Ed Westcott
Encyclopedia
James Edward Westcott is a photographer who worked for the U.S. government in Oak Ridge
, Tennessee
, during the Manhattan Project
and the Cold War
. As one of the few people permitted to have a camera
in the Oak Ridge area during the Manhattan Project, he created the main visual record of the construction and operation of the Oak Ridge production facilities and of civilian life in the enclosed community of Oak Ridge.
with his family as a child. After Ed expressed an interest in photography, his father saved for a year to buy him a Foth Derby camera that cost $25. The gift of that camera in the Depression
year of 1934 started young Ed on the path to his future career. During his teenage years, he got into the business of developing film
for friends and neighbors and worked in several Nashville portrait
studios. In 1941, he joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a photographer in the Corps' Nashville District. His job for the Corps sent him around the region to create photographic documentation of several dam
s, a site in Tennessee that later became prisoner of war camp, and the airport
and other facilities at Fort Campbell
on the Tennessee-Kentucky
border.
In December 1942, the Army Corps transferred the 20-year-old Westcott to the Clinton Engineer Works at the then-secret Oak Ridge site. He was the 29th employee hired for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, where he was to work as an official government photographer from 1942 to 1966. During much of World War II
he was employed by the Roane-Anderson Company, under contract to the Army Corps. In addition to photographing the construction and mechanical workings of the X-10
, K-25
, Y-12, and S-50 production facilities, he photographed civilian activities in Oak Ridge for the community's Army-sponsored weekly newspaper
, the Oak Ridge Journal. All of Westcott's wartime photos were produced with either a Speed Graphic
or an 8x10 Deardorff
view camera
. Some of his images were among the photos that were distributed to news media with the announcement of the first atomic bomb and the secret project that created it. In the weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima, many prints of the photos were made in secrecy in preparation for the announcement.
In June 1945, Westcott became an Army employee again, and in the post-war years he transitioned to employment with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) after its formation in 1946. In 1966 he was assigned to the AEC headquarters near Washington, DC, in Germantown, Maryland, where he worked for the AEC and its successor agencies (the Energy Research and Development Administration
and Department of Energy
) until retiring in 1977.
During Westcott's 35-year professional career, his assignments included creating photographic documentation of numerous notable people, including Manhattan Project scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer, Arthur Compton
, Glenn Seaborg, Vannevar Bush
, Ernest O. Lawrence, and James Bryant Conant
, U.S. Army Generals Leslie Groves
and Maxwell Taylor, Army Colonel Kenneth Nichols
, Admiral Hyman Rickover, Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson
, U.S. Senators Estes Kefauver
and Kenneth McKellar
of Tennessee and Robert Taft
of Ohio, Tennessee Valley Authority
director and AEC chairman David Lilienthal
, and seven or eight U.S. Presidents.
Westcott's February 1946 photo portrait of Oppenheimer is highly regarded for depicting the Manhattan Project scientific director as a man weary from the tremendous weight of his experience. When he met with Oppenheimer, Westcott learned that the physicist
wanted a cigarette
but lacked the change
to buy some. After Westcott gave him the money he needed, Oppenheimer bought his cigarettes and lit one. Westcott then captured the image of the physicist sitting next to a fireplace mantel
in the Oak Ridge Guest House
holding the freshly lighted cigarette in his hand. In spite of the informality suggested by the cigarette, University of Tennessee
photography professor Baldwin Lee points out that the photo was carefully planned and posed. According to Lee, Westcott instructed Oppenheimer to sit "slightly askance" and to lean forward slightly, and then he took the photograph from a low vantage point that "makes the viewer physically look up at the man," thus enhancing the subject's perceived importance. Lee's critique also notes that Oppenheimer's gaze does not appear to be directed anywhere in the room, but instead is aimed at "something very distant and something only he can see."
when it was first created, and some of it remained classified for many years, but access to his work is now largely unrestricted. About 5,000 negatives are archived by the National Archives and Records Administration
. His photographs have been widely reproduced, often without naming him as the photographer, in publications and exhibits about the Manhattan Project.
The first museum exhibition devoted to Westcott's work was organized by the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge
in 1981, entitled "Oak Ridge Seen 1943-1947: 20 Photographs by Edward Westcott." In 2005, the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville
mounted an exhibition of his photos, entitled "Through the Lens of Ed Westcott: A Photographic History of World War II's Secret City". The American Museum of Science and Energy
and the Children's Museum
in Oak Ridge both have exhibits devoted to Westcott and his work, in addition to displaying his photos as part of exhibits on the city's history. A selection of works from the Ewing Gallery exhibit is now a touring museum exhibit. A photograph of an Oak Ridge supermarket
that Westcott created in 1945, "Tulip Town Market, Grove Center," was featured by the National Archives
in Washington, DC, as part of a 2005-2006 exhibit named "The Way We Worked." Collections of Westcott's Oak Ridge photographs have been published in the catalog to the Ewing Gallery exhibit (University of Tennessee, 2005; ISBN 0-9761663-1-3) and in the book Oak Ridge by Ed Westcott (Arcadia Publishing
, 2005; ISBN 0738541702, ISBN 978-0738541709).
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, during the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
and the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. As one of the few people permitted to have a camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
in the Oak Ridge area during the Manhattan Project, he created the main visual record of the construction and operation of the Oak Ridge production facilities and of civilian life in the enclosed community of Oak Ridge.
Early life and career
Ed Westcott was born in 1922 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of Jamie and Lucille Westcott, and moved to NashvilleNashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
with his family as a child. After Ed expressed an interest in photography, his father saved for a year to buy him a Foth Derby camera that cost $25. The gift of that camera in the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
year of 1934 started young Ed on the path to his future career. During his teenage years, he got into the business of developing film
Photographic processing
Photographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image...
for friends and neighbors and worked in several Nashville portrait
Portrait photography
Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people , in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject...
studios. In 1941, he joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a photographer in the Corps' Nashville District. His job for the Corps sent him around the region to create photographic documentation of several dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
s, a site in Tennessee that later became prisoner of war camp, and the airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
and other facilities at Fort Campbell
Fort Campbell
Fort Campbell is a United States Army installation located astraddle the Kentucky-Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Tennessee...
on the Tennessee-Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
border.
Photographer for the Manhattan Project and its aftermath
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was employed by the Roane-Anderson Company, under contract to the Army Corps. In addition to photographing the construction and mechanical workings of the X-10
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a multiprogram science and technology national laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy by UT-Battelle. ORNL is the DOE's largest science and energy laboratory. ORNL is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near Knoxville...
, K-25
K-25
K-25 is a former uranium enrichment facility of the Manhattan Project which used the gaseous diffusion method. The plant is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on the southwestern end of the Oak Ridge Reservation.-History:...
, Y-12, and S-50 production facilities, he photographed civilian activities in Oak Ridge for the community's Army-sponsored weekly newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, the Oak Ridge Journal. All of Westcott's wartime photos were produced with either a Speed Graphic
Speed Graphic
Produced by Graflex in Rochester, New York, the Speed Graphic is commonly called the most famous press camera. Although the first Speed Graphic cameras were produced in 1912, production of later versions continued until 1973; with the most significant improvements occurring in 1947 with the...
or an 8x10 Deardorff
Deardorff
Deardorff, specifically, "L.F. Deardorff & Sons, Inc." was a manufacturer of wooden-construction, large-format 8"x10" and larger bellows view cameras from 1923 through 1988. Various models were constructed and used mostly by professional photographic studios.-History of the Camera Company:Laben F...
view camera
View camera
The view camera is a type of camera first developed in the era of the Daguerreotype and still in use today, though with many refinements. It comprises a flexible bellows which forms a light-tight seal between two adjustable standards, one of which holds a lens, and the other a viewfinder or a...
. Some of his images were among the photos that were distributed to news media with the announcement of the first atomic bomb and the secret project that created it. In the weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima, many prints of the photos were made in secrecy in preparation for the announcement.
In June 1945, Westcott became an Army employee again, and in the post-war years he transitioned to employment with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) after its formation in 1946. In 1966 he was assigned to the AEC headquarters near Washington, DC, in Germantown, Maryland, where he worked for the AEC and its successor agencies (the Energy Research and Development Administration
Energy Research and Development Administration
The United States Energy Research and Development Administration was a United States government organization formed from the split of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1975...
and Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
) until retiring in 1977.
During Westcott's 35-year professional career, his assignments included creating photographic documentation of numerous notable people, including Manhattan Project scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer, Arthur Compton
Arthur Compton
Arthur Holly Compton was an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the Compton effect. He served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1945 to 1953.-Early years:...
, Glenn Seaborg, Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, the founding of Raytheon, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer...
, Ernest O. Lawrence, and James Bryant Conant
James Bryant Conant
James Bryant Conant was a chemist, educational administrator, and government official. As thePresident of Harvard University he reformed it as a research institution.-Biography :...
, U.S. Army Generals Leslie Groves
Leslie Groves
Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. As the son of a United States Army chaplain, Groves lived at a...
and Maxwell Taylor, Army Colonel Kenneth Nichols
Kenneth Nichols
Kenneth David "Nick" Nichols was a United States Army officer and an engineer. He worked on the Manhattan Project which developed the Atomic Bomb during World War II as Deputy District Engineer and then District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District...
, Admiral Hyman Rickover, Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson
Robert P. Patterson
Robert Porter Patterson was the United States Under Secretary of War under President Franklin Roosevelt and the United States Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman from September 27, 1945 to July 18, 1947....
, U.S. Senators Estes Kefauver
Estes Kefauver
Carey Estes Kefauver July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S...
and Kenneth McKellar
Kenneth McKellar
Kenneth Douglas McKellar was an American politician from Tennessee who served as a United States Representative from 1911 until 1917 and as a United States Senator from 1917 until 1953...
of Tennessee and Robert Taft
Robert Taft
Robert Alphonso Taft , of the Taft political family of Cincinnati, was a Republican United States Senator and a prominent conservative statesman...
of Ohio, Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
director and AEC chairman David Lilienthal
David Lilienthal
David Eli Lilienthal was an American public official who served in many different governmental roles over the course of his career...
, and seven or eight U.S. Presidents.
Westcott's February 1946 photo portrait of Oppenheimer is highly regarded for depicting the Manhattan Project scientific director as a man weary from the tremendous weight of his experience. When he met with Oppenheimer, Westcott learned that the physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
wanted a cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
but lacked the change
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
to buy some. After Westcott gave him the money he needed, Oppenheimer bought his cigarettes and lit one. Westcott then captured the image of the physicist sitting next to a fireplace mantel
Fireplace mantel
Fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in medieval times as a hood that projected over a grate to catch the smoke. The term has evolved to include the decorative framework around the fireplace, and can include elaborate designs extending to the ceiling...
in the Oak Ridge Guest House
Alexander Inn
The Alexander Inn, originally known as The Guest House, is an historic building in Oak Ridge, Tennessee that was built during the Manhattan Project to house official visitors and that later was used as a hotel. It is included on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in...
holding the freshly lighted cigarette in his hand. In spite of the informality suggested by the cigarette, University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
photography professor Baldwin Lee points out that the photo was carefully planned and posed. According to Lee, Westcott instructed Oppenheimer to sit "slightly askance" and to lean forward slightly, and then he took the photograph from a low vantage point that "makes the viewer physically look up at the man," thus enhancing the subject's perceived importance. Lee's critique also notes that Oppenheimer's gaze does not appear to be directed anywhere in the room, but instead is aimed at "something very distant and something only he can see."
Exhibits and publications
Much of Ed Westcott's photographic work was classifiedClassified information
Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...
when it was first created, and some of it remained classified for many years, but access to his work is now largely unrestricted. About 5,000 negatives are archived by the National Archives and Records Administration
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
. His photographs have been widely reproduced, often without naming him as the photographer, in publications and exhibits about the Manhattan Project.
The first museum exhibition devoted to Westcott's work was organized by the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge
Children's Museum of Oak Ridge
The Children's Museum of Oak Ridge is a non-profit children's museum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States, that provides museum exhibits and educational programs.-History:...
in 1981, entitled "Oak Ridge Seen 1943-1947: 20 Photographs by Edward Westcott." In 2005, the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
mounted an exhibition of his photos, entitled "Through the Lens of Ed Westcott: A Photographic History of World War II's Secret City". The American Museum of Science and Energy
American Museum of Science and Energy
The American Museum of Science and Energy is a science museum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, designed to teach both children and adults about energy, especially nuclear power, and to document the role Oak Ridge played in the Manhattan Project. The museum opened as the American Museum of Atomic Energy in...
and the Children's Museum
Children's Museum of Oak Ridge
The Children's Museum of Oak Ridge is a non-profit children's museum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States, that provides museum exhibits and educational programs.-History:...
in Oak Ridge both have exhibits devoted to Westcott and his work, in addition to displaying his photos as part of exhibits on the city's history. A selection of works from the Ewing Gallery exhibit is now a touring museum exhibit. A photograph of an Oak Ridge supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
that Westcott created in 1945, "Tulip Town Market, Grove Center," was featured by the National Archives
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
in Washington, DC, as part of a 2005-2006 exhibit named "The Way We Worked." Collections of Westcott's Oak Ridge photographs have been published in the catalog to the Ewing Gallery exhibit (University of Tennessee, 2005; ISBN 0-9761663-1-3) and in the book Oak Ridge by Ed Westcott (Arcadia Publishing
Arcadia Publishing
Arcadia Publishing is an American publisher of local history.-History:It was founded in Dover, New Hampshire in 1993 by United Kingdom-based Tempus Publishing, but became independent in 2004....
, 2005; ISBN 0738541702, ISBN 978-0738541709).
Personal
Westcott resides in Oak Ridge. He was married to Esther Seigenthaler Westcott for 56 years before her death. They were the parents of five children.External links
- The Secret City, American Museum of Science and EnergyAmerican Museum of Science and EnergyThe American Museum of Science and Energy is a science museum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, designed to teach both children and adults about energy, especially nuclear power, and to document the role Oak Ridge played in the Manhattan Project. The museum opened as the American Museum of Atomic Energy in...
collection on Flickr.com - Billboards, American Museum of Science and EnergyAmerican Museum of Science and EnergyThe American Museum of Science and Energy is a science museum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, designed to teach both children and adults about energy, especially nuclear power, and to document the role Oak Ridge played in the Manhattan Project. The museum opened as the American Museum of Atomic Energy in...
collection on Flickr.com - Oak Ridge National Laboratory Historical Photo Gallery: Clinton Engineering Works
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory Historical Photo Gallery: Department of Energy Collection
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory Historical Photo Gallery: Graphite Reactor