the race to develop the hydrogen bomb - “the greatest spectacle within recorded history”

This rare album documents Operation Greenhouse, the first series of tests in the nascent American thermonuclear weapons program. The four tests were performed in April and May 1951 at the Enewetak Atoll of the Marshall Islands. Following the Soviet Union’s successful test of an atomic bomb in August 1949, the United States made the controversial decision to proceed with the development of thermonuclear weapons. These fusion weapons (the “Super” or hydrogen bomb) would be orders of magnitude more destructive than the fission weapons used against Japan.

“Greenhouse consisted of four tests. The first two—Dog and Easy—were weapon development tests. The third—George—used a large fission yield to ignite, for the first time, a small mass of thermonuclear fuel. With an overall yield of 225 kilotons, George was the most impressive and largest shot to date, more than ten times the size of the Trinity blast. Greenhouse Task Force Commander Elwood Quesada declared it ‘the greatest spectacle within recorded history’ as the ‘white day became dark by comparison with the brilliant light radiating’ from George. … The fourth shot—Item—provided the initial demonstration of a technique called ‘boosting’ in which a fission device contained some thermonuclear fuel that enhanced the yield of the fission explosion” (Battlefield of the Cold War. Volume I. Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Testing 1951-1963).

The George test created “the first small thermonuclear flame ever to burn on Earth. According to Edward Teller, the success of the ‘George’ shot was pivotal in the development of the Super [the hydrogen bomb] and provided scientists with the confidence to proceed along further speculations of thermonuclear design principles” (Atomic Heritage Foundation).

The album contains nine photographs of the blasts themselves (six in color) showing the fireballs, mushroom clouds, and smoke trails used to gauge shockwaves. Other photographs show top brass including task force’s commander General Elwood Richard Quesada, visiting dignitaries, as well as the construction of bases, housing, and testing structures, and detonation towers. Monitoring devices and equipment include a small blimp, tracer rockets, cameras, airplanes including radio-controlled drones, and tanks and other equipment to be placed within the blast radius. Two photographs show the unloading of beagles to be monitored for the effects of radiation. Photographs of life on the base include Black and white men gathering at mess, a church, entertainment facilities, a wall covered in pinups, and portraits of two indigenous Marshall Islanders in traditional clothing.

VERY RARE. We can locate only one other example (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). The casual group portraits of top officers and the absence of printed captions suggest that the album was prepared in very small numbers for well-informed insiders.

Provenance: Commander Elbert W. Pate of the United States Navy, with his name gilt-stamped on the upper board. Pate was Deputy Officer for meteorology, a key role given the importance of radioactive fallout in the tests. Pate was co-author of the Operation Greenhouse Meteorological Technical Report. Laid in is Pate’s certificate for “Meritorius [sic] Service Performed with Operation Greenhouse,” signed by the task force’s commander, General Elwood Richard Quesada and dated 15 July 1951. Also laid in is a membership certificate in the Grand Council Exclusive Order of Guinea Pigs, issued to Commander Pate on 7 September 1951, acknowledging that he has “through an exaggerated sense of patriotism subjected his body to the rigors attendant to atom bombs, hundred-foot tidal waves, mermaids, vampires, sandfleas …”

$17,500