Carlsbad Museum, located in the present Carlsbad Library-Museum Complex opened in 1931, with the second story of the Southwest Adobe building serving as the original museum. It is New Mexico’s first municipal museum, and within a few years of its opening was heralded in national print publications and newspapers as, “Second only to the Museum of New Mexico” for its collections.

R.M.P. “Bill” Burnet served as first curator, supervising items of local history and Native American artifacts. Major acquisitions of historical artifacts throughout the 20th century drew widespread attention from visitors.

 In 1955 the addition of the Library Annex (now the Carlsbad Hall of Fame) enlarged complex facilities, and in 1978 the new wing for the museum’s growing art collection was completed, expanding the museum’s footprint and moving the location and entrance to Fox Street. 

The move into the new wing and the addition of the McAdoo Collection in 1984, the Feezer Collection in 2006, and the Roderick Mead Gallery in 2014 helped bolster Carlsbad Museum into a multi-faceted cultural institution.