Here's a collection of rare historical photos from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a town established by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 on an isolated farm. It was a secret location that became one of the most significant sites of the Manhattan Project.


Signs at Graphics Department, 1943-1944


Workers load uranium slugs into the X-10 Graphite Reactor's 44 by 44 feet (13.4 m) concrete face, 1943

(via Wikimedia Commons)

Barn being used for storage, 1943


"The Calutron Girls", Y-12, 1944











Post office at Christmas time, 1944


The Atom, 1945


Line for cigarettes at Williams Drug Store, Jackson Square, 1945


Entrance to K-25, an uranium enrichment facility, 1945


The Elza bridge, 1945


Welding, 1945


The Oak Ridge Swimming Pool, 1946


Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1947


A.E.C. Girls Club, 1947


Oak Ridge Journal Staff, 1947


Santa Claus, 1947


Sports: Basketball and boxing, 1947


Aerial of Y-12, 1947


Wheat Cemetery & Church, 1948


Ogden Circle, 1948


Ed Westcott's Camera and Entry Pass, 1940s


Safety billboard, 1948

To Man and the Atom, an exhibition in 1948


Dagwood Splits The Atom, 1949


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Willow Brooke School, 1949


Radioisotope separation and production, 1949


Mechanical hands, 1949


Oak Ridge High School, 1951


Erection of pre-fabs, 1951


Loading the Graphite Reactor at ORNL, 1952


Air View of K-25, K-31 and K-33, 1954


Woodland, 1955


Atoms for Peace Exhibit Trucks 1956


Type B home, 1957


A worker at the Graphite Reactor, 1957


Manipulators, 1958



Isotope Storage Area, 1958


Microwave Spectroscopy, 1958


Billboards, 1960


City Sign, 1960


Zonal Centrifuge Lab work, 1967


Vibration Testing, 1967


Safety, 1967


Big Mouth No. 1, 1970


Security – That's all!, 1970


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The photos are from doe-oakridge, except when noted otherwise.