UCSB Special Collections: Exhibits: Current Exhibit

Current Exhibit

The U.S. and the World after 1945

May 15 - August 15, 2009

Our current exhibit materials that reflect the political and cultural state of the world after the end of World War II. Call numbers or manuscript numbers have been listed where applicable. Topics include:

The Beginning of the Atomic Age, including:
- monographs pertaining to the development of the atom bomb, primarily at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico Facilities;
- local author Frank K. Kelly's account of discussions he had with President Truman about the decision to drop use atomic weapons in Japan [Printers Z478.86.C36 K44 1998];
- and the notebook of an American soldier who fought in the Pacific during WWII, decribing Japan's surrender, the state of Nagaskai and other thoughts after the dropping of the atom bomb [SC 851].
Post-War Japan and Post-War Germany, including:
- photograph albums from the Stuart L. Bernath Memorial Collection of Berlin [Bernath Mss 320] and Hiroshima [Bernath Mss 134] after the war;
- a caption sheet for the filming of the war crimes trial of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita from the United States Army Signal Corps Film Unit [Bernath Mss 139];
- and books about the Nuremberg Tirals from the Eugene Davidson Collection, which primarily contains materials relating to 20th century German history.
The Cold War: Duck and Cover, including manuscript and more ephemeral materials, such as U.S. Army and Civil Defense pamphlets, most from the 1950s and early 1960s. Many of the items in this case are from the Atomic Age Collection, which contains pamphlets, brochures, flyers, and other ephemera dealing with issues of radiation and fallout, bomb shelters, civil defense, U.S.-Soviet relations, government and religious response to the development of the atom bomb [Mss 245].
The Atomic Age: Popular Culture, including:
- items from the Atomic Age Collection [Mss 245] such as comic books, atomic bomb-shaped salt and pepper shakers, and the pamphlet "The Story of Atomic Energy, with Safe, Interesting Experiments," published by Chemcraft; and
- record albums including "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb" [Victor Records], performed by Johnnie and Jack and their Tennessee Mountain Boys, "Atomic Cocktail" [Atomic Records], performed by Slim Gaillard Quartette, and "Atomic Energy" [Charter Records], performed by sir Lancelot;
Books from the Stuart L. Bernath Memorial Collection. The books on display are part of the 2008 Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize competition, sponsored by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Stuart L. Bernath received his PhD in history from UCSB and his family set up an endowment in his memory. The endowment helps fund a collection which focuses on international relations, including the period of the Cold War, and which presently comprises printed materials and more than 300 separate manuscript collections.
McCarthy Era and Anti-Communism Crusades.The American Religions Collection contains a number of printed works by 1950s-1960s religious figures and movements who preached against the dangers of communists and communist ideas (usually as espoused by the Soviet Union), and their threat to American society and Christianity. Works on display include "The Challenge of the Protestant Faith to Communism" [ARC HX536 .L39 1962], and "Communism, the Total Lie!" [ARC HX87 .H33 1963] by Billy James Hargis;
American Interests Abroad, reflecting the locations in which American servicemen continued to be stationed after World War II and of the U.S Government, business, and missionary interests in these locations. Items include:
- a Korean War Photograph Album, with images taken by an American serviceman in Korea,
- photographs from the French Indochina Photograph Collection [Bernath Mss 41],
- and several photographs from the Gildea [James H.] Middle East Railroad Collection [Bernath Mss 219], a collection which documents Gildea's role in the early 1950's as the engineer and manager of the Saudi Government Railway;
and The Post Colonial World, including:
- monographs on the formation of the Israeli state and its conflict with the state of Palestine,
- and the Jewish Diaspora News Photograph Collection [Bernath Mss 109].