A Crossville artist will unveil her oil portrait of Manhattan Project photographer Ed Westcott during a ceremony at the American Museum of Science and Energy this afternoon.
The ceremony is scheduled from 2-4 p.m. Westcott and at least one son and daughter are expected to attend, and a small reception will follow the unveiling ceremony, a press release said.
A photo exhibit that opened this month at the American Museum of Science and Energy documents the aftermath of the U.S. bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. (Submitted photo)
An exhibit that opened this month at an Oak Ridge museum includes photos documenting the aftermath of U.S. bombing raids in Japan in August 1945 during World War II.
The exhibit at the American Museum of Science and Energy is titled “Japan 1945: Images by U.S. Marine Photographer Joe O’Donnell.” It was organized by the Tennessee State Museum from O’Donnell’s original negatives. It opened Feb. 1 and will be on display through July 28.
The third annual U.S. Department of Energy’s East Tennessee Middle School Science Bowl will be hosted Saturday at the Oak Ridge campus of the Roane State Community College.
Starting at 9 a.m., students from 12 local middle schools will participate in a fast-paced academic competition offering students the opportunity to match their wits in math and science, a press release said.
A history exhibit curator and author will present a program and sign his book, “The Great Smoky Mountains National Park/Postcard History Series,” at the American Museum of Science and Energy on Saturday.
The program by Adam H. Alfrey, curator of exhibits at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville, will draw from public and private collections of vintage postcards, a press release said. It starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at AMSE.
The press release said the pictorial history “boasts more than 200 vintage images and provides readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history that shaped their community.”
The 100th photo from a collection of World War II pictures taken by James Edward Westcott, the official U.S. Army Manhattan Project photographer, was added to an American Museum of Science and Energy website today.
During the past year, the World War II images taken in Oak Ridge by James Edward Westcott, the official U.S. Army Manhattan Project photographer, have been scanned one image at a time every Tuesday and Thursday into the American Museum of Science and Energy’s website.
Today, the AMSE website will add the 100th photograph. The picture shows people waiting in line outside the telephone office in Oak Ridge, and it was taken by Westcott in 1944.
“The photos of Oak Ridge taken by Ed Westcott during the Manhattan Project years are invaluable to the preservation of the story of a unique moment in the United States history,” said Julie Kellis, AMSE collections curator.
The American Museum of Science and Energy is offering free admission to three more movies on Friday nights in December.
It’s part of the “Movies at the Museum” series that started in November.
This Friday night, AMSE will show â€The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.†This 1953 film (NR) follows a carnivorous dinosaur that resulted from an arctic nuclear test, thawed out, and started making its way down the east coast of North America, a press release said.
The American Museum of Science and Energy is offering free admission and a free movie Friday night.
The free movie is “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” a 1962 film about a pharmaceutical company that captures King Kong and brings him to Japan, where he escapes from captivity and battles a recently released Godzilla.
A Veterans Day ceremony on Thursday in Oak Ridge will feature Freddie J. Owens, twice wounded in combat in Vietnam and a survivor of the 1962 Ia Drang Valley battle, the first major battle between the U.S. Army and the North Vietnam Army. (Submitted photo)
A Veterans Day program in Oak Ridge on Thursday will pay tribute to those who served and died in Vietnam.
The featured speaker is Freddie J. Owens, who was wounded in combat twice in Vietnam and is a survivor of the 1962 Ia Drang Valley battle, the first major battle between the U.S. Army and the North Vietnam Army, a press release said. Owens will discuss his experiences serving in Vietnam as a squad leader with the 1st Calvary Division (Air Assault).
Thursday’s program, titled “Our Forgotten Heroes,â€Â is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office, and it is open to the public. It will start at 10 a.m. Thursday at the American Museum of Science and Energy at 200 S. Tulane Ave.
Owens’ military decorations include the Combat Infantry Badge, Air-Assault Badge with Star Cluster, Bronze Star with Valor Device, Purple Heart with Cluster, Air Medal with Combat Cluster, Presidential Unit Citation, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) Gallantry Cross, and Army Commendation medal.
The press release said Armistice Day was founded more than 90 years ago to recognize the sacrifices made by World War I veterans. Nov. 11 was the day chosen for the celebration and remembrance. It coincided with the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month—Nov. 11, 1918, when the armistice was signed, ending the war.
More than 48 million veterans have served the United States since its birth in 1776, and almost half are still alive today, the press release said. One of every 10 people in the country is a veteran.
For more information concerning ORO’s Veteran’s Support Group program, contact Ballard Jackson at the DOE Oak Ridge Office at (865) 241-6137 or [email protected].
Three movies, including “Jurassic Park” and a docudrama on the Manhattan Project, will be shown free at the American Museum of Science and Energy in November.
The museum will show three more films in December, including the 1998 movie “Godzilla.”
The showings are part of AMSE’s “Movies at the Museum” on Friday nights.
Here is more information on the movies:
The press release said “Movies at the Museum” is presented by the AMSE Foundation and several businesses and organizations.
AMSE opens at 5:30 p.m. for the series, and the featured movie starts at 7 p.m. in the AMSE auditorium. For links to the six movie descriptions, reviews and ratings, click on www.amse.org for guidance in age or family-appropriate content.
The American Museum of Science and Energy is at 300 S. Tulane Ave. in Oak Ridge.
Doomtown XI: The Technicolor Dinner Party, 2011, Oil on canvas by Doug Waterfield (Submitted)
An art exhibit that opened at the American Museum of Science and Energy today features paintings based on the Atomic Age and “Doomtowns,” replica cities built in Nevada to test the effects of atomic bombs in the 1950s.
This exhibit—”an exploration of atomic testing phenomena and subsequent 1950s atomic culture”—is called “DOOMTOWN.” It features original paintings by Doug Waterfield, an associate art professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
“It is a commentary on a bygone age of American history, and is an effort to bring awareness to the past known as the Atomic Age—an age of optimism, technological advances, and unmitigated paranoia,” an AMSE press release said.
The press release said the Atomic Energy Commission, which preceded the U.S. Department of Energy, built the “Doomtowns,” also known as “Survival Towns,” at the Nevada Test Site. Warfield’s paintings were influenced by the photos and film footage that survive from those tests.
“I first became interested in atomic testing while watching some documentaries on the Trinity test and the Nevada Test Site,” Waterfield said. “I was particularly interested in the ‘survival towns.’ These were recreations of what was considered to be the quintessential American town, populated by mannequins, and then lit up by atomic blasts to see what the effects would be. I couldn’t get that idea out of my head.”
Part of his mission, Waterfield said, is to educate the public.
“I don’t want to take a political view on the morality of atomic testing; people already know what to think of that,” Waterfield said. “I want to take this little known aspect of our history as a world power and shed a little light on it—that’s all.”
Waterfield is an Arkansas native who now lives in Nebraska with his family, and his work has been shown nationally for the past 25 years, the press release said.
“DOOMTOWN” is at AMSE from Oct. 12—Jan. 20.
AMSE is located at 300 S. Tulane Ave.
For more information, visit www.amse.org.
Thom Mason
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason will give an update on the lab during a Tuesday lecture at the American Museum of Science and Energy.
It’s the 15th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series, and the talk is sponsored by Friends of ORNL.
There will be a 6 p.m. reception on Tuesday, and the lecture starts at 6:30 p.m.
“This talk should be of interest to the general public, and high school science students and teachers are especially invited,” a press release said.
AMSE is located at 300 S. Tulane Ave. in Oak Ridge.
Admission at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge will be free on Saturday for visitors who have downloaded a ticket from the Smithsonian Magazine website.
It’s the eighth annual Smithsonian Magazine’s National Museum Day Live!, and more than 1,400 venues are participating, an AMSE press release said.
The tickets can be downloaded at www.Smithsonian.com/museumday. One ticket will allow entry for two people. There is a limit of one ticket per household and e-mail address.
