Exhibits

In honor of Black History Month, we will highlight and feature seven African Americans who made important contributions to science. Come visit us at the museum in February to learn more about these outstanding scientists.

On February 17, 2023, the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History will open a temporary exhibit—So Ready for Laughter: The Legacy of Bob Hope. Supported by national tour exhibit sponsor Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation, So Ready for Laughter tells the story of the entertainer’s unique place in WWII history and beyond. Using multimedia elements and captivating storytelling—including artifacts, films, rare photographs, and an interactive display—the exhibit highlights how Hope helped lift the human spirit during one of the darkest times in American history.

Nuclear by Mail chronicles the development of nuclear science and technologies in the 20th century as told through the mail. This exhibit, opening on August 7th, 2021, will showcase the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History’s collection of mail-related artifacts including stamps, envelopes, postcards, and photographs.

The "Dark Cube: Heisenberg's Race for the Bomb" exhibition focuses on a dense, two-inch charcoal-black cube made of pure uranium metal that Nazi scientists suspended with 663 other similar cubes during World War II in an effort to create the world’s first atomic bomb.

Complete with planes, rockets, missiles, cannons and nuclear sub sail, this exhibit will attract plane buffs and historians alike.

A special exhibition where visitors will step back in time to a pivotal point in history, and experience pure science through pure art. Explore and study the recreations of the super secrets from the Manhattan Project's atomic bomb in this mesmerizing exhibit.

Visitors will step back in time to meet the individuals who influenced the nuclear world.

It is said that the dawn of the Atomic Age began with the testing of the world’s first atomic bomb. This exhibit will show visitors just how much influence over the modern world this test created.

The future belongs to the children of today. Little Albert’s Lab will help children of all ages grasp the concepts of physics, the basis of all sciences.

Every visitor will be entertained while viewing the cultural items surrounding the dawning of the Atomic Age!

In this exhibit, visitors will learn how close we came to another war before the end of the Cold War.

While the atomic bomb brought the war to a close, the after-effects of the bomb were felt for years in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Get the basic facts about radiation in this exhibit.

The exhibit features interactive exhibits helping the visitor discover the place nuclear power has in our energy hungry world.

The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History will showcase a new permanent exhibit called Think Thorium: The Future of Nuclear Energy, opening to the public on Friday, October 14, 2022. Sponsored by the Thorium Energy Alliance, the exhibit looks at the past, present and future of using Thorium as fuel in a nuclear reactor and the development of a reactor technology significantly different from that used today.

Examine the options of green energy alternatives like solar and wind power along with the place nuclear power has in the world today.

This exhibit features how radioactive waste is managed in a safe way.

See the history of nuclear medicine and how it contributed to the advancement of medical technology.

"What's Up With U(ranium)" is now on permanent display at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, engaging visitors of all ages while answering questions such as where does uranium come from, how does it move through the environment, how does it affect us and is it radioactive.

This exhibition, compiled from the collections of the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, aims to exemplify the ever-changing public attitudes towards atomic thought over the course of the 20th Century and first decade of the 21st Century through the reflective lens of advertising and packaging.

This virtual exhibit, created by Daniel Ross, explores the differences between nuclear fission and fusion reactions. These types of reactions used to generate nuclear power may provide solutions to the mounting climate crisis in the future, but they also have a historical context. This exhibit explains these processes and connects them to some of the historical artifacts in the museum's collection.

At the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, we are continually grateful for the support our patrons, members, and contributors give us, as well as the actual objects which are donated or acquired by the museum into its permanent collection of artifacts. Click here to see some of the most exciting objects the Curatorial Department added to our catalogue in the past month.