Operation Gnome, New Mexico, 1961
 
The world owes Flickr user Kelly Michals a debt of gratitude for saving these marvelous “participation certificates” from oblivion. Michals has put together an extensive Flickr album to house more than 100 of these amazing and weird documents of the Cold War. You might think of nuclear testing as an activity associated with, say, 1954, but these documents cover a startlingly wide time span, from 1951 into the early 1970s, at least that I found.

In a way, these items are a bit like fallout shelters, an optimistic and probably futile gesture in the face of the most hopeless situation you could imagine, nuclear bombs created to wipe out entire continents. The nuclear tests had amusing names like Operation Milkshake and the documents have something of the naive artistic value of the CB radio calling cards we highlighted a couple weeks back.

There are a lot more of these at Michals’ Flickr album, so do go there and have a look. All of the images on this page, you can see a larger image by clicking on it,
 

Project Ranger, Nevada, 1951
 

Frenchman Flats, Nevada, 1953
 

Operation Teapot, Nevada, 1955
 

Operation Nougat, Nevada, 1961
 

Operation Storax, Nevada, 1962-63
 

Operation Roller Coaster, Nevada, 1963
 

Operation Ming Vase, Nevada, 1968
 

Operation Milkshake, Nevada, 1968
 

Operation Dorsal Fin, Nevada, 1968
 

Operation Husky Ace, Nevada, 1973
 

 
via Paleofuture