Girl Scouts March in Front of the X-10 Facility During Their Visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, June 9, 1951

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Title

Girl Scouts March in Front of the X-10 Facility During Their Visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, June 9, 1951

Creator

Ed Westcott
American, 1922 - 2019


Ed Westcott was the official US Army photographer of the Oak Ridge, Tennessee site for the Manhattan Project. Westcott went to work for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1941. The following year he became the official government photographer of the Manhattan Engineering District (MED) in Oak Ridge. Among the first in the new secret city, Ed shot thousands of photos documenting the construction and operations, as well as the lives and times of Oak Ridgers from the beginning.

Westcott shot hundreds of exposures and processed over 5,000 prints before the war even ended. The National Archives is the repository for all of Westcott's negatives and offers an extensive collection of his photos from the period.

After the war, Westcott stayed in Oak Ridge as an employee of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), until he was transferred to AEC headquarters in 1966. Westcott retired in 1977. He passed away on March 29, 2019 at the age of 97.

Date

1951

Format

archival inkjet print

Type

photograph

Description

Designed and built in ten months, X-10 was a graphite reactor that used neutrons emitted in the fission of uranium-235 to convert uranium-238 into a new element: plutonium-239, the highly radioactive substance that was the key to the development of the second atomic bomb.

In this photograph of the Girl Scouts marching down a ruddy road in front of the X-10 facility, the Public Information Office of the Atomic Energy Commission instructed Ed Westcott to make a photograph showing that X-10 could function as designed and not have detrimental effects on the community. Westcott thus chose a vantage point that afforded him the opportunity to contrast X-10’s menacing tangle of power lines, barbed wire fences, smoke stacks, and mounds of dirt with the delicate vulnerability of the youthful Girl Scouts.

Source

United States Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Office, Photography Archives

Citation

Ed Westcott American, 1922 - 2019 Ed Westcott was the official US Army photographer of the Oak Ridge, Tennessee site for the Manhattan Project. Westcott went to work for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1941. The following year he became the official government photographer of the Manhattan Engineering District (MED) in Oak Ridge. Among the first in the new secret city, Ed shot thousands of photos documenting the construction and operations, as well as the lives and times of Oak Ridgers from the beginning. Westcott shot hundreds of exposures and processed over 5,000 prints before the war even ended. The National Archives is the repository for all of Westcott's negatives and offers an extensive collection of his photos from the period. After the war, Westcott stayed in Oak Ridge as an employee of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), until he was transferred to AEC headquarters in 1966. Westcott retired in 1977. He passed away on March 29, 2019 at the age of 97., “Girl Scouts March in Front of the X-10 Facility During Their Visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, June 9, 1951,” Ewing Gallery Permanent Collection, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ewinggallery.omeka.net/items/show/105.