August 2016 | Nate Pedersen

Nuclear Age Exhibit at University of Montana Receives Unexpected Windfall

800px-Operation_Teapot_-_MET_(Military_Effects_Test).jpgAn exhibit on the Nuclear Age at the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana received an unexpected windfall when a forgotten box full of Cold War biscuits and candies was discovered during renovations.


"We've been planning this exhibit for over a year, and then to find out that there was this sort of bonanza of Cold War materials hidden in Aber Hall was absolutely perfect!" said librarian Susanne Caro in a press statement.


The Cold War foodstuffs were commonly stored in personal fallout shelters around the country and were expected to have a shelf life of approximately five years. The box of material found at the library, therefore, should have expired sometime around 1967. Library staff took a bite anyway, reporting that a Cold War biscuit tasted "like a stale graham cracker with a hint of vanilla in it. It could be far worse."


The foodstuffs will go on display with a variety of books, ephemera, and other materials related to the nuclear war scares in the early 1960s.


The exhibit, entitled Duck and Cover! Fact and Fiction of the Nuclear Age, is viewable on the main floor of the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana in Missoula.


[Image from the exhibit]