Like a bartender who keep drinks flowing and a manager who keeps a restaurant running smoothly, Joseph Kent, the deputy director and curator of Atomic Museum Vegas, keeps history living. Atomic Museum “is the one-stop shop to learn about everything nuclear-related, especially with Las Vegas and Nevada’s role in that testing,” Kent says.
Kent, who has had a love for museums and history since he was young, discovered the Atomic Museum when he was in grad school (for public history) and went to a conference in Canada, where one of the museum’s former directors was lecturing. “I had no idea that Nevada had any relationship to nuclear testing, let alone this expansive. It really intrigued me and I wanted to learn more.”
Kent interned at Atomic Museum in 2013 and was hired that year as the director of education. He took a few years away but returned in 2019 and recently accepted his current position. As deputy director, he says, “I make sure we’re preserving the history of this site, telling the stories of former test site workers and also making sure guest experience is top-notch. And on the curator side, I oversee the collection of artifacts.”
His career, he says, is “100 percent a passion … I never in a million years growing up in rural western Pennsylvania thought that I’d be working for a national museum in Las Vegas. Sometimes I do need to pinch myself.”
Retail
Check out the retail store for some really fun atomic-themed merchandise like board games, kitschy sodas and souvenirs. Fans of the movie Oppenheimer won’t want to miss checking out The Gadget (which Kent is pictured in front of), a 1-to-1-scale replica of the device tested during Trinity—the first-ever nuclear weapons test.
Benefit: Look for the docents—most of them were former test site employees and have stories to share!
755 E. Flamingo Road. 702.409.7366. atomicmuseum.vegas
Click here for your free subscription to the weekly digital edition of Las Vegas Magazine, your guide to everything to do, hear, see and experience in Southern Nevada. In addition to the latest edition emailed to every week, you’ll find plenty of great, money-saving offers from some of the most exciting attractions, restaurants, properties and more! And Las Vegas Magazine is full of informative content such as restaurants to visit, cocktails to sip and attractions to enjoy.
