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History Newsletter CENTER for HISTORY of PHYSICS&NIELS BOHR LIBRARY & ARCHIVES Vol History Newsletter CENTER FOR HISTORY OF PHYSICS&NIELS BOHR LIBRARY & ARCHIVES Vol. 41, No. 2 • Fall 2009 Digitizing the Samuel Goudsmit Papers In the Fall 2008 issue of the Newsletter other fasteners. Where necessary they for each image, resulting in a more read- we reported that the Library & Archives replaced the fasteners with strips of able digital representation. had received a grant from the National acid-free paper, and they flattened Historical Publications and Records folded edges and crumpled corners. As the vendor returns the scanned doc- Commission (NHPRC) to scan and uments, the next and most important mount online the complete papers of The prepared documents are being phase of the project begins—review Samuel A. Goudsmit, consisting of an transported in small batches to Macfad- of each page. Melanie and Rebecca estimated 66,000 individual items. den & Associates in nearby Silver Spring, compare each scanned image with its original document, We promised that we’d verifying that the cor- keep you updated, and rect image has been we’re pleased to report scanned, the image is that the entire collection oriented properly, and has been prepared for the contrast is light or shipment to the imag- dark enough to read ing vendor, Macfadden penciled annotations & Associates; the first 12 and fading carbon boxes of the collection sheets. If an image have been scanned; and does not meet these staff are beginning to and other archival review the scanned im- specifications, it’s re- ages. turned to the vendor to be rescanned. Creating an archival- quality digital facsimile With the help of of the Goudsmit Papers requires MD. Since the Goudsmit Papers are ir- AIP Web Development staff, we are painstaking and time consuming work. replaceable, the scanning technicians beginning to explore the next stage of The project’s assistant director, Melanie cannot use a document feeder. Instead, the project: designing the storage system Brown, and the project assistant, each piece of paper is placed onto a flat- and online interface for displaying the Rebecca Bruner, prepared the collection bed scanner by hand. The slower pace digitized collection. We’re expecting by inspecting each sheet of paper for and individual attention also allows the exciting results and will continue to damage and removing all staples or technician to adjust the contrast levels keep you updated. ■ In this issue... Digitizing the Samuel Goudsmit Papers ..................................... 1 Emilio Segrè Visual Archives .................................................... 8 Thinking Like a Center for History of Physics .............................. 2 AIP Launches New Study of Physics Entrepreneurs ....................... 9 Grants-in-Aid: The Lifeblood of Documentation Preserved: New Collections ............................. 10 the Center for History of Physics 4 ..................................... Documentation Preserved: New Finding Aids ............................ 12 Nuisance to Nemesis: Nuclear Fallout 4 ....................................... 2009 Book Donations .......................................................... 14 The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III 5 ........................................ Book Wish List ................................................................... 14 The Inter-disciplinarity of Solid State Physics 5 .............................. The End of “Recent Publications on the History of Physics ........... 14 Grants-in-Aid Awarded in Spring 2009 ...................................... 5 Cover Photo: Recent Publications of Interest ................................................ 6 Lt. Toepel and Samuel Goudsmit driving a jeep in Stadtilm, Germany; Please Help Us Contact .......................................................... 8 Alsos Mission, April 16, 1945. Courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives. AIP Member Societies: The American Physical Society • The Optical Society of America • The Acoustical Society of America • The Society of Rheology • The American Association of Physics Teachers American Crystallographic Association • American Astronomical Society • American Association of Physicists in Medicine • AVS The Science and Technology Society • American Geophysical Union Thinking Like a Center for History of Physics By Greg Good, Center Director So there is no black-and- History of physics and allied sciences— white separation of func- it’s the phrase the Center and the Library tions between the Center have long used to declare our subject. and the Library & Archives. This includes classical physics, quantum There are, however, some and relativistic physics, astrophysics, as- things that the Center fo- tronomy, physics in medicine, industrial cuses on that stand apart. physics, geophysics, and many more ar- While the Library & Archives eas. We need to encourage all of these maintains the standards and areas of research among younger histo- goals of a 21st-century digital rians of science. repository, including clar- ity on scope of collections, Given the rise in prominence of bio- Greg Good preservation requirements, medical topics—among historians as and cataloging and data stan- among the general society—we must AIP’s Niels Bohr Library & Archives pre- dards, the Center should keep the active be proactive or levels of interest in his- serves the heritage of the physical sci- creation and propagation of history of tory of the physical sciences will not be ences, while the purpose of the Center physics and allied sciences foremost. sustained. I think it is critical that histo- for History of Physics is to make this rians of the physical sciences revive a heritage known. This year the Center in- That is, the Center should provide a graduate student conference inclusive cludes Will Thomas, Ph.D.—a historian place where historians, scientists, and of all of these topic areas and more at of science who studied at Harvard— other scholars gather to talk about “the the earliest possible date. I gladly vol- here on the third year of a post-doctoral next new thing” in history of the physi- unteer to coordinate this conference. I position, Orv Butler, Ph.D.—associate cal sciences, broadly conceived, as well need half a dozen colleagues—includ- historian who worked with Joe Ander- as to do research in our extraordinarily ing graduate students—to help. Will son on the History of Physicists in In- rich collections. It should encourage you join me? dustry (HoPI) project and who with Joe new scholarship, new areas of inves- is now starting the three-year History of tigation, new questions. The Grants- The Center also should work to bring Physicist Entrepreneurs (HoPE) project, in-Aid program does this and, as the the history of the physical sciences to Ada Uzoma—who designs and builds economy recovers, will do more of this. the broadest audience possible. Our the new elements of our web presence, Even before the recovery, though, in web exhibits on Einstein, Curie, the his- Stephanie Jankowski—who manages tough times with a tightened budget, tory of scientific cosmology, etc., were the office and especially keeps the oral the Center has allocated 50% more conceived for this sort of educational history program on track, and me. for 2010 to the Grants-in-Aid program outreach. We will continue to add to so that we can bring more scholars to these, with Spencer Weart’s new exhibit Of course, the separation of activity is College Park. on the history of the laser and an exhibit not that simple. All of us work constantly back and forth, as do Joe Anderson and the Library staff. I help the Library in se- lecting books that will fill the needs of researchers. Joe keeps me in tune with our collections policies for manuscripts, policies that have worked well for de- cades. Ada and Steph work with Library staff to place their resources effectively on the web and to keep projects flowing. Will’s “Array of Contemporary Ameri- can Physicists” project will ultimately become a web-based research tool that complements our Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, the International Catalog of Sources and the on-line Physics History Finding Aids. The Library & Archives also undertake research related to archival issues—documentation research—such as that on physicist entrepreneurs and The first practical steam carriage to ply along English roads between Bath and London circa 1829. their records. Physicist John Herapath is up front. Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection. 2 History Newsletter | Fall 2009 www.aip.org/history on “Physics at the Edge of Space: Early Exploration of the Magnetosphere”, both going live in 2010. More can be done in educational out- reach. This summer the Center shared in supporting an undergraduate intern, Mary Mills (B.S., Wooster College, 2009), who conducted background research for the “Edge of Space” exhibit. She also shared her perspective as a physics-ed- ucation major. More interns will follow in Mary’s footsteps each summer. The Center also started participating in the informal “Physics Education Roundta- ble,” which brings together educational staff of the American Institute of Phys- ics, the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teach- ers, and other member societies. His- torians and science-educators need to communicate better everywhere. Rebecca Bruner (front) and Melanie Brown compare Samuel Goudsmit’s original notes for a For an academic historian like me who review of Robert Jungk’s book Heiler als Tausend Sonnen (Brighter Than A Thousand Suns) with the digital facsimile.
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