Manhattan Project Park Program: The Life of Women in the Manhattan Project

Posted at 3:54 pm March 14, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Women enriching uranium in calutrons at Y-12 as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. This famous “Calutron Girls” photograph by Manhattan Project photographer Ed Westcott prompted author Denise Kiernan to write the best-seller “The Girls of Atomic City.” (Photo by Ed Westcott)

What was life like for women during the Manhattan Project? Join National Park Service staff as they discuss the social changes that occurred during World War II and how that affected women in the Manhattan Project. The free interpretive program will take place at the New Hope Center at Y-12 National Security Complex at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 29. The program will outline the life for women before, during, and after World War II.

After the program, you may see the new photography display commemorating the life of women from all walks of life in Oak Ridge during World War II.

The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal project to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. Besides Oak Ridge, other sites that were involved in the Manhattan Project and included in the park are Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

The New Hope Center is located at Y-12 at 602 Scarboro Road in Oak Ridge. For directions, maps are available at the National Park Service desk in the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge or call (865) 482-1942.

For more information, call the Manhattan Project National Historical Park at (865) 482-1942. Visitors are encouraged to visit the website for more information on the park at www.nps.gov/mapr. Follow the Manhattan Project National Historical Park on social media on Facebook at Facebook/ManhattanProjectNPS, on Twitter @MnhtnProjectNPS, or on Instagram @manhattanprojectnps.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

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