In 1951 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to nuclear scientists John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton. The laureates were honored for their research on the transmutations of atomic nuclei, having successfully conducted the first controlled artificial disintegration of elements at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge in 1932 under the direction of the pioneering physicist Ernest Rutherford. In the same year that Cockcroft and Walton received the Nobel Prize in Physics their groundbreaking achievements, along with those of numerous other notable Britons, were honored in the Festival of Britain; a summer-long, nation-wide calendar of events and exhibitions that ran from May through September.

Within the nationwide programme of Festival events there were multiple exhibitions that showcased nuclear science: in London these included the Exhibition of Science at the Science Museum in South Kensington, a display on nuclear physics as part of the Physical World section of the Dome of Discovery at the South Bank Exhibition, and the Growth and Form exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts; while in Scotland Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall played host to the Exhibition of Industrial Power.

In telling the story of British nuclear physics at the Festival of Britain, visual displays played a key role. In this paper, exhibits and works of art from various Festival sites are examined in terms of the discourses that they engaged concerning both the potential—for better or for worse—of nuclear energy, and the impact of the atom on both the artistic output and popular imagination of the era. In dialogue with the conference theme of ‘knowledge at work,’ this paper explores the contributions of artists and designers in communicating scientific discoveries to the public through the conduit of the national exhibition.

The positive presentation of nuclear physics, underscored by Festival narratives contributed by figures such as Jacob Bronowski, is read against more anxious concerns about nuclear capabilities that were conveyed in works by some of the commissioned artists. Artworks and exhibits considered include designs by the Festival Pattern Group; John Tunnard’s crystallographic mural for the South Bank’s Regatta Restaurant; Richard Hamilton’s installation at the ICA; Laurence Scarfe’s Atomic Energy mural in the Dome of Discovery; and William Crosbie’s atomic mural for Glasgow’s Hall of the Future.