Manhattan Project: Manhattan District Official Contemporary History - Download

Manhattan Project: Manhattan District Official Contemporary History 

The Department of Energy, Manhattan Engineer District official 79-volume, 14,238-page contemporary, written in the 1940’s, history of the Manhattan Project.         

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs. The Army component of the project was designated the Manhattan District.

In 1944 General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Engineer District, realized that it was important to begin documenting the history of The Project. Groves gave instructions for the creation of the history of the Manhattan Project called the “Manhattan District History.” It was created by several different authors under the editorship of Gavin Hadden.

Hadden was a long-time civil employee of the Army Corps of Engineers. The goal was to create a history that was, "intended to describe, in simple terms, easily understood by the average reader, just what the Manhattan District did, and how, when, and where."

A report was typed up that was so secret that only four copies were made.

The volumes record the Manhattan Project's activities and achievements in research, design, construction, operation, and administration, assembling a vast amount of information systematically, in a readily available form. The Manhattan District History contains extensive annotations, statistical tables, charts, engineering drawings, maps, photographs, and detailed indices.

Only a handful of copies of the history were prepared. The copy reproduced here, three of four, belongs to the Department of Energy's Office of History and Heritage Division.

 
Topics covered include
 
Foundation of the National Laboratories

Research and Development of Atomic Energy for Power

Investigation of the After Effects of the Bombing in Japan

Assistance on the Canadian Pile Project

Preparation and Publication of the Smyth Report

Investigation of Miscellaneous Processes of Separation of Uranium

Medical Program

Isotopes

Intelligence & Security

Gaseous Diffusion (K-25) Project

The P-9 Project

The Pile Project X-10

Electromagnetic Project

Liquid Thermal Diffusion (S-50) Project

Project Camel

Boron

Operation Crossroads