Atomic Heritage Foundation

11/16/2023

Exterior - General view from Southeast
Society of Friends Meetinghouse, Schoosett Street
North Pembroke, Plymouth County, MA
Arthur C. Haskell, Photographer
April 1934

SIGNIFICANCE
The Friends Meeting House (HABS MA-2-59) was the center of Quaker religious society which flourished for 200 years, until the early 1900's.

LEARN MORE
See the rest of the HABS documentation of Pembroke Friends Meetinghouse in The Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma0891/

SEARCH THE COLLECTION
Conduct your personal search through the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection, the nation's largest archive of historical architectural, engineering, and landscape documentation at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/

11/16/2023

Demolished October 11, 1980.

NORTHEAST VIEW OF FIRST FLOOR, MAIN STAIRCASE LANDING IN MAIN HALL
Elizabeth Plankinton House
1492 West Wisconsin Avenue
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Milwaukee County)

Building Dates: 1888 Initial Construction
Lee Harvancik, Photographer, January 1979

SIGNIFICANCE
The Elizabeth Plankinton House is a Richardsonian Romanesque-inspired building built by pioneer meat packing magnate, John Plankinton as a wedding gift for his daughter Elizabeth. It is one of the last surviving that once predominated the former Grand Avenue residential areas.

LEARN MORE
See the rest of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation of the Elizabeth Plankinton House in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection in The Library of Congress at https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/wi0038/

SEARCH THE COLLECTION
Conduct your personal search through the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection, the nation's largest archive of historical architectural, engineering, and landscape documentation at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/

11/16/2023

In July 2023, the Smithsonian magazine published, "What Was the Manhattan Project?". Journalist Tom Metcalfe partnered with Minesh Bacrania, a photographer and former physicist with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Bacrania's photographs feature some original Manhattan Project properties and artifacts that are rarely seen by the public.

The instruments (above, left) are at the Gun Site where scientists studied projectiles and ballistics for the "Little Boy" bomb. The candy kettle (right) was at the "V Site" and used to make the explosive lenses for the Gadget and "Fat Man" bombs. Photos by Minesh Bacrania, courtesy of Smithsonian magazine.

11/14/2023

AHF President Cindy Kelly enjoyed a lively session on C-SPAN TV’s Washington Journal on July 31, 2023 with host Bill Scanlan and a half-hour of call-in questions from the audience.

In addition, Kelly contributed to numerous articles on Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project in Scientific American, Vogue, and many other publications from Washington, DC to Athens (in Greek), Madrid, and São Paulo.

Cynthia Kelly, founder and President of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, talked about America's renewed interest in the history and legacy of the Manhattan Project with the release of the new "Oppenheimer" movie.

11/11/2023

https://conta.cc/3SEFzuq

Plus a Photo Tour of the Oppeneheimer House In partnership with the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History   "Oppenheimer" stars Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) and Matt Damon (Groves) pose by the

08/03/2023

Through our collaboration with the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, we have 600 interviews of the men and women who worked on the Manhattan Project. This public archive of oral history collections of Manhattan Project veterans and their family members includes audiovisual interviews with General Leslie R. Groves, General Paul Tibbets, and a transcript of an interview with J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Check out the Voices of the Manhattan Project here: https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/voices/

07/17/2023

J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves visiting the remains of the test tower in September 1945.

07/07/2023

On Saturday, October 6, 2006, Cormac McCarthy came to the Atomic Heritage Foundation’s symposium, “Legacy of the Manhattan Project: Creativity in Science and the Arts.” Held in Los Alamos, the program featured Richard Rhodes (Making the Atomic Bomb), author Joseph Kanon (Los Alamos), composer John Adams (Doctor Atomic), and other luminaries. Sadly, McCarthy died on June 13, 2023.

For nearly forty years, McCarthy was a Senior Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. Murray Gell-Mann, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1969, co-founded the Santa Fe Institute in 1984 and persuaded McCarthy to join him there. Over the next four decades, McCarthy made the Institute a second home, exploring mathematics, physics, and analytic ideas with scientists and scholars. He also enjoyed elaborate lunches and dinners with Murray Gell-Mann and other SFI researchers.

07/06/2023

After her husband, Lawrence S. Myers, Jr., was recruited to work at Oak Ridge, Jan Vanderwalder Myers decided to apply. With college courses in general and organic chemistry, she was hired as a chemist working along graduate students, PhDs, and professors in the Chemistry Building of Site X-10.

Jan was a very talented artist and created dozens of beautiful watercolors of Oak Ridge in the 1940’s. Catherine Myers, Jan’s daughter, has generously donated the paintings to the Oak Ridge History Museum.

03/06/2023

𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝘂𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆
Georgia Power announced on March 6 that Vogtle Unit 3 has safely reached initial criticality. Initial criticality is a key step during the startup testing sequence and demonstrates that -- for the first time -- operators have safely started the nuclear reaction inside the reactor.
𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vogtle-unit-3-reaches-initial-criticality-301763807.html

03/06/2023

Tomorrow is International Women's Day!

Women played key roles in the Manhattan Project and we continue to learn more about their contributions every year. From a handful of scientists to a multitude of secretaries, women are essential to this history. However, due to everything from the outright sexism of the past to research difficulties that modern historians encounter such as name changes due to marriage, these stories continue to be more sparse than they should be.

To learn more and find out what we do know follow this link to our website:
https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/women-and-bomb/

Additionally, this Wikipedia page is a great resource to use as a starting place for school projects and research:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Women_on_the_Manhattan_Project

Women played a very important role in varying aspects of the Manhattan Project.