A friend sent this along knowing I’d love it.

"In 1951, A.C. Gilbert, inventor of the ERECTOR set, released the U-238 Atomic Energy Lab. Using real radioactive materials, one could witness mist trails created by particles of ionizing radiation.

The set included four Uranium-bearing ore samples, and originally sold for $49.50, and one could order replacement radioactive materials. 

Note: Geiger Counter sold separately.”

Here I am talking about my latest book, The Girls of Atomic City. I love these old Ed Westcott photos. Thanks to Touchstone and Simon & Schuster for putting this together.

Girls' Night Out: 1941 | Shorpy Historical Photo Archive

Love this shot of gals cutting loose in Washington, DC.

steroge:

A survivor of the United States’ atomic attack on Hiroshima, still hospitalized two years later, shows the damage to his hands, 1947 by Carl Mydans

(After Hiroshima: Portraits of Survivors)

One of my favorite rooms anywhere.

Amazing to me that it still, in a sense, looks the same.

librar-y:

Catalogue room, the New York Public Library, c. 1910.