Oak Ridge Today

Center for Oak Ridge Oral History seeks new interviews

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Oak Ridge Public Library

The Oak Ridge Public Library is pictured above.

The Oak Ridge Public Library is seeking new interviews as part of the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History project. More than 800 oral history entries have already been logged, but additional stories are needed from those who experienced Oak Ridge as children.

COROH’s main focus has been the Manhattan Project era of Oak Ridge’s history, from late 1942 to the end of World War II in August 1945. Interviewees are asked about what it was like to live in the “Secret City.” As the project continues, staff and volunteers will be looking to the second generation of Oak Ridgers in order to record their memories as well. [Read more…]

Help identify photos in Oak Ridge Library’s Ruth Carey collection

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From the Oak Ridge Public Library Ruth Carey photo collection (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

From the Oak Ridge Public Library Ruth Carey photo collection (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

 

The Oak Ridge Public Library needs your help. The library is privileged to house the photography collection of Ruth Carey, an original Oak Ridge resident and longtime photographer for The Oak Ridger from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. Her photo collection is vast and varied, including pictures of key political and cultural figures, community events, and weddings. Figures such as Alex Haley and Guilford Glazer, for instance, appear in several photos. Unfortunately, many of the photographs do not include notes about who is in the photo or when or where it was taken.

With the help of volunteers, Oak Ridge Public Library staff members Teresa Fortney and Jordan Reed have begun digitizing the collection. Some of the photographs that have been digitized are available for public viewing online at www.orpl.org. However, Carey’s collection was so comprehensive, only a portion of the total number of photographs have been digitized. As the library continues its digitization efforts, it is important that the people and places are identified so as not to lose this important part of our history. [Read more…]

City officials meet with NPS, DOE, other communities to discuss Manhattan Project park

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Chuck Hope

Chuck Hope

A delegation from the City of Oak Ridge recently traveled to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to participate in a meeting with officials from the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of Energy, and from Los Alamos and the Hanford communities to discuss the newly designated Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The meeting was sponsored by the Energy Communities Alliance, or ECA, which supported attendance at the meeting with travel grants to the participants.

The three-day event, with more than 50 in attendance, began with a tour of the cultural resources and Manhattan Project era sites at Los Alamos National Laboratory. David Klaus, deputy under secretary of management and performance with DOE, was the keynote speaker. He emphasized the importance of preserving the history of the Manhattan Project, and pointed to the important scientific and technological advancements that originated from that era.

Victor Knox, associate director for park planning, facilities, and lands for the National Park Service, then briefed attendees on the status of a memorandum of agreement, or MOA, currently under development by DOE and NPS. The draft MOA, which has been released for public comment, will govern the respective roles of the secretary of interior and secretary of energy in administering the park and its facilities. Completion of the MOA is the first major milestone required by the enacting legislation, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last December. [Read more…]