In 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers relocated James Edward Westcott to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and assigned him the task of official photographer for the Manhattan Project - a massive wartime effort to produce the first atomic bomb. As secrecy of the project was paramount, the "atomic" city was fenced, and communication with the oustide world was limited. What is more, no cameras were allowed inside its boundaries.
Thus, Westcott became not only the official phtographer for the Manhattan Project, but he also became the sole photographer of the social and recreational events of Oak Ridge. It is only through Westcott's photographs that the visual history of Oak Ridge can be appreciated.
This series is available as a travelling exhibition. Please contact Sam Yates at the Ewing Gallery for further information.
If you are seeing a list of links above this line rather than rotating images you may need to upgrade your Flash player to a newer version, or enable javascript on your browser.
