Atomic Alert!

The Soviet Union’s detonation of its first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949, thrust the United States into a new and more precarious era. Just four years after celebrating victory in World War II as the only nation with an atomic bomb, Americans now found themselves confronting the probability of an atomic war.

Over the next decade, the government, through the newly formed Federal Civil Defense Administration, issued posters, pamphlets, and related materials; offered training courses; sponsored civil defense conferences; and worked in cooperation with state and local civil defense entities as well as the private sector to prepare men, women, and children for the day “the bomb” might fall.

Atomic Alert!: Confronting “The Bomb” in the New Atomic Age explores the government’s efforts to educate Americans about what to do before an atomic attack; how to react to a sudden, blinding flash; and what action to take in the aftermath of an atomic blast.

Visitors to Atomic Alert! will:

• learn more about the FCDA’s efforts to promote the nation’s civil defense program;
• explore how Americans prepared themselves and their families for when the bombs might fall; and
• consider how an earlier period in American history sparked a similar national reaction to a threat to the American way of life.

Featuring artifacts and interpretation from Michael Scheibach, Ph.D., independent scholar and author, Atomic Alert! offers a unique opportunity to revisit the early atomic age when the world was divided between two atomic-armed adversaries: the United States and the Soviet Union.