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A number of government publications relating to the Manhattan Project are available either as web pages or as .pdf documents.

Department of Energy Publications Fehner and Gosling, Origins of the Nevada Test Site Fehner and Gosling, Battlefield of the Cold War: The Nevada Test Site Gosling, Manhattan Project, 1999 Gosling, Manhattan Project, 2010 Harnessed Atom United States Nuclear Tests, 1945-1992 Wahlen, History of 100-B Area Los Alamos National Laboratory Publications Bainbridge, Trinity Fakley, "The British Mission" Hawkins, MDH: Project Y, Vol. 1 Los Alamos: Beginning of an Era, 1943-1945 Malik, Yields of Hiroshima and Nagasaki "Oppenheimer Years" Serber, Los Alamos Primer Truslow, MDH: Project Y, Vol. 2 Truslow, MDH: Nonscientific Aspects Oak Ridge National Laboratory Publications Graphite Reactor ORNL: First Fifty Years Quist, History of Classified Activities at ORNL Swords to Plowshares Other Documents and Publications Adventures Inside the Atom Einstein's Letter to Roosevelt Facts About Fallout Order to Drop the Atomic Bomb Truman's Note regarding Potsdam

Department of Energy (DOE) Publications

• Fehner, Terrence R., and F. G. Gosling.  Origins of the Nevada Test Site (DOE/MA-0518).  Washington: History Division, Department of Energy, December 2000.  95 pp. (pdf 3.3 MB)
• See especially "Part II: The Birth of the Nuclear Age, 1919-1947."

• Fehner, Terrence R. and F. G. Gosling. Battlefield of the Cold War: The Nevada Test Site, Volume I, Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Testing, 1951-1963 (DOE/MA-0003). Washington: Office of History and Heritage Resources, Department of Energy, September 2006. 244 pp. (pdf 13.8 MB)
• See especially "Part I: Origins of the Nevada Test Site."

• Gosling, F. G. The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb (DOE/MA-0001).  Washington: History Division, Department of Energy, January 1999.  66 pp. (pdf -6.3 MB)
• Summary of the Manhattan Project upon which most of the "Events" and many other pages from this web site were based.

• Gosling, F. G. The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb (DOE/MA-0002 Revised). Washington: Office of History and Heritage Resources, Department of Energy, January 2010. 115 pp. (pdf 8.5 MB)
• Revised version of above includes Manhattan Project Photo Gallery.

• Harnessed Atom, The: Nuclear Energy and Electricity (DOE/NE-0072).  Washington: Office of Program Support, Department of Energy, 1986.  139 pp. (pdf 9.9 MB)
• "The Harnessed Atom is a comprehensive middle school teachers' kit that provides students and teachers with accurate, unbiased, and up-to-date materials about nuclear energy.  The text reviews the basic scientific principles that underlie nuclear energy and focuses on atoms, radiation, the technology of a nuclear powerplant, and the issues concerning nuclear energy."

• United States Nuclear Tests, July 1945 through September 1992 (DOE/NV--209-REV 15).  Las Vegas, NV: Nevada Operations Office, Department of Energy, December 2000.  162 pp. (pdf 0.9 MB)
• Summary of the date, location, and characteristics of all United States nuclear tests.

• Wahlen, R. K. History of 100-B Area (WHC-EP-0273).  Richland, WA: Westinghouse Hanford Corporation, October 1989; prepared for the Assistant Secretary for Management and Administration, Department of Energy.  37 pp. (12.2 MB)
• 100-B was the first plutonium production area at Hanford Engineer Works.

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Publications

• Bainbridge, Kenneth T., et al.  Trinity (LA-6300-H).  Los Alamos, NM: Manhattan Engineer District, ca. 1945; first printed by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in classified form as LA-1012; and reprinted in unclassified form (with an added photographic appendix) as LA-6300-H in May 1976.  82 pp. (pdf 4.3 MB)
• This report was written primarily by Kenneth T. Bainbridge, test director for Trinity.  Other contributors include Richard C. Tolman, Stafford C. Warren, Louis H. Hempelmann, W. F. Schaffer, J. L. Magee, Robert R. Wilson, John H. Manley, and J. E. Mack.

• Fakley, Dennis C. "The British Mission."  Los Alamos Science (Winter/Spring 1983), 186-189. (pdf 0.4 MB)
• A brief article on the British Mission at Los Alamos.

• Hawkins, David. Manhattan District History: Project Y, the Los Alamos Project, Volume 1: Inception until August 1945.  Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 1946-1947; distributed in 1961 as LAMS-2532, Vol. 1.  375 pp. (pdf 23.2 MB)
• A part of the Manhattan District History commissioned by Leslie R. Groves.

• Los Alamos: Beginning of an Era, 1943-1945. Los Alamos, NM: Public Relations Office, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, n.d. (ca. 1967-1971).  52 (of 65) pp.
• Most of this publication is available (courtesy LANL) via five .pdf files:
• File #1: "Starting Point" and "The Place," 1-10 (1.5 MB)
• File #2: "Living at Los Alamos," 11-18 (3.1 MB)
• File #3: "Designing the Bomb" and "Preparing the Materials," 19-28 (1.7 MB)
• File #4: "Trinity," "The Plans," and "Trial Run," 29-40 (2.0 MB)
• File #5: "Trial Run, May 7, 1945" and "Countdown," 41-52 (1.6 MB)
• "The New World," "They Built the Bomb," and "After Trinity," 53-65, are not available in .pdf format
• A history of the laboratory at Los Alamos, 1943-1945, focusing especially on the Trinity test.

• Malik, John.  The Yields of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Nuclear Explosions (LA-8819).  Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos National Laboratory, September 1985.  34pp. (pdf 1.9 MB)
• A technical report on the subject.

• Oppenheimer Years, The, 1943-1945."  Los Alamos Science (Winter/Spring 1983), 6-25. (pdf 1.2 MB)
• A collection of documents and photographs.

• Serber, Robert.  The Los Alamos Primer.  Los Alamos, NM: April 1943.  26 pp. (pdf 3.1 MB)
• Notes based on a series of lectures given by Serber at Los Alamos.  Summarizes the state of the problem as it was understood in April 1943.

• Truslow, Edith C., and Ralph Carlisle Smith.  Manhattan District History: Project Y, the Los Alamos Project, Volume 2: August 1945 through December 1946.  Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 1946-1947; distributed in 1961 as LAMS-2532, Vol. 2.  237 pp. (pdf 13.0 MB)
• A part of the Manhattan District History commissioned by Leslie R. Groves.

• Truslow, Edith C., with Kasha V. Thayer, ed.  Manhattan District History: Nonscientific Aspects of Los Alamos Project Y, 1942 through 1946.  Los Alamos, NM: Manhattan Engineer District, ca. 1946; first printed by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory as LA-5200, March 1973; reprinted in 1997 by the Los Alamos Historical Society.  111 pp. (pdf 8.6 MB)
• The .pdf file is a copy of the 1973 LASL edition.
• This was written in 1946 by 2nd Lieutenant Edith C. Truslow, a member of the Women's Army Corps, as a contribution to the Manhattan District History commissioned by Leslie Groves. It is the source of much of the text on the community for the Los Alamos Laboratory sub-section of the Places topical area.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Publications

• Graphite Reactor, The: An Historic Landmark at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  https://www.ornl.gov/content/graphite-reactor. 1994.
• A brief history of the X-10 Graphite Reactor.

• ORNL: The First Fifty Years.   https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/ORNL%20Review%20v25n3-4%201992.pdf. n.d.; ca. 1993.
• See especially chapter 1, "Wartime Laboratory."

• Quist, Arvin S.  A History of Classified Activities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  Oak Ridge, TN: Prepared for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory under Subcontract No. 4000001009, September 2000.  31 pp. (pdf 4.0 MB)
• Approximately the first half of this report relates to the Manhattan Project-era.

• Swords to Plowshares: A Short History of Oak Ridge National Laboratory n.d.; ca. 1994.
• See especially "The Forties."

Other Documents and Publications

• Adventures Inside the Atom
• A comic book history of the development of atomic energy, produced by General Electric.

• Einstein's Letter to Roosevelt
• August 2, 1939, letter from Albert Einstein (written with the help of Leo Szilard) to President Franklin Roosevelt warning Roosevelt of the potential danger posed by nuclear energy.

• Facts About Fallout
• A pamphlet produced by the Federal Civil Defense Administration.

• Order to Drop the Atomic Bomb
• July 25, 1945, order from Acting Army Chief of Staff Thomas Handy to Commanding General Carl Spaatz, Army Strategic Air Forces, to attack Japanese cities with atomic bombs.

• Truman's Note regarding Potsdam
• Note written by Truman on the back of a photograph of the Potsdam Conference, in which Truman brags (incorrectly) that Stalin did not know about the atomic bomb.

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