Nucleus

The childish enthusiasm and scientific innocence displayed in the photographs can be viewed as the blueprint for contemporary scientific expeditions to unknown territories.

strangelove-nucleus-12
Observing radioactivity, 1954
strangelove-nucleus-01
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1948
strangelove-nucleus-3
Cyclotron, Washington 1940
strangelove-nucleus-4
University of California, 1959
strangelove-nucleus-5
Reactor, 1952
strangelove-nucleus-6
University of Chicago, 1948
strangelove-nucleus-9
Hanford atomic plant, 1955
strangelove-nucleus-8
Reactor Testing Station, Idaho, 1954
strangelove-nucleus-7
Masterslave, 1956
strangelove-nucleus-10
Oak Ridge, 1954
strangelove-nucleus-11
Hanford plutonium plant, 1956
strangelove-nucleus-13
University of Princeton, 1952
strangelove-nucleus-14
Los Alamos Laboratory, 1949
strangelove-nucleus-15
Goodyear Atomic Corporation, 1956
strangelove-nucleus-16
Argonne National Lab, 1957

Finally I could remove the goggles and watch the ball of fire rise rapidly. It was surrounded by a huge cloud of transparent purplish air produced in part by the radiations from the bomb and its fission products. No one who saw it could forget it, a foul and awesome display.
Now we are all sons of bitches.

Kenneth Bainbridge. American physicist. Immediately after watching the Trinity Test

  1. U.S. Army / Associated Press Photo
    Printed in: 1945
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    13 x 18 cm
    Captions, stamp. handwritten notes in pencil on verso
    Atomic bomb test explosion, made July 16 at Alamogordo by a U.S. Army automatic newsreel camera at a distance of six miles.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

  2. Now we are all sons of bitches

  3. Finally I could remove the goggles and watch the ball of fire rise rapidly. It was surrounded by a huge cloud of transparent purplish air produced in part by the radiations from the bomb and its fission products. No one who saw it could forget it, a foul and awesome display.
    Now we are all sons of bitches.

    Kenneth Bainbridge. American physicist. Immediately after watching the Trinity Test

  4. Robley L. Johnson photo for Richland, Washington
    Printed in: 1948
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    13 x 18 cm
    Captions, notes, and stamp on verso
    "Canyon building" used in manufacture of plutonium, man-made element from which atomic bombs are formed, its walls are reputedly seven feet thick.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Plutonium separation, Hanford, Washington 1948

  5. Press Photo
    Printed in: 1959
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    13 x 18 cm
    Captions and stamps on verso
    Atomic Gun Barrel. Fragments of matter are hurled through the doughnut-shaped "drift tubes".

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Atom Smasher, University of California, 1959

  6. General Electric Company
    Printed in: 1940
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    13 x 18 cm
    Captions, notes, and stamp on verso
    What looks like the jaws of a monster here are two exciting coils for a cyclotron being assembled at the Carnegie Institution in Washington.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Cyclotron, Washington, 1940

  7. A.E.C. Isotopes Division
    Printed in: 1948
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20.2 x 25.4 cm
    Captions and stamp on verso
    A remote control apparatus developed for use with extremly high levels of activity.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1948

  8. Atomic Energy Commission
    Printed in: 1952
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    25 x 20 cm
    Caption on verso
    Research reactor under construction by North Carolina State Collage.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Reactor, North Carolina State Collage, 1952

  9. Press Photo
    Printed in: 1948
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    18 x 18 cm
    Captions, handwriting, and stamps on verso
    Monster atom smasher of university of Chicago, already the focus of the nuclear physics world, takes a stride towards completion as pole discs are installed. The all-steel discs weights 82 tons each.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Atom Smasher, University of Chicago, 1948

  10. General Electric
    Printed in: 1955
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Captions, handwriting, and stamps on verso
    „Hot“ items at the Hanford atomic plant are „cooled“ in this water bath by General Electric Company employees so maintenance work can be carried on with greater safety. The water absorbs dangerous atomic radiation coming off equipment being repaired.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Hanford atomic plant, 1955

  11. Press Photo
    Printed in: 1954
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Captions, handwriting, and stamp on verso
    A returned irradiated "rabbit" causes a blue glow in the water of the Material testing Reactor canal. A 2rabbit" is a hydraulic shuttle used to carry material to the heart of the reactor.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Reactor Testing Station, Idaho, 1954

  12. General Electric
    Printed in: 1956
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Captions, handwriting, and stamps on verso
    General Electric´s experimental masterslave, „Yes-Man,“ the servo manipulator that can serve as a mechanic in radioactive work areas, has muscle as well as dexterity.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Experimental masterslave, 1956

  13. Atomic Energy Commission
    Printed in: 1954
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    25 x 20 cm
    Retouched by ballpoint pen. Stamped and serial number on verso
    File N0. 6781-1 U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Isotopes Division. Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1954

  14. Press Photo
    Printed in: 1956
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    13 x 18 cm
    Stamped and tearsheet on verso
    Wearing ant-like antennae on his helmet, an employee at Hanford plutonium plant tests for a "hot zone" in the atomic plant.

    Hanford, Plutonium plant, 1956

  15. Press Photo
    Printed in: 1954
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and tearsheet on verso
    Radioactive areas can be seen through glasses demonstrated by Dr. E. Emilenz, head of the scientific-technical department of the Bonn goverment of Germany.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Watching radioactivity, 1954

  16. Press Photo
    Printed in: 1952
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped. hand written notes and tearsheet on verso
    Prof. N. Alyea of Princeton University almost succeeds in creating a mushroom smoke cloud.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    University of Princeton, 1952

  17. Los Alamos Laboratory
    Printed in: 1949
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and caption
    Laboratory mice, after taking food „tagged“ with radioactive carbon at Los Alamos Laboratory are placed in all-glass metabolic cages which collect exhaled air and other body excretions.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Los Alamos Laboratory, 1949

  18. Goodyear Atomic Corporation
    Printed in: 1956
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Hand written notes and tearsheet on verso
    The robot is a lady

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Goodyear Atomic Corporation, 1956

  19. Argonne National Lab
    Printed in: 1957
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped, hand written notes and tearsheet on verso
    Scientists register a „chain reaction“ of joy as they graduate from the International School of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Argonne National Laboratory.

    All rights reserved. 2025 Strangelove Collection

    Argonne National Lab, 1957

  1. NEW
    Nucleus
  2. Rocketmen
  3. Probing
  4. Thirteen
    Rocket
    Launches
  5. coming soon
  6. coming soon