A traveling exhibit, Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: Living with the Atomic Bomb, 1945-1965, opens Jan. 28 at the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.
The exhibit explores the ways in which Americans experienced the atomic threat as part of their daily lives-at school, in the home and even at play-in the two decades following the 1945 bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. It will run through March 14 in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries.
The exhibit features more than 75 objects from the era as well as large-scale graphics, radio broadcasts and film. It depicts messaging about the dangers of atomic energy. Although the threat of atomic annihilation eventually drifted to the background of American consciousness in the late 1960s, the Atomic Age left a legacy of governmental response and civic infrastructure that remains relevant today, according to ExhibitsUSA, the group that tours the exhibit.
Inspired by the exhibit, the Russell Library will host a series of 11 programs during spring semester in collaboration with partners across campus. All events will be held in the Russell Special Collections Building. They include:
• Jan. 29, 5:30-7 p.m., panel discussion on “Nuclear Anxiety and Civil Defense in Popular Culture” in Room 271;
• Jan. 30, 7-9 p.m., film screening of Fail-Safe in Room 271;
• Feb. 5, 5:30-7 p.m., a community forum on America’s role in the world. The event will be held in Room 285;
• Feb. 8, 2-3:30 p.m., a film screening of Them! in Room 271;
• Feb. 12, 5:30-7 p.m., a panel discussion on “Nuclear Threats Then and Now” in Room 271;
• Feb. 12, 7-9 p.m., film screening of Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in Room 271;
• Feb. 15, 2-3:30 p.m., film screening of The Day the Earth Stood Still in Room 271;
• Feb. 20, 7-9 p.m., film screening of The Manchurian Candidate in Room 271;
• Feb. 22, 2-3:30 p.m., film screening of Invasion of the Body Snatchers in Room 271;
• March 5, 7-9 p.m., “Storytellers and Scholars: Life in the Atomic Age” in Room 285; and
• March 7, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., First-Person Project Interview Day.
More information on the program series is available at http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/programs/events.html.
