October 18, 2016
Cultural Studies PhD Student Kelsey Picken Featured in L.A. Magazine
Cultural studies PhD student Kelsey Picken’s Cold War LA website has been cited as a great resource for discovering remnants of the Atomic Age around Los Angeles.
This simple but accurate map reveals more than downtown streets and civic buildings as they appeared way back in January of 1951. This cartographic dream is a product of the Cold War, and it shows a proposed bomb shelter capable of sheltering 90,000 people and 5,600 cars that would have been built in the heart of downtown. Most Angelenos today have little idea of the near hysteria that gripped Los Angeles in the decades after World War II, but this map demonstrates the seriousness of the fears that abounded all across America.