The 1956 presidential campaign made a stop at ORNL Thursday, Aug. 30 when Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and his running mate, Sen. Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., visited. Accompanied by an entourage of 300, including news media and Democratic Party officeholders primarily from the South, Stevenson and Kefauver visited Knoxville, Norris Dam and Y-12 before touring the Graphite Reactor. Stevenson and Kefauver were joined by Tennessee Gov. Frank Clement and Sen. Albert Gore Sr., D-Tenn. ORNL Director Alvin Weinberg hosted the visitors at the Graphite Reactor and explained the research taking place there. After departing ORNL, the entourage headed to Madisonville, Kefauver’s hometown. Stevenson would lose the election in November as President Dwight D. Eisenhower was re-elected. Eisenhower previously defeated Stevenson, then governor of Illinois, in 1952.
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