The cover of a government publication that was meant to inform the public of the dangers of fallout, and how average people can protect themselves. The graphic shows a family avoiding fallout by sheltering in a special room built in their basement. The outside of the diagram, and the interior of the home except for the fallout shelter, are painted red to indicate that these areas are now contaminated with deadly radiation.

Bomb shelters are structures that are designed to protect the occupants from the blast and flying debris that result from both conventional and nuclear bombs.

Fallout shelters are not necessarily designed to survive blasts, but are instead designed to protect the occupants from radiation. Frequently, fallout shelters are designed to shelter persons for a longer period of time than bomb shelters, and so they include stocks of food, water, and other survival supplies.

As the public and government became more aware of the dangers of fallout, the need for shelters designed to protect from fallout became more important. An added benefit to building fallout shelters was that these structures did not need to be as hardened against attack, and so they could be built much cheaper. They prompted the building of fallout shelters inside of homes. The graphic shows a family being protected from radiation by the walls of their home. A major selling point of fallout shelters was that they did not necessarily need to look like buried bomb shelters, and so families could simply designate and alter a room in their home to be a fallout shelter.

The different levels of atomic destruction are depicted. Beyond the immediate destruction caused by heat and pressure is the area affected by radiation. This being the radiation that comes directly from a bomb itself. Affecting the largest area is fallout. Fallout is radiated pieces of dust, and fallout shelters were designed specifically to deal with this threat.

What is fallout?

• 1:  The often radioactive particles stirred up by or resulting from a nuclear explosion and descending through the atmosphere; also :  other polluting particles (as volcanic ash) descending likewise

• b :  descent (as of fallout) through the atmosphere

• 2:  a secondary and often lingering effect, result, or set of consequences

Merriam Webster(2016)

The top right of the image shows a person being exposed to radiation. The levels of radiation are depicted by arrows with the accumulation of it shown by different colored orbs inside of the character's body. The bottom portion of the image is dedicated to a chart explaining just how much radition a person can be exposed to. Fallout shelters were given a rating that was related to the percentage of radiation they were able to protect the occupants from.

These publications presented a mixed view of fallout with some publications downplaying the dangers of fallout. Other publications highlighted fallout as a major danger, and detailed the suffering and lingering diseases that can result from exposure to radiation. The graphic shows a more alarmist view of fallout with the person gathering small spheres of radiation.

These publications attempted to inform the public of the dangers of fallout by assigning statistics, safe dosage levels, and periods of danger to fallout. Because the amount of radiation caused by an atomic blast varied, these publications generally dealt with multiple variables with the use of charts.

The chart depicted in the graphic details the dosage that a person could receive, and the likelihood of them dying after a set amount of time. The graphic shows that the chances of dying from a high dosage of radiation lessened over time. This information was meant to be alarming, and would prompt the public to build shelters that would lower the amount ofradiation they would initially receive.

Depicted is a picture of the medical supplies that a family fallout shelter should have. These medical supplies are packaged in brown cardboard containers, and resemble the canned goods that a fallout shelter should also have. Accompaning these pictures, most publications will include a detailed list of the various guazes and first aid items that a family fallout shelter should have. Other publications simply show a picture of an assortment of supplies.

The government and private businesses provided the public with lists of items to put in fallout shelters, and what survival skills they should practice. These survival skills mostly related to basic first aid and how to stay calm in an emergency.

Many of these publications promoted the benefits of fallout shelters as a way to prepare for other disasters. Lists of needed items were common, and numerous publications showed an assortment of items that a fallout shelter should have. These publications would either simply tell individuals to have food, water, and medical supplies. Other publications would detail the amount of specific types of food, bandages, and common medications that were needed for a well-stocked fallout shelter.

The use of pictures showing an assortment of food and medical supplies were a common way of telling the public to gather these items. In addition to a list of supplies, these publications would also detail the training that one should receive. This would include things such as basic first aid. Other publications would inform the public to receive more advanced medical training that would include setting broken bones and delivering babies. Other publications would show how to set bones and deliver babies.

A cartoon drawing of a family getting ready to build a fallout shelter. The family is depicted as if they are on the cover of a hobby kit or about to have a family party. They are very calm, and a red arrow indicated that they are taking advantage of literature on fallout shelter construction.

The public was provided with a variety of fallout shelter designs that were designed for different needs. This included fallout shelters that were very simple and cheap such as a converted basement room, and more complex shelters that were their own special use structures. Three major categories of fallout shelters were those for homes, schools, and farms.

The pictures of people building fallout shelters would show that this act was a family oriented activity. Wives and children would often be shown helping with the process of building a fallout shelter. Other pictures would show an entire family relaxing in the fallout shelter. Pictures of young children playing with pets and toys were common in these publications. The purpose of such pictures was to show that the construction of a fallout shelter was what a responsible family member would do, and that it would be appreciated by others.

A cutaway drawing of a highschool designed to shelter both students and the community from fallout. This particular drawing is of a school that was designed to be partially underground.

A drawing of a school designed to withstand moderate levels of fallout. The school features thick concrete walls with many of the classrooms placed underground.

A diagram of a school designed as a community fallout shelter. The top portion of the diagram shows what parts of the school were to be placed underground.

Manuals that gave instructions on how to create fallout shelters for schools were published to protect school children and staff in case of a nuclear attack.

If a nuclear attack were to occur during school hours, children and staff can get into these shelters for protection. This was a way to teach school children about the threat and dangers of fallout and nuclear explosions.

Some of the designs included classrooms that were placed underground so that classes can be taught in an environment that is safe from fallout. Other school designs employed the use of thick concrete walls and small windows that would be able to protect the occupants from fallout.

Some schools designed specifically to protect people from fallout were in fact built. These built structures included schools that were entirely underground. The biggest impact from this community fallout preparedness movement was that it resulted in architects to include fallout minded designs in public buildings. This includes such things as the inclusion of basements, or special underground areas that could serve as fallout shelters. The employment of thick concrete walls became common after the fallout shelter movement.

The bottom picture shows one of the most common fallout shelter designs. This was to simply have part of the school that was partially buried. This would protect the occupants from fallout both as the result of the surrounding earth and because of the structure on top of it. This design was promoted as a way of saving outdoor space as well.

This steel igloo design is meant to provide high levels of protection at a very low price. The shelter consists of a prefabricated steel structure that requires four hours to assemble. The igloo is then placed in a pit and buried. The igloo offers great fallout and blast protection, and can squeeze in six adults inside of its eighty square feet of interior space. This design has a listed price of $175 (estimated to be $1,389 in 2015 dollars).

A steel, masonry, and lumber fallout shelter. The fallout shelter is mostly constructed of steel plates covered with earth to protect from radiation. The front and back of the fallout shelter was to be bricked up for additional protection.

A completely underground fallout shelter. The shelter is meant to be accessed by crawling through a large metal pipe. A family is depicted inside of the fallout shelter. The end of the shelter features a hand-cranked ventalation system.

A family can be seen comfortably relaxing in their converted fallout shelter. The family is able to treat it like a living room with the children reading, playing with toys, and the mother can even listen to the radio. Next to the picture is a list of requirements for an adequate fallout shelter.

The U.S. government issued many manuals that were published for families, giving instructions on how to create fallout shelters in the home or in a residential backyard.

The government and many American families thought it was very important to have a shelter in a backyard or in a home. Having a home fallout shelter was meant for families to immediately get to protection from fallout. Many different shelter designs were created for families to build.Some of the family shelter designs were placed underground and they were used as additional living space in the event of dangerous levels of fallout. Other shelter designs were placed above ground but they were meant to protect individuals from fallout levels that have damaging effects on the body.

Some of the above-ground designs were also covered in earth to provide higher protection. These designs could be ordered in the form of kits. These kits generally included the steel components that could be bolted together. Other designs were meant to be constructed with the use of readily available building materials such as bricks and wood.

These fallout shelter designs are much different than the converted basement designs, and the designs for community shelters, in that they were detached structures that could only be used to protect against bomb blasts and fallout.

A common feature of these designs were that they would resemble a mound of earth once they were completed. This allowed homeowners to discreetly place a fallout shelter somewhere in their garden without it being readily noticeable.

A series of designs of adequate fallout shelters. The recommended radiation protection levels with human protection are listed as 2 and ½ percent, and market stock recommended for 20 percent. The radiation levels of various materials are listed, and a series of diagrams shows adequate fallout shelter designs.

Design of a fallout shelter meant to be built next to a barn. The diagram on the right shows where a fallout shelter can be added to a barn. The left diagram shows the way that the shelter should be constructed, and where supplies and accomodations can be placed in the shelter.

Livestock shelters were designed to protect valuable animals from fallout. These shelters could double as normal livestock shelters during peacetime. This shelter consists of an open metal structure and is rated to only provide ten percent protection above the outside. Mostly this shelter was designed to serve as a standard livestock shelter, a place to protect supplies from the elements, and to house the generator that would serve both the livestock shelter and the adjacent family shelter.

Manuals for rural families and farmers were also created because fallout was a possible hazard to rural areas, crops and, livestock. There were manuals that included designs on how to convert livestock barns into fallout shelters as a way to protect livestock from getting exposure to fallout.

Designs for farms were important because rural areas are main sources for food production and there were shelters designed to protect farms from getting radiation exposure. Shelters for rural areas were designed as a way for farmers and rural families to prevent main sources of meat from getting contaminated from fallout. Livestock getting fallout exposure would cause meat to get tainted.

Some of the shelter designs for rural areas were meant to protect both livestock and families. These types of shelters included a section for livestock to stay in during an event when dangerous levels of fallout are present and another section that was meant for families.  

A common feature of these rural fallout shelter designs was that they were meant to be useful in the event of fallout, but also to be constantly used for day-to-day utilitarian functions. This was an important feature as farmers likely could not give up the money, time, and land to build a specific structure for fallout. One notable design is an open pole barn that was simply designed to protect against falling dust. This design is nearly the same as standard pole barns with the only difference being small walls meant to protect from the wind.

Some rural fallout shelters were designed to allow a family to live right next to their livestock. A fallout shelter in a barn would allow a family to continue to take care of their livestock without them having to travel outdoors to reach the barn. This would offer them access to food, and would allow them to retain their animals once the danger from fallout was over.