{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1373168"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1373168/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JR4526/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JR4526/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JR4526","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4527","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4528","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4529","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4530","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4531","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4532","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4533","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4534","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4535","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JR4536","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1373168","accessionNumber":"CD.19:1-2016","objectType":"Model","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This is one of a group of models of nuclear fallout  shelters, used by the American state of Montana to  demonstrate designs for easy-to-erect DIY shelters. The  models were shown at fairs and public events in a  campaign to encourage people to build their own.  Instructions were detailed in the US Department of  Defence’s 1962 booklet, ‘Family Shelter Designs’.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"US Department of Defence","id":"AUTH344380"},"association":{"text":"designers","id":"AAT25190"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Art Designers Incorporated","id":"AUTH344381"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"plywood","id":"AAT12849"},{"text":"foamboard","id":"x34842"},{"text":"textile","id":"x41581"},{"text":"plastic","id":"AAT14570"},{"text":"styrofoam","id":"AAT14568"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Plywood, foamboard, textiles, plastic, styrofoam","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DAD","id":"THES260586"},"images":["2016JR4526","2016JR4527","2016JR4528","2016JR4529","2016JR4530","2016JR4531","2016JR4532","2016JR4533","2016JR4534","2016JR4535","2016JR4536"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"74","id":"THES49720"},"free":"","case":"CA009","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES402519"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"model","id":"AAT47753"}],[{"text":"hoods","id":"AAT69730"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Alexandria","id":"x37602"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1962","earliest":"1957-01-01","latest":"1966-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"27","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Height when not in hood"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"51","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"33","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This is one of a group of models (CD.19 to 25- 2016) that were made in the early 1960s for  use by the state of Montana in travelling  exhibitions. The models were shown at fairs and  other public events as part of a campaign to  publicise the importance of nuclear shelters, and  to encourage people to build their own.  Four of  the models in the V&A's collection are for domestic  shelters – instructions for building these are detailed in  the US Department of Defense’s 1962 booklet ‘Family  Shelter Designs’. The other two models are for school  shelters – one to be built above and one below ground.\r\n\r\nFour of the six models (three domestic models plus the  above-ground school shelter) form part of a set, for  which the original travelling crate survives. Each model  fits inside its own hood before being packed into the  crate. There is space in the crate for one additional  model which was missing when the set was acquired. It is not known what this  missing model would have been. The remaining two  models (for the steel culvert shelter and the below- ground school shelter) appear to have been made  separately although they are in the same style as the  larger group. These two do not bear labels for any  model maker (the other four and the travelling crate are  all labelled by Art Designers Incorporated, Virginia). ","historicalContext":"The model is one of a group designed by the US  Department of Defense in 1962. Each of the models in  the group shows a different type of domestic nuclear  fallout shelter – from one demonstrating plywood box  construction, to a shelter made inside a buried steel  culvert and a concrete shelter designed to be built in a  house basement. The models were shown at fairs and  other public events around the US as part of a  campaign to publicise the importance of nuclear  shelters, and to encourage people to build their own.   Instructions for building each of the shelters were  detailed in the US Department of Defense’s 1962  booklet ‘Family Shelter Designs’.\r\n\r\nThe 1950s and early 1960s were a period of extremely  high tension in the Cold War (the Cuban Missile crisis  took place in October 1962). The US Government’s  efforts at protecting civilians from nuclear attack  focussed largely on plans for individual domestic  shelters (rather than communal, public ones). A lack of  public funding for shelter building led to concerted  efforts to encourage people to build their own: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHmGn-oL2uU\r\n\r\nThese public campaigns for do-it-yourself shelters  coincided with a much wider enthusiasm for DIY in the  US in the post-war years. This craze was triggered in  part by a rapid rise in home ownership, by the  availability of new materials, and by men and women  equipped with new technical skills acquired during the  war.[1] DIY quickly became a giant industry, with the  cover of the 2 August 1954 Time  magazine devoted to  ‘Do-it-yourself. The new billion-dollar hobby’. \r\n\r\nThe trend towards DIY, and its use of ‘new’  technologically sophisticated materials such as  plywood and plastics, also tied into wider narratives of  the post-war American dream. In the 1950s and 1960s,  DIY increasingly became a stand-in for America’s Cold  War values of independence, leisure and domesticity.  Within this history, the building of a nuclear fallout  shelter had particular resonance. As the historian Sarah  Lichtman has shown, nuclear shelters were often used  to represent the family home during the 1950s and  1960s. Images and instructions for building shelters  invariably cast a male builder as protector of the  household, while the inside of the shelter was usually  represented as a comfortable domestic space  decorated by the wife and mother. In this way,  programmes for shelter building fit in with the wider  gender politics of the Cold War era.","briefDescription":"Model of a plywood nuclear fallout shelter, designed by the US Department of Defence, made by Art Designers Incorporated, plywood, foamboard, textiles, plastic, styrofoam, Alexandria, Virginia, USA, about 1962","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Wilk, Christopher.<u> Plywood: A Material Story.</u> London: Thames & Hudson / V&A, 2017","id":"AUTH345215"},"details":"","free":"Sarah A. Lichtman, ‘Do-It-Yourself Security: Safety,  Gender, and the Home Fallout Shelter in Cold War  America’, Journal of Design History vol. 19: no. 1 (Spring  2006), pp. 39-55."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Text from <i>Plywood: Material of the Modern World</i> (15 July-12 November 2017)\r\n\r\nMODEL OF A PLYWOOD NUCLEAR\r\nFALLOUT SHELTER\r\nAbout 1962\n\r\nThis plywood nuclear fallout shelter\r\nis one of a group of models made\r\nfor the American state of Montana to\r\ndemonstrate designs for easy-to-erect\r\nDIY shelters. The models were shown at\r\nfairs and public events in a campaign\r\nto encourage people to build their own.\r\nInstructions were detailed in the US\r\nDepartment of Defence’s 1962 booklet,\r\n‘Family Shelter Designs’.\n\r\nDesigned by the US Department of Defence\r\nModel made by Art Designers Incorporated\r\nAlexandria, VA, USA\r\nPlywood, foamboard, textiles, plastic, styrofoam\n\r\nV&A: CD.19-2016","date":{"text":"2017","earliest":"2017-01-01","latest":"2017-12-31"}},{"text":"<b>Imagining safety in uncertain times</b>\r\n\r\nStaying safe is a fundamental concern during times of conflict. In the 1960s, the US Department of Defense launched a campaign to encourage people to build their own shelters in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War. Today, the threat of war is still an issue that continues to be felt by many in different ways <b>(CD.19:1-2016)</b>. In 2015, 11-year-old Charlotte Scott designed the Liftolator during the ‘Inventors!’ project. Instigated by the designer Dominic Wilcox, it invited children to invent an object to improve lives. To avoid war, the Liftolator elevates the home on to a platform and its inhabitants can steer it to safety <b>(CD.461-2017)</b>.\r\n\r\n<b>Model of nuclear fallout shelter </b>\r\nAbout 1962\r\nDesigned by the US Department of Defense \r\nManufactured by Art Designers Incorporated, USA \r\nPlywood, foamboard, textiles, plastic and Styrofoam \r\nMuseum no. CD.19:1-2016\n\r\n\r\n<b>A platform to avoid war </b>\r\nLiftolator model, 2015\r\nDesigned by Charlotte Scott \r\nMade by Erin Dickenson with Dominic Wilcox’s ‘Inventors!’ \r\nGlass dome, plywood and 3D-printed parts \r\nMuseum no. CD.461-2017\r\n\r\nThe object sits in the 'Crisis and Conflict' section of the Design 1900-Now gallery opened in June 2021.","date":{"text":"2021","earliest":"2021-01-01","latest":"2021-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["CD.19:1-2016","CD.19:2-2016"],"accessionNumberNum":"19","accessionNumberPrefix":"CD","accessionYear":2016,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2025PK7664","2025PG0888"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-13","recordCreationDate":"2016-11-22","availableToBook":false}}