Invitation to Three Mile Island
Co-Curated by Heidi N. Abbey, Benjamin Hoover,
Alan Mays, and Fay Youngmark
16 March - 30 April 2009
Penn State Harrisburg Library (First Floor), Middletown, PA
This event is free and open to the public during normal library hours.
This exhibit features an eclectic mix of books, newspapers, rare and unusual ephemera, and everyday popular culture items that illustrate local and contemporary reactions to the TMI crisis from March 28, 1979, through 2004. The objects displayed, several of which were produced aroundMiddletown or within Pennsylvania, range from a board game and pinback buttons to T-shirts and postcards. Many of the items reflect the psychological anxiety and anguish that the accident created locally and worldwide while other objects, such as the "Original Canned Radiation," "React-or" board game, and vinyl records containing songs about Three Mile Island, provide a glimpse into the various ways that people tried to cope with and make sense of the worst nuclear power accident in U.S. history. In commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the TMI crisis, this archival exhibit is comprised of thirty objects on loan from several private collections, and also includes materials from a collection recently donated by People Against Nuclear Energy (PANE) to the Penn State Harrisburg Library's Archives and Special Collections.
Located on the first floor of the library, the exhibit is available for viewing during normal library hours: Monday through Thursday (7:45 a.m. to 11 p.m.), Friday (7:45 a.m. to 9 p.m.), Saturday (9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), and Sunday (1 p.m. to 11 p.m.).
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT
"Three Mile Island: Sights and Insights" by Robert Del Tredici
16 March - 30 April 2009
Penn State Harrisburg Library (First Floor), Middletown, PA
This event is free and open to the public during normal library hours.
This exhibit of thirty black-and-white prints commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. The photos were taken by documentary photographer Robert Del Tredici during the turbulent first year following the event. Del Tredici photographed the land and people around the crippled TMI plant and interviewed plant personnel, townspeople, farmers, children, mayors, scientists, and government officials in an attempt to piece together the elusive big picture of what this accident was, what it meant, and what it still means for us today.
The exhibit is located on the first floor of the library and is available for viewing during regular hours of operation: Monday through Thursday (7:45 a.m. to 11 p.m.), Friday (7:45 a.m. to 9 p.m.), Saturday (9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), and Sunday (1 p.m. to 11 p.m.). This exhibit has been funded by the Penn State Harrisburg Library.
SLIDE PRESENTATION & LECTURE
"Three Mile Island and Beyond" by Robert Del Tredici
Monday, 23 March 2009 (6:15-9:00 PM)
Penn State Harrisburg, Capital Area Union Building (CUB), Student Center (Second Floor),Middletown, PA
This event is free and open to the public.
Documentary photographer and author of The People of Three Mile Island, Robert Del Tredici will offer a slide presentation and lecture on photographs that he took during the first year following the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979. He will integrate these pictures with images that he took documenting the nuclear age in Russia,Canada, Japan, and the United States. Mr. Del Tredici's exhibit has been funded by the Penn State Harrisburg Library. His visit to Penn State Harrisburg and lecture has been generously supported by Three Mile Island Alert (TMIA), the Penn State Harrisburg School of Humanities, and the Penn State Harrisburg School of Behavioral Sciences and Education.
About Robert Del Tredici
Robert Del Tredici is an artist, photographer, and teacher with a B.A. in philosophy, an M.A. in comparative literature, and an abiding interest in the dynamic between image and text. His first artwork was a series of illustrations to Herman Melville'sMoby-Dick, done in the early 1960s. He began documenting the nuclear age in 1979 with his photographs and interviews on the TMI accident, The People of Three Mile Island (Sierra Club Books, 1980). His second book, At Work in the Fields of the Bomb(Harper & Row, 1987), documented the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and won the 1987 Olive Branch Book Award for its contribution to world peace. In 1987 he founded the Atomic Photographers Guild, a collective of photographers dedicated to making culturally visible all aspects of the nuclear age. In 1991 he began photographing the nuclear weapons industry in the former Soviet Union. During theClinton years, Del Tredici became principal photographer and designer for three government reports on the present, past, and future of the radioactive cleanup of theU.S. nuclear weapons complex. He teaches photography and the history of animated film in Montreal, where he lives with his son Felix, who plays the bass trombone.
COMMUNITY LECTURE
"Melting Down the Elements: Questioning the Re-licensing of Three Mile Island and Proposals to Build New Nuclear Reactors in the U.S." by Dr. Marci Culley
Monday, 30 March 2009 (6:30-8:30 PM)
Penn State Harrisburg, Olmsted Building, Gallery Lounge (First Floor),
Middletown, PA
This event is free and open to the public.
Assistant Professor of Community Psychology at Georgia State University (GSU) inAtlanta, GA, Dr. Marci Culley will visit Penn State Harrisburg to discuss her most current research which focuses on two nuclear cities: Middletown, PA, andWaynesboro, GA. Culley, who holds a master's degree in Community Psychology and Social Change from Penn State Harrisburg, will discuss the situations in each of these towns, one with a question of relicensing an existing nuclear power plant and the other that faces the expansion of an existing facility. Dr. Culley's scholarly interests in community psychology are grounded in community organizing, power and empowerment, and public policy related to environmental issues. She is interested in the links between individual transformation and larger community and social change processes. In particular, she is interested in individual, community and institutional responses to environmental disputes (particularly around environmental health disputes) and how public participation processes are shaped by social power dynamics.
NEED ADDITIONAL INFORMATION?
Questions or comments from the media about these events should be directed to Steve Hevner, Manager of Public Information, Penn State Harrisburg (Tel. 717.948.6029 or [email protected]). Other inquiries from the public about the exhibits or Robert Del Tredici's lecture may be directed to Heidi N. Abbey, Humanities Reference Librarian and Archivist (Tel. 717.948.6056 and [email protected]). Inquiries about Dr. Marci Culley's lecture may be directed to Dr. Holly Angelique, Associate Professor of Community Psychology and Social Change (Tel. 717.948.6047 or [email protected]).