Fire Prevention Week Meets Them, declassified
2006
20 by 16 in h
Digital Painting
Based on a photo from the "Hanford Historical Photo Declassification Project".
Read the introduction to the Remixing the Hanford Declassified Project paintings
Richland was just another word for kindling
Them, a movie in which ants, mutated by exposure to Los Alamos radioactivity, went about terrorizing people in the desert, made quite an impression on me as a child, considering I was a child living in Richland. I knew there were no giant ants (likely) out in the desert surrounding us, but the possible scenario of them lurking in desert caverns, squeaking over the denuded bones of tasty victims, was something I thought about at night, going to sleep. And sometimes, when I was out playing in the desert, I'd look to the horizon and squint my eyes against the prospect of a glimpse of gigantic ant heads rearing up and wagging saw-tooth mandibles.
The photo of Miss Flame standing high upon her perch for all of Richland to despise struck me as a wonderful one to convert into a painting. As I worked on it, the next thing I knew one of the giant ants of Them was crawling up over the loudspeaker.
The glamor of the dangerous femme fatale, Miss Flame
Miss Flame of 1950 undertook her Fire Prevention Week duties bravely. As you can see it was cold, everyone in coats, and yet Miss Flame stands on her perch bare-shouldered in her evening gown. That's what I call commitment.
Miss Flame the torch singer, turning all she touched into ash, would possibly have been presented as a dangerous sort of femme fatale against which the housewife was warned to be on the alert.
DDRS Record Details for Record Accession Number
"N1D0054448"
Accession Number N1D0054448
Document Number 1378G-50-NEG-C
Alternate Document Number 1378G-50-NEG
Title Description FIRE PREVENTION DEMONSTRATION AT RIVERSIDE PARK; BROADCAST TRUCK IN DOWNTOWN RICHLAND - MISS FLAME
Key Word(s) DEMONSTRATION,FIRE PREVENTION,RIVERSIDE PARK,SAFETY
Document Date 13-Oct-1950
Public Availability Date 14-Jun-2002
What was more evil than Miss Flame?
DDRS Record Details for Record Accession Number
"N1D0054446"
Accession Number N1D0054446
Document Number 1378G-50-NEG-B
Alternate Document Number 1378G-50-NEG
Title Description FIRE PREVENTION DEMONSTRATION AT RIVERSIDE PARK; BROADCAST TRUCK IN DOWNTOWN RICHLAND - MISS FLAME
Key Word(s) DEMONSTRATION,FIRE PREVENTION,RIVERSIDE PARK,SAFETY
Document Date 13-Oct-1950
Public Availability Date 14-Jun-2002
Don't let your husband near her.
DDRS Record Details for Record Accession Number
"N1D0054450"
Accession Number N1D0054450
Document Number 1378G-50-NEG-D
Alternate Document Number 1378G-50-NEG
Title Description FIRE PREVENTION DEMONSTRATION AT RIVERSIDE PARK; BROADCAST TRUCK IN DOWNTOWN RICHLAND - MISS FLAME
Key Word(s) DEMONSTRATION,FIRE PREVENTION,RIVERSIDE PARK,SAFETY
Document Date 13-Oct-1950
Public Availability Date 14-Jun-2002
Who but the foolish would approach one such as Miss Flame?
DDRS Record Details for Record Accession Number
"N1D0054444"
Accession Number N1D0054444
Document Number 1378G-50-NEG-A
Alternate Document Number 1378G-50-NEG
Title Description FIRE PREVENTION DEMONSTRATION AT RIVERSIDE PARK; BROADCAST TRUCK IN DOWNTOWN RICHLAND - MISS FLAME
Key Word(s) DEMONSTRATION,FIRE PREVENTION,RIVERSIDE PARK,SAFETY
Document Date 13-Oct-1950
Public Availability Date 14-Jun-2002
In a word, she was awesome.
DDRS Record Details for Record Accession Number
"N1D0054452"
Accession Number N1D0054452
Document Number 1378G-50-NEG-E
Alternate Document Number 1378G-50-NEG
Title Description FIRE PREVENTION DEMONSTRATION AT RIVERSIDE PARK; BROADCAST TRUCK IN DOWNTOWN RICHLAND - MISS FLAME
Key Word(s) DEMONSTRATION,FIRE PREVENTION,RIVERSIDE PARK,SAFETY
Document Date 13-Oct-1950
Public Availability Date 14-Jun-2002
"The Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (RL) has aggressively implemented the commitments made by the Federal Government to openness in Government which was stated as a 'Fundamental principle that an informed citizenry is essential to the democratic process and that the more the American people know about their Government, the better they will be governed. Openness in government is essential to accountability . . .' RL is committed to responsible openness. The Hanford Declassification Project (HDP) was initiated by RL to declassify to the maximum possible extent all previously classified Hanford operations information (documents and photographs). There are over 77,000 declassified photographs of early Hanford (1943 - 1960) available... These World War II and Cold War era photographs depict early Hanford construction and the employees/families who lived and build/operated the site."
Originally posted on my blog Feb 10 2006.
