Oak Ridge Today

History Museum to celebrate new Hutment Exhibit

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The Oak Ridge History Museum will celebrate the opening of its Hutment Exhibit with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, April 1, 2023. A hutment from the Manhattan Project during World War II is pictured above. (Submitted photo)

The Oak Ridge History Museum will celebrate the opening of its Hutment Exhibit with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, April 1.

The Hutment Exhibit “promises to transport visitors back in time to the Oak Ridge Manhattan Project era,” a press release said.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will celebrate the exhibit’s opening and “offer an unparalleled glimpse into a piece of history that shaped America,” the press release said.

The Hutment Exhibit will feature an authentic reproduction of a Manhattan Project “Hutment,” showcasing the living conditions of the workers who helped construct the wartime manufacturing facilities during World War II.

[Read more…]

Museums, national park center closed

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The American Museum of Science and Energy is pictured above on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Museums and the national park welcome center in Oak Ridge are closed because of COVID-19, the respiratory illness that has infected more than 200,000 people in at least 144 countries around the world and killed more than 8,000 people.

The museums closed in Oak Ridge are the American Museum of Science and Energy, Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, K-25 History Center, Oak Ridge History Museum at Midtown Community Center (Wildcat Den), and Y-12 History Museum at New Hope Center.

Also closed is the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Welcome Center at the Children’s Museum.

The AMSE bus tours are also not operating now.

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Oak Ridge History Museum presents 1940s music on Saturday

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The Oak Ridge History Museum will host an evening of 1940s music by the Oak Ridge High School Choral Ensemble and the Oak Ridge High School Jazz Band on Saturday, January 18, at 7 p.m.

Admission is free, although donations to the museum are certainly welcome, a press release said.

The Oak Ridge History Museum (www.oakridgemuseum.com) is located at 102 Robertsville Road in Oak Ridge, across the street from the Kroger Marketplace.

This press release was submitted by a subscriber to Oak Ridge Today.

ORHPA to celebrate $80,000 grant at History Museum

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Photo by Oak Ridge History Museum

The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association will celebrate its 20th anniversary and the receipt of an S80,000 state grant during a ceremony on Saturday.

The state grant is for the new Oak Ridge History Museum, a press release said.

The public is invited to Saturday’s ceremony. The Oak Ridge History Museum is at 102 Robertsville Road in central Oak Ridge.

[Read more…]

Learn more about ‘Secret City,’ Manhattan Project during bus tours in August

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The X-10 Graphite Reactor with workers. (U.S. Department of Energy)

Two new bus tours offered in Oak Ridge in August will allow you to learn more about the unique heritage of the Manhattan Project, a press release said. The bus tours are the “Secret City” and “Oak Ridge Museums” tours.

The “Secret City” tour will be led by a National Park Service ranger, last three hours, and include that day’s admission to the American Museum of Science and Energy.

“During the Manhattan Project, a community was created almost overnight to accomplish the monumental task of producing enriched uranium on a large scale,” the press release said. “During the tour, visitors can develop an understanding of what life was like during World War II in a city behind a fence that no one was supposed to discuss. The tour will also include a visit to the X-10 Graphite Reactor, a National Historic Landmark, and the world’s first nuclear reactor designed and built for continuous operation.”

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‘HerStory’ photo exhibit at Oak Rige History Museum

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K-25-69 Close up of welding in prefabrecation shop 1944 bld.300 (Photo by Ed Westcott)

K-25-69 Close up of welding in prefabrecation shop  1944  bld.300 (Photo by Ed Westcott)

 

The Oak Ridge History Museum will host “HerStory: A Photography Exhibition of Women in the Secret City.” The exhibit will open Friday, March 29, and will be open every Friday and Saturday during the month of April.

“From janitor to homemaker to chemist, the women of the Manhattan Project worked hard and talked little,” a press release said. “During World War II, Oak Ridge was a government town of 70,000 workers, primarily women who lived in a camp-like environment of barbed wire, security checkpoints, and code words.  Workers were fingerprinted, interviewed, assigned a job, and given a clearance badge. Housing was limited and cramped and often unheated. Food at the cafeterias was in short supply and lines were long.” [Read more…]

AMSE celebrates 70 years

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Image courtesy American Museum of Science and Energy

Image courtesy American Museum of Science and Energy

 

The American Museum of Science and Energy is celebrating 70 years. As part of the celebration, there are three events scheduled next week, on March 19 and March 23, at AMSE and Oak Ridge History Museum.

It’s being called a platinum anniversary celebration of science, ingenuity, and the catalyst of the Atomic Age.

“As an anchor of the community, AMSE is proud to celebrate a city that once only existed a vision,” a press release said. “The footprint of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will forever be etched into history as one of the foundations of the Manhattan Project. Seventy years ago, steps were taken to preserve that vision and recognize how the world was changed by the ‘Secret City.’ The museum tells the story about how and why people learned to split the atom. On March 19, 1949, the city’s gates and the nation’s first atomic energy museum, named the American Museum of Atomic Energy, were opened to the public for the first time. [Read more…]

ORPHA to celebrate two history-related events

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Photo by Oak Ridge History Museum

Photo by Oak Ridge History Museum

 

The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association will celebrate two history-related events this month: the opening of the Oak Ridge city gates 70 years ago and the opening of a new museum, the Oak Ridge History Museum.

The celebration is scheduled for Saturday, March 23.

The new museum was established to preserve the history of the life and work of the people who made the Manhattan Project a success, a press release said. The primary purpose of the museum is to focus on the “human side” of the Manhattan Project, telling the story of the history of Oak Ridge and the people’s day-to-day lives during World War II. The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II.

The Oak Ridge History Museum exhibits feature a unique collection of authentic artifacts and displays, including historic photographs made by Ed Westcott, the famous Manhattan Project photographer in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

‘Atomic Integration,’ photo exhibit on African-American life in Manhattan Project, opens Friday

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Photo by Ed Westcott via National Park Service

Photo by Ed Westcott via National Park Service

 

In honor of Black History Month, the Oak Ridge History Museum will host “Atomic Integration,” a photography exhibition focusing on African-American life during the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a press release said.

The exhibit will open on Friday, February 8, and it will be open every Friday and Saturday during the month of February, the press release said.

The photo exhibit was developed under sponsorship by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, and Explore Oak Ridge.

The images that will be displayed in the photo exhibit illustrate the experiences and contributions of African-Americans during the Manhattan Project period during the 1940s in Oak Ridge, the press release said. [Read more…]

Preservation group opens community center, plans history museum

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The Midtown Community Center on Robertsville Road is pictured above. (Submitted photo)

The Midtown Community Center on Robertsville Road is pictured above. (Submitted photo)

 

In August, the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association announced that it was opening the historic Midtown Community Center to the public on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and the organization has plans for a new Oak Ridge History Museum.

The announcement was made by the ORHPA’s Oak Ridge History Museum Committee.

The Midtown Community Center is open to the public: [Read more…]