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Chicago's Homage to Henry Moore

December 01 – December 22, 1967

 

Saturday, December 2, 1967, 3:36 pm

Unveiling of Nuclear Energy


Location: The University of Chicago
Admission: free
 

The sculpture Nuclear Energy was unveiled at 3:36 p.m. on December 2, 1967, precisely a quarter-century after scientists at the University of Chicago achieved the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, initiating the atomic age. The 12-foot bronze sculpture stands on the site of the University's old Stagg Field, where the experiment took place under the leadership of Enrico Fermi. To some, it suggests the shape of the human skull or the atomic mushroom cloud. Henry Moore told a friend, however, that he hoped those viewing it would "go around it, looking out through the open spaces, and that they may have a feeling of being in a cathedral."

Adapted from The Nuclear Chain Reaction--Forty Years Later, edited by Robert G. Sachs, ? 1984.

 

   
   
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