Nuclear fallout shelter and safety collection

Collection

Identifier: 8584

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Collection contains 20+ pamphlets, booklets and newsletters on missle safety and how to prepare for and survive a nuclear attack (issued primarily by federal and state government agencies). Also, a circular nuclear bomb effects computer. Maps documenting America’s civil defense efforts (or coordinated lack thereof) developed in the wake of the Soviet Union’s detonation of its first atomic bomb in 1949. These maps represent efforts to educate the public about the location of fallout shelters in multiple cities or regions and/or evacuation routes.

Dates

1959-1961.

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Biographical / Historical

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Cold War tensions and threat of nuclear war convinced government leaders in the United States that millions of lives could be saved by the construction of home fallout shelters. How-to booklets proliferated, instructing people in the fine points of building their own shelters, family preparations, first aid, and what to do in an emergency.