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SURVIVING A NUCLEAR ATTACK WITH SPAM (IMAGES COLD WAR FALLOUT SHELTERS)
Atlas Obscura ^
| October 23, 2015
| ANIKA BURGESS
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 RepeaterNEARwarning 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)
TOPICS: Government; History; Society
KEYWORDS: boomernostalgia; g42
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To: KarlInOhio; NYer
We had that film and other CD films in my elementary school in the 60s... Our school was 7/10th of a mile from a SAC base as well....
Heck, we would have been vapor duck, cover, whatever...
61
posted on
10/23/2015 8:41:48 AM PDT
by
haywoodwebb
(Telling people the truth about Jesus is all that really matters now...)
To: SkyDancer
“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.
62
posted on
10/23/2015 8:44:52 AM PDT
by
TalonDJ
To: Iron Munro
The ones they were going to actually lob over here were much much smaller than that.
63
posted on
10/23/2015 8:46:00 AM PDT
by
TalonDJ
To: TalonDJ
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.
64
posted on
10/23/2015 8:50:32 AM PDT
by
Iron Munro
(The wise have stores of choice food and oil but a foolish man devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20)
To: knarf
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.
65
posted on
10/23/2015 8:59:40 AM PDT
by
MHGinTN
(Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
To: KeyLargo
Hey, that looks like my favorite snack. Cheese, grilled sausages, and beer.
To: Trumpinator
Also, beer serves as a diuretic and helps flush your system; lowering your body burden of radionuclides.
67
posted on
10/23/2015 9:16:42 AM PDT
by
catman67
(14 gauge?h)
To: catman67
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...
68
posted on
10/23/2015 9:19:57 AM PDT
by
Trumpinator
(You are all fired!!! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!)
To: Disambiguator
Wisconsin. Land of Cow shit and beer farts.
69
posted on
10/23/2015 9:31:47 AM PDT
by
KeyLargo
To: NYer; Kartographer
70
posted on
10/23/2015 9:41:37 AM PDT
by
AZ .44 MAG
(Repeal Obama)
To: AZ .44 MAG
I feel sorry for your Postman. ;-)
71
posted on
10/23/2015 9:44:18 AM PDT
by
Kartographer
("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
To: SJSAMPLE
Have you read Heinlein’s “Farnhman’s Freehold?” Not only did the fallout/blast shelter work, it also functioned as a time machine.
72
posted on
10/23/2015 10:10:55 AM PDT
by
Martin Tell
(Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni.)
To: AZ .44 MAG
I remember seeing a target scenario where the Russians would hit Seattle, Portland, San Fran and LA. Then they would create a vertical line of 30+ hits mid-country. That mid-line hit would blanket the east coast with radiation.
73
posted on
10/23/2015 10:11:40 AM PDT
by
aimhigh
(1 John 3:21)
To: Kartographer
74
posted on
10/23/2015 10:23:20 AM PDT
by
AZ .44 MAG
(Repeal Obama)
To: KeyLargo
With this food pyramid you won't need as many sanitary provisions in the shelter as you will never poop.
75
posted on
10/23/2015 10:24:30 AM PDT
by
GraceG
(Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
To: NYer
To: Martin Tell
Sure did.
Heinlein was batshit crazy at the end, but some of his stories were just insanely entertaining.
77
posted on
10/23/2015 10:35:49 AM PDT
by
SJSAMPLE
To: AZ .44 MAG
78
posted on
10/23/2015 10:39:31 AM PDT
by
Made In The USA
(Rap music: Soundtrack of the retarded.)
To: Iron Munro
79
posted on
10/23/2015 10:46:21 AM PDT
by
SJSAMPLE
To: aimhigh
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.
80
posted on
10/23/2015 11:20:10 AM PDT
by
AZ .44 MAG
(Repeal Obama)
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