.jpg?w=1)
Details
OPPENHEIMER, J. Robert. Typed letter signed ("J. R. Oppenheimer"), as director of the Manhattan Project, to Technical Sergeant Robert R. Leonard, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 26 November 1945. 1 page, 4to, matted and framed.
"THE STRIKING SUCCESS OF THE PROJECT WAS ONLY MADE POSSIBLE BY THE WORK OF THE MILITARY PERSONNEL"
A rare example of J. Robert Oppenheimer writing about the Manhattan Project--the only instance of such a letter to appear at auction in the last 30 years. Just three months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer writes a warm letter of commendation to one of the technical members of the project. "This letter is to acknowledge your contribution to the development of the atomic bomb. The striking success of this project was only made possible by the work of the Military Personnel." Technical Sergeant Leonard spent 20 months in Los Alamos, creating many of the radiation detection machines used on the project. "These instruments," Oppenheimer writes, "were used not only in the Los Alamos laboratories, but in the New Mexico Test Shot and in the measurements made at Nagasaki and Hiroshima as well. You also assisted in making these measurements. The caliber of your work has been consistently high and throughout the long period of high pressure you cheerfully worked day and night as the occasion demanded it..."
"THE STRIKING SUCCESS OF THE PROJECT WAS ONLY MADE POSSIBLE BY THE WORK OF THE MILITARY PERSONNEL"
A rare example of J. Robert Oppenheimer writing about the Manhattan Project--the only instance of such a letter to appear at auction in the last 30 years. Just three months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer writes a warm letter of commendation to one of the technical members of the project. "This letter is to acknowledge your contribution to the development of the atomic bomb. The striking success of this project was only made possible by the work of the Military Personnel." Technical Sergeant Leonard spent 20 months in Los Alamos, creating many of the radiation detection machines used on the project. "These instruments," Oppenheimer writes, "were used not only in the Los Alamos laboratories, but in the New Mexico Test Shot and in the measurements made at Nagasaki and Hiroshima as well. You also assisted in making these measurements. The caliber of your work has been consistently high and throughout the long period of high pressure you cheerfully worked day and night as the occasion demanded it..."