Posted on 10/23/2015 6:49:35 AM PDT by NYer
FULL TITLE: SURVIVING A NUCLEAR ATTACK WITH SPAM, AND OTHER IMAGES FROM COLD WAR FALLOUT SHELTERS
A display of essential survival supplies for a well-stocked fallout shelter, c.1961. (Photo: NARA)
During the Cold War, as the arms race between Soviet Russia and the United States escalated, the perceived threat of nuclear attack became increasingly heightened. In response, the U.S. developed procedures to protect its citizens should the worst happen. In 1956, the National Emergency Alarm Repeater—NEAR—warning siren device was implemented to alert citizens to a nuclear attack. Students were drilled in "duck and cover" practices at schools. Books with titles such as Nuclear War Survival Skills were issued. And the only means of protection against radiation in the event of such a catastrophe was a fallout shelter.
Designs for fallout shelters appeared in pamphlets, subway advertisements and displays at civil defense fairs. President Kennedy even got involved. In September 1961, the same month that the Soviets resumed testing nuclear weapons, Life magazine published a letter from the President advocating the use of fallout shelters. Rather terrifyingly, it was printed over an image of a mushroom cloud.
But that was just one of the many interesting graphical representations of the threat of annihilation. Below, check out our collection of fallout shelter designs and photographs that show just how people in the 1950s and 1960s tried to prepare for the unthinkable.
A 1958 drawing of a family fallout shelter designed to accommodate four to six people. (Photo: NARA)
A Civil Defense bus/subway poster from 1959. (Photo: Public Domain/Courtesy Civil Defense Museum)
A fallout shelter in Michigan, c. 1960, for a family of four. It had a 10-inch reinforced concrete ceiling and concrete walls. (Photo: NARA)
"See the Family Fallout Shelter": the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization exhibit at a local civil defense fair. ca. 1960. (Photo: NARA)
Directions to a fallout shelter at a high school in Boston, 1962. (Photo: NARA)
A display for different types of family shelters from the 1960s. (Photo: Public Domain/Courtesy Civil Defense Museum)
Fallout shelter supplies being distributed to nuns in Goffstown, New Hampshire, 1963. (Photo: NARA)
A woman takes an inventory of supplies for her household's fallout shelter, c. 1950s. A tub of potato chips sits under the table. (Photo: NARA)
An artist's rendition of a temporary basement fallout shelter, ca.1957. (Photo: NARA)
A basement family fallout shelter, including a 14-day non-perishable food supply, a battery-operated radio, auxiliary light sources, a two-week supply of water, and first aid, sanitary, and other miscellaneous supplies and equipment, ca.1957. (Photo: NARA)
“Had to laugh at those pictures of kids under their desks like that was going to protect them from a blast.”
Actually it probably will. When you look at the areas of circles you see that the ‘shock wave’ area of a nuclear blast is far larger by area than the ‘everything vaporizes’. The most likely danger when a bomb goes off is flying glass. Hiding under your desk is not a bad way to avoid some of that. The truth is that even for big bombs if you are a few miles away it is not the ‘skin burning off apocalypse’ that you see in Hollywood. There is a reason those shelters are called ‘fallout’ shelters and not ‘blast’ shelters. Hide in your basement two weeks until the main dust cloud goes away and you have a fairly decent chance of survival.
The ones they were going to actually lob over here were much much smaller than that.
I still have doubts the desk would have worked.
Speaking of cigarettes: I had a prof in college (in the sixties) who smoked Wings cigarettes. Somehow she was able to keep coming up with packs of those unfiltered cigs. I used to wonder if the cigs were from WWII, if not still being manufactured.
Hey, that looks like my favorite snack. Cheese, grilled sausages, and beer.
Also, beer serves as a diuretic and helps flush your system; lowering your body burden of radionuclides.
Yes, please everyone know I am not advocating living off of beer. I am just saying can be a go to source when looting - just kidding....thinking of that beer refugee guy from NOLA...
Wisconsin. Land of Cow shit and beer farts.
I feel sorry for your Postman. ;-)
Have you read Heinlein’s “Farnhman’s Freehold?” Not only did the fallout/blast shelter work, it also functioned as a time machine.
Lol
With this food pyramid you won't need as many sanitary provisions in the shelter as you will never poop.
bkmk
Sure did.
Heinlein was batshit crazy at the end, but some of his stories were just insanely entertaining.
Wow! That’s cool!
I’ve spoken with a few of the people involved with inspecting the Soviet sites. One of them said that some of their sites were flooded and couldn’t launch. I don’t know if that’s true or not but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were.
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