Use Restrictions

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

United States Civil Defense pamphlets, C0400, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Purchased by Lynn Eaton from Holly Segar and Jeffrey Rovenpor of Carolinia Books in August 2021.

Processing Information

Processing and finding aid completed by Meghan Glasbrenner from October - November 2023.

Historical and Biographical Information

The Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 for the purpose of preparing and protecting the general public in the event of an attack on the United States during World War II. As such, operation of the organization ended in June 1945, however, as tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union increased, President Harry S. Truman reactivated the OCD as the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) in 1950 with the signing of the United States Civil Defense Act. In 1958, the FCDA merged with the Office of Defense Mobilization to become the Office of Defense and Civilian Mobilization, later renamed the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, and was then divided into two separate organizations in 1961, one of which became the Office of Civil Defense.

Initial plans and education materials, such as the 1951 "Duck and Cover" campaign, focused largely on encouraging the same precautions taken with the dangers from traditional weaponry. However, with the new information regarding the extreme dangers of radioactive fallout following a nuclear explosion observed following the 1954 test of the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb, the focus shifted to nuclear fallout shelter construction and survival strategies, largely communicated through the production of posters, films, and pamphlets. Responsibility for the dissemination of these plans was largely held at the state and local level.

The 1958 "Civil Defense Recreation Bulletin" was published under the guidance of Vermont's Director of Recreation Theresa S. Brungardt. Appointed as Vermont's first state Director of Recreation in 1943, Burngardt would go on to be elected as the first female president of the American Recreation Society 1952 and have a Vermont Recreation and Parks Association award named in her honor in 1975. Burngardt, who passed away in 1990, was posthumously inducted into the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Hall of Fame in 1997.

Scope and Content

Six pamphlets, including one duplicate, produced by United States Civil Defense organizations during World War II and the Cold War. Three of the titles were reprinted or created by local or state organizations in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Red Lion, Pennsylvania based on U.S. Government publications. There are two copies of "Fallout Protection For…Homes with Basements" printed in July 1966. One copy includes a "Protection Evaluation Report" for an Alexandria, Virginia residence on the back cover and the other includes the information for an Amherst, New Hampshire residence.

Remaining pamphlet titles and dates include: "Survival Under Atomic Attack", 1950 "Civilian Defense Handbook for Greater Red Lion", circa 1941 "Civil Defense Recreation Bulletin", circa 1958 "A Family Action Program: Home Protection Exercises", Third Edition, March 1956

Arrangement

This is a single folder collection.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center holds other Cold War and Civil Defense materials including the Francis J. McNamara papers , and Duck and Cover reel by Castle Films .

Cornell University Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections holds the Nuclear fallout shelter and safety collection .

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil defense
• Civil defense readiness
• Cold War
• Cold War -- Social aspects -- United States
• Nuclear bomb shelters
• Red Lion (Pa.). Chamber of Commerce
• United States. Office of Civil Defense
• Vermont. State Board of Recreation
• World War, 1939-1945