Canned water

This image was recently copied in the photography studio and acquired by the museum in 2011. This is the significant statement from our collection database:

This rare 1957 photograph is significant as an illustration of the cultural impact of atomic energy in the wake of the Second World War. While atomic science offered new, more economic, ways to create energy it also had a darker side. The horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still firmly embedded in 1950s America which was also in the middle of a nuclear ‘Cold War’ with Russia. The canned water in this photograph is significant in its clear illustration of the level of these concerns in the United States. Civil Defence units were set up to help people in the wake of a nuclear event and this canned water marked ‘CD’ was to be stored and used in such an event.

Photographer unknown

Tags: 1957, America, black and white, cans, water