Ed Westcott, Manhattan Project Photographer, Gets Statue in Oak Ridge

A life-sized bronze statue of Ed Westcott, the official photographer of the Manhattan Project, was unveiled outside the Oak Ridge History Museum in Tennessee. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound monument honors Westcott, who was the only photographer authorized to document the secret city of Oak Ridge during World War II. His most famous image is a 1946 portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer, captured after Westcott lent the physicist money for cigarettes. Westcott worked as a government photographer from 1942 to 1966 and was the 29th employee hired in Oak Ridge. Approximately 5,000 of his negatives are held by the National Archives. He died in 2019 at age 97.