The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum will present a special free program this month based on the traveling exhibit Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: Living with the Atomic Bomb 1945-1865.
“On August 6, 1945, a specially-equipped American B-29 Superfortress dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. On August 9, another atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki. For most Americans, the immediate reaction to the atomic bomb was relief: it had ended the war. But as the United States celebrated, it also braced itself for the uncertain future of the Atomic Age. For the next two decades, the looming threat of Atomic war dominated American society.
Although the threat of Atomic annihilation eventually drifted to the background of American consciousness in the late 1960s, the Atomic Age left a legacy of governmental response and civic infrastructure that remains relevant today.
Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow explores the ways in which Americans experienced the Atomic threat as part of their daily lives – at school, in the home, and even at play. The exhibit features more than 75 original objects from the era, as well as large-scale graphics, radio broadcasts, and film. Visitors will experience how Americans were flooded with messaging through images and media that depicted the dangers of atomic energy.”
The program and exhibit are free and open to the public at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 29, 2013 in the DeVore Auditorium on the 2nd floor of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.
Michael Scheibach, Ph.D., co-curator of the exhibit, will present the program. Scheibach is an independent scholar specializing in the history of the Atomic Age from 1945 through the 1960s. He received his doctorate in American studies from the University of Kansas. He’s the author of Atomic Narratives and American Youth: Coming of Age with the Atom, 1945-1955, and is also the editor of “In Case Atom Bombs Fall”: An Anthology of Governmental Explanations, Instructions and Warnings from the 1940s to the 1960s. Scheibach has been a presenter at the annual conference of the Popular Culture Association and Ike’s America Conference.
The exhibit will be on display and included with regular museum admission through Sunday, August 11th, 2013. It is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, which is the oldest nonprofit regional arts organization in the United States.
The program and exhibit are free and open to the public on Saturday, June 29th, 2013 at 2:00 p.m.
Date: Saturday, June 29, 2013
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, 204 S. Main, Wichita
Cost: FREE
For more information: 316-265-9314 and online at wichitahistory.org
Regular Museum Hours and Admission
Time: Hours 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 1-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun.
Admission: $4, $2 children 6-12, children under 6 free.