door in a small building that started as the family home. As the main commercial photographer in town for decades, Phillips photographed family portraits, weddings, graduations, sporting events, meetings, conventions, parades, Halloween parties and most of the businesses in town. His photos frequently appeared in the Ruidoso News. He left us a visual record of mid-century Ruidoso that includes over 7000 images.
Carmon Phillips in his studio.
Midtown Ruidoso in 1952
Ruidoso High School Prom, 1953