Page 18 - Demo

Nuclear Weapons of the Atomic AgeIf all 13,000 were detonated, they would have a combined power equivalent to 3 billion tons of TNT%u2014over 100,000 times the energy of the single first test at Alamogordo.About this CollectionA topical collection is made up of items relating to one particular subject, in this case materials associated with nuclear weapons. It was begun after I learned that the United States had planned to release a stamp in 1995 depicting one of the atomic blasts over Japan that ended WWII. After complaints by the public and Japanese officials, the design for that stamp was abandoned by the Post Office. However, many other nations have had no such qualms, at least not enough to prevent them from issuing stamps depicting nuclear explosions. Those stamps oddly fascinated me, and spurred me to start this collection.This album contains examples of individual stamps, sets of stamps, blocks of four, Miniature Sheets, and stamps on First Day Covers. The vast majority were selected because they depict a nuclear blast. Those without a mushroom cloud contain scenes related to the Nuclear Age. In addition, there is a selection of ephemera from the era, much of which deals with how to survive a nuclear explosion. Also included is a selection of vintage photographs that deal with scenes and personalities from that era, some produced as souvenirs, other for distribution to the media. And finally, there are postcards depicting nuclear explosions, facilities associated with the production of nuclear weapons (primarily Oak Ridge, Tennessee), a set of cards from the Soviet Union featuring atomic scientist Igor Kurchatov, and various other postcards chronicling nuclear weapons. Workers prepare the United States%u2019 last nuclear weapon for testing on September 23, 1992. Code-named Divider, it was a 20-kiloton device, and was detonated underground at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.President Bill Clinton signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on September 24, 1996. The treaty was never ratified by Congress.