A life-sized bronze statue is set to be unveiled at the Oak Ridge History Museum this weekend, honoring legendary photographer Ed Westcott. It is believed to be the first life-sized statue that represents a person in Oak Ridge’s history. Westcott was chosen by the U.S. government to take pictures of the Manhattan Project and ended up producing thousands of negatives of the operation. His work is believed to be one of the most important visual records of the atomic age.

The museum chose to create the statue as a tribute to what Westcott has done to preserve Oak Ridge’s legacy. In fact, the effort to get the statue started in 2013, before the museum opened in 2019. The $70,000 needed for the statue was raised over two years by the ORHPA with donations from ORNL Federal Credit Union, local businesses, and individuals.