An atomic era of history on display in Park City

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Knowledge bombs are being dropped at the Park City Museum from now until October.

“Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: Living With The Atomic Bomb” is a new exhibit on display now at the Park City Museum. The exhibit focuses on a twenty-year history following World War II that is known as the Atomic Age.

[media-credit id=304 align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]The exhibit items come from the private collection of Michael Scheibach, Ph.D., a writer, editor and independent scholar, specializing in the history of the Atomic Age from 1945 through the 1960s.

Patrons to the exhibit are met with an image of the Nagasaki explosion of 1945, a newspaper from the day the story was broken that Japan surrendered, and a radio announcement broadcasting the nuclear strike on Hiroshima.

“The atomic bombing of Japan changed American life,” said Courtney Titus, curator of Collections and Exhibitions for the Museum. “This powerful new weapon brought relief, fear and excitement to the American people. The ‘Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow’ explores the ways in which Americans dealt with these conflicting feelings.”

As visitors walk through the exhibit, they are presented with four themes: “At Home with ‘The Bomb,'” Civil Defense and Community, “Atomics” at School, and At Play in the Atomic Age. The displays show how the constant threat of atomic attack affected Americans’ daily lives.[media-credit id=304 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]

“These were ways people were trying to deal with these issues,” said Titus, “People were bombarded with messages from the government and at the same time there was excitement in the marketing world over this new weapon.”

With an educational video about duck and cover drills and bomb shelters both public and private, all the way to toys with a concept surrounding the nuclear bomb, the exhibit points of an age that most don’t learn about.[media-credit id=304 align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]

“Maybe we were proud to develop the nuclear bomb. But, it came at a cost.” said Titus. “Don’t sit under the mushroom cloud,” reads one quote on display, but at the museum it seems the best part is walking through the mushroom cloud and its history in America.

 

 

 

 

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