The Atomic Heritage Foundation (AHF), founded by Cynthia Kelly in 2002, is a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC, dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Age and its legacy. The Foundation's goal is to provide the public not only a better understanding of the past but also a basis for addressing scientific, technical, political, social and ethical issues of the 21st century.
Specifically, the Foundation works with Congress, the Department of Energy, National Park Service, state and local governments, nonprofit organizations and the former Manhattan Project communities to preserve historic resources and other aspects of the history. Our preservation efforts have included over one hundred oral histories of Manhattan Project veterans, symposia, books, museum exhibits, and teachers' workshops and educational resources.
In 2004, the Foundation promoted
legislation to authorize the National Park Service to study whether to create a
national historical park site consisting of the former Manhattan Project sites.
The study was released in December 2009. The Foundation is working with
communities to establish a ManhattanProjectNationalHistoricalPark at the three major Manhattan Project sites as well as several affiliated areas.
In addition, AHF has hosted several major symposia with leading historians, veterans and political leaders. The latest, "Revisiting Reykjavik: Nuclear Weapons Policies for the New Century," was held on March 14, 2009, in Washington, DC, and was broadcast by C-SPAN. AHF is also producing workshops and educational resources for high school teachers and students on the Manhattan Project and its legacy.
Building upon its past museum exhibitions in Hanford, WA, and Idaho Falls, ID, the Atomic Heritage Foundation is working on a national traveling exhibition on the Manhattan Project that addresses the present challenges of containing the threat of nuclear weapons.
The Foundation has also developed five documentary films and several publications including an anthology, The Manhattan Project (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007). Currently, the Foundation is developing a nuclear reader tracing nuclear weapons history from the Manhattan Project and Cold War to the prospects of realizing "a world without nuclear weapons."
For more details on all of our current projects and past accomplishments, visit the AHF Projects page.
The Atomic Heritage Foundation
910 17th Street, NW
Suite 408
Washington, DC 20006
202-293-0045 info@atomicheritage.org
Atomic Story of the Week
I used to sit in Pajarito Canyon and write letters to my future wife. My first encounter with security was when they sent back my first letters and said, “You can’t say that.”
“Can’t say what?”
Well, on the outside of the envelope were the letters “S.W.A.K.,” which if you’re my age, you know means “Sealed With A Kiss.” So I explained that, but “No, it’s code, you can’t say that.” So from then on, I didn’t put that!
McALLISTER HULL, LOS ALAMOS
Did You Know?
"Having invented a new Holocaust
And been the first with it to win a war,
How they make haste to cry with fingers crossed,
King's X--no fair to use it any more!"
(Robert Frost; quote provided by Daniel Osborn of Colorado)
