| Original caption: “Time: 1522 Hours, December 2, 1942. Place: Racquets Court under West Stands of Stagg Field, University of Chicago. Photograph of an original painting by Gary Sheehan. Depicted is his version of the scene when scientist(s) observed the world’s first nuclear reactor (CP-1) as it became self-sustaining. No photographers were present. Fifteen years later the artist worked for nearly four months to reconstruct the mood and physical details of this historic event.” The Metallurgical Laboratory was established as part of the Metallurgical Project, under the S-1 Committee, and also known as the “Pile” or “X-10” Project, headed by Chicago professor Arthur H. Compton, a Nobel Prize laureate. In turn, it became part of the Manhattan Project Painting depicting the moment at which the 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred, at 1536 hours on December 2, 1942. The pile was built by a team led by the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in a squash court under the stands of Chicago University’s Stagg Field, and consisted of a complex lattice of bricks of graphite & slugs” of uranium. At bottom centre is George Weil, operating 1 of the control rods. At top right is the “liquid control squad,” armed with buckets of a solution of a cadmium salt (in case of mechanical failure of the control rods). Painted in 1957, Gary Sheahan (born 1920) titled this oil on board painting “Birth of the Atomic Age.” This painting depicts Chicago Pile Number 1 (CP-1), the 1st self-sustaining nuclear reaction experiment at the University of Chicago on December 2, 1942. As photographers were not allowed at the time, 15 years later, the Chicago Tribune commissioned artist Gary Sheahan to re-create the moment when Enrico Fermi and his team of scientists proved that atomic power could be produced, kept under control, and stopped at will. Sheahan worked nearly 4 months to reconstruct the details of the event from reports, architects’ renderings, and interviews with eyewitnesses. From left to right: research assistant at the Metallurgical Laboratory Thomas Brill (July 1, 1920 – September 15, 1998), University of Chicago physicist Robert G. Nobles (June 4, 1917 – June 12, 2007), Metallurgical Laboratory Canadian physicist Louis A. Slotin (December 1, 1910 – May 30, 1946), Head of the Metallurgical Laboratory’s Chemistry Division Frank H. Spedding (October 22, 1902 – December 15, 1984), chief physicist Leo Szilard (February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964), DuPont chemical engineer Crawford H. Greenewalt (August 16, 1902 – September 28, 1993), S-1 Section chemist Samuel K. Allison (November 13, 1900 – September 15, 1965), Canadian-American theoretical physicist Robert F. Christy (May 14, 1916 – October 3, 2012), Director of the Metallurgical Laboratory Arthur H. Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962), Metallurgical Laboratory research associate Philip G. Koontz (December 21, 1903 – April 20, 1991), CP-1 designer Enrico Fermi (September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954), CP-1 construction supervisor Walter H. Zinn (December 10, 1906 – February 14, 2000), Metallurgical Laboratory Associate Director Norman Hilberry (March 11, 1899 – March 28, 1986) stands ready with an axe to cut the scram line to terminate the fission reaction, Metallurgical Laboratory physicist William Rudolph Kanne (July 7, 1913 – October 24, 1985), Wilcox P. Overbeck (1912 – May 5, 1980), Professor of Physics Herbert L. Anderson (May 24, 1914 – July 16, 1988), CP-1 designer Eugene P. Wigner (November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995), Metallurgical Laboratory physicist Leona Woods Marshall (August 9, 1919 – November 10, 1986), Metallurgical Laboratory physicist William J. Sturm (September 10, 1917 – July 25, 1999), and George L. Weil (September 18, 1907 – July 1, 1995) operated the control rods. 3 men atop reactor at far right are the “suicide squad” of Harold V. Lictenberger (April 22, 1920 – December 7, 1993), Warren E. Nyer (November 18, 1921 – February 4, 2016), and Alvin C. Graves (November 4, 1909 – July 28, 1965). If the control rods failed, the “liquid-control squad” were to pour a solution of cadmium salts over the reactor to absorb neutrons. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2177.jpg |
| Image Size | 403.51 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1920 x 1080 |
| Photographer | Gary Sheehan |
| Photographer Title | Chicago Historical Society |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | December 2, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | Chicago |
| State or Province | Illinois |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-326-PV-4(4) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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