Online Exhibit
Living Under a Mushroom Cloud: Fear and Hope in the Atomic Age
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Family Bomb Shelter, 1952
A Wisconsin family inside their new bomb shelter. View the original source document: WHI 1941
This interpretive exhibit gives a glimpse into the contradictions of fear and hope American society experienced during the Atomic Age, 1945-1965.
- Learn how worries of nuclear warfare, atomic radiation and Communist invasion influenced popular film and literature.
- Discover the federal government programs meant to protect families from nuclear attacks through fallout shelters, survival manuals and evacuation plans.
- Explore America's belief that good could result from atomic energy in terms of scientific research, nuclear energy and medical innovations.
- Read about nuclear disarmament, emerging national issues, the end of the Cold War era and the lure of the space race.
People Featured in This Exhibit
- Dana Andrews
- Paul Boyer
- Paul Boyer
- David Bradley
- Dick Calkins
- Roy Cohn
- Matt Cvetic
- Blake Edwards
- Al Fago
- Igor Gouzenko
- Father Groppi
- Leslie R. Groves
- John Hersey
- Verne P. Kaub
- President John F. Kennedy
- Nikita Khrushchev
- James Kuntz
- Frank Lovejoy
- David Low
- Douglas Malewicki
- Alex Malloy
- Frank Marasco
- Virginia Martinson
- Pat Masulli
- Joseph McCarthy
- Ray Milland
- Francis Miller
- D.F. Moran
- George Nelson
- A. J. Riker
- Mickey Rooney
- Ethel Rosenberg
- Julius Rosenberg
- Peter Sellers
- Paul Sobel
- Edith Sobel
- Joseph Stalin
- Lewis L. Strauss
- President Harry S. Truman
- Sonny Tufts
- John Wickland
- John Wickland
- John Willard