exhibit review

I got to go to beautiful, sunny Las Vegas for spring break. I figured this would be a great opportunity to visit a museum so my dad and I looked one up to visit while we were there. Being from Richland, Washington (which is right by the Hanford Site) and my dad from Los Alamos, New Mexico (working at the Los Alamos National Labs), we decided that the Atomic Testing Museum. The museum opened in February of 2005 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is located in a very modern looking building just a few miles from the Las Vegas Strip and the University of Nevada- Las Vegas campus. Their website has a mission-like statement that says “ATM permanent exhibits portray world history as community history through varied representations of the story of the NTS and its programs, first-person narratives, large iconic artifacts, authenticity of text, environmental re-creations, theatrical devices, interactive elements for personal exploration, multiple viewpoints expressed in multi-media presentations and stunning graphics, many not seen before.” The museum seemed to be geared more towards adults than children and I can see how a child may get bored or be uninterested in the museum. The museum was very clean and organized on the inside and was pretty dimly lit after the ticket booth with the exception of lights shining on the displays. The staff was very nice and they had pamphlets for older students to read and fill out as they went through the museum. The exhibits were laid out very well and there were arrows on the floor pointing in the direction of the next room. There was a lot of concrete and stainless steel throughout the museum to give it the “bomb shelter” feel throughout. There were huge posters on the walls with information to read. There was a lot of reading, something I didn’t like about the museum. They had a giant timeline spanning through the entire museum about the atomic bomb and the tests sites that went all the way to the year 2000. On the same timeline they had fun inventions and facts on the bottom so that it really put the era into perspective for those who either weren’t around or couldn’t remember. In one of the corners they had an alphabetized list of all of the code words that were used for the atomic tests so that other nations wouldn’t find out and so the news was relatively secret from the public. My favorite name was Zucchini but they also had other fruits and vegetables on the list. It was amazing to see how much work was done with the atomic bombs and yet how secret the whole operation really was. My favorite display showed the influence of the atomic bomb on pop culture. Many artifacts were displayed in this large case. It contained things like atomic fire ball candy (cinnamon flavored candy), comics, books and other toys throughout the time the atomic bomb came about. If seen some of these stores and even eaten an atomic fire ball. One of the more impressive displays was a JC Penny clothing display. The museum even had an old JC Penny catalogue which used atomic bomb testing to see how good their clothing was (definitely a very interesting marketing ploy). It showed picture in their catalogue about how much heat and pressure their clothes could withstand (tested on mannequins of course). The museum also had basic chemistry displays in which it talked about radioactive elements and electron orbitals. This portion of the museum definitely brought me back to my days in basic chemistry which I don’t want to relive again. The most impressive part of the entire museum was the theatre in which you got to experience what it felt like to be on the atomic test site. There was a countdown, a giant rumble, air, and a flash of light. The noise was also overwhelming. There weren’t many visitors in the museum when I attended which made the experience more personal. The museum did not allow photography which was a bit unfortunate because I know there were things that I missed. The museum had a Geiger counter and some samples to test with it. Fiesta ware is slightly radioactive whereas water is not radioactive at all. At the exit of the museum, they had a gift shop where they had pencils, pens, patches, jewelry, shirts, mugs, atomic candy, and nuclear waste candy, magnets, and original 1962 Galvanized metal Fallout Shelter signs. The museum was very interesting but I’m not sure if I would have been interested in it if I did not have such a personal connection to the Hanford Site or the Los Alamos National Laboratory.