History Newsletter CENTER FOR HISTORY OF PHYSICS&NIELS BOHR LIBRARY & ARCHIVES Vol. 45, No. 2 • Winter 2013–2014 1,000+ Oral History Interviews Now Online Since June 2007, the Niels Bohr Library societies. Some of the interviews were Through this hard work, we have been & Archives (NBL&A) has been working conducted by staff of the Center for able to receive updated permissions to place its widely used oral history History of Physics (CHP) and many were and often hear from families that did interview collection online for its acquired from individual scholars who not know an interview existed and are researchers to easily access. With the were often helped by our Grant-in-Aid pleased to know that their relative’s work help of two National Endowment for the program. These interviews help tell will be remembered and available to Humanities (NEH) grants, we are proud the personal stories of these famous anyone interested. to announce that we have now placed over two- With the completion of thirds of our collection the grants, we have just online (http://www.aip.org/ over 1,025 of our over history/ohilist/transcripts. 1,500 transcripts online. html ). These transcripts include abstracts of the interview, The oral histories at photographs from ESVA NBL&A are one of our when available, and links most used collections, to the interview’s catalog second only to the record in our International photographs in the Emilio Catalog of Sources (ICOS). Segrè Visual Archives We have short audio clips (ESVA). They cover selected by our post- topics such as quantum doctoral historian of 75 physics, nuclear physics, physicists in a range of astronomy, cosmology, solid state physicists and allow the reader insight topics showing some of the interesting physics, lasers, geophysics, industrial into their lives, works, and personalities. and personal topics discussed. We’ve research and physicists at the forefront added approximately 40 interviews of physics education. They range in date We have worked diligently over the past conducted in foreign languages to our from 1962 to new interviews conducted 6 years to obtain permissions from the website that include French, German, every year and contain conversations participants or their families to place the Russian, and Ukrainian. Furthermore, with numerous Nobel prize winners interviews online, in many cases with the text of all the transcripts is easily and leadership from AIP and its member your help from our lists in this newsletter. (Continued on page 2) In this issue... 1,000+ Oral History Interviews Online ....................................... 1 Please Help Us Contact .......................................................... 9 Taking Stock of the AIP History Programs Grants-in-Aid ................. 2 Global Science, Global Technology, Global Impact ......................10 One Hundred Years of the Bohr Atom, 1913–2013 ......................... 3 Grants-in-Aid Support Scholarly Endeavors ................................11 Initiative for Oral Histories of Minorities and JASHOPS Revival .................................................................12 Women in Physical Sciences ............................................ 4 Resurgence in History of Physics at the Behind the Data: Lessons from Women and History of Science Society Annual Meeting .........................13 Minorities in Physics and Astronomy.................................. 5 Documentation Preserved: New Collections .............................14 Listserv Now Online for Historians of the Physical Sciences ............ 5 Documentation Preserved: New Finding Aids and Transcripts ........18 Richard Garwin Donates Books and Archival Material to AIP........... 6 Friends of the Center for History of Physics ...............................25 Making Archival Documents and their Metadata Available Cover Image: Electronically from the Niels Bohr Archive (Denmark) ............ 7 Harvey Fletcher (L) being inerviewed by Vern Knudsen, circa 1964. Recent Publications of Interest ................................................ 8 Credit: 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 (“Oral Histories”, continued from page 1) Taking Stock of the AIP History Programs Grants-in-Aid searchable allowing researchers to look Nicole Amaral for mention of a specific person, place or subject within an interview. Since September 2012, I have been across the country. The recipients delving into the records of the of Grants-in-Aid have, over the past Prior to being placed online, on average AIP Center for History of Physics’ thirty years, collectively produced we received 185 requests per year Grants-in-Aid program.The purpose over 400 publications relating to their from scholars, but now the webpages of this project has not only been to AIP research. receive almost 40,000 visits in a year. This streamline and reorganize the records new audience of students, teachers, for reference, but to systematically As a public historian, my interest in journalists, and the general public are explore for the first time the wealth the project lay not only in creating a able to discover the history of the physical of scholarship that has resulted from user-friendly database of this research sciences in a new and interesting way. these research-enabling grant funds. information, but also in what the information could tell me about the Though the NEH grants are completed, With records beginning in 1989 and history inherent in the research itself. we will be maintaining the resource continuing through the present, the The Grants-in-Aid program attracts and adding new interviews to it as grants have funded a wide array of applicants from all over the world, they become available. As always, we research projects conducted at the each with their own perspective Niels Bohr Library & Archives, from appreciate hearing from our users and on their nationality’s contributions student doctoral dissertations to appreciate any feedback. If you have any to physics and desire to see those questions, comments, or ideas please books-in-progress of scholars, as contributions sufficiently explored. contact us at [email protected]. ■ well as many oral histories conducted The projects from scholars hailing from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s were especially impassioned as they sought to shed light on the history of Soviet science that had largely been kept in the dark. Historians conducting research as history unfolded around them was a fascinating thing to examine. As this project draws to a close, it is my hope that the extensive list of publications I’ve collected will underscore the importance of the Grants-in-Aid program and ensure its continuation. In addition to being a record of the program, this list provides a small but significant sampling of History of Science scholarship, and serves as an important example of the direction of the field during the critical end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. ■ Nicole Amaral graduated with a BA in History from Providence College and an MA in Public History from Northeastern University. She first became involved in History of Science Screenshot of the online transcript of Harvey Fletcher’s 1964 oral history interview. The tran- script, along with over a thousand others, can be found at http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/ during an internship with the National transcripts.html. Image courtesy of AIP’s History Programs. Air and Space Museum. 2 History Newsletter | Winter 2013–2014 www.aip.org/history One Hundred Years of the Bohr Atom, 1913–2013 Finn Aaserud, Director, Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen This year Denmark and the world The main event organized by the NBA “My courage is ablaze so wildly”: Niels celebrate the hundredth anniversary of was the conference “One hundred Bohr en route to his quantum atom, Niels Bohr’s publication of his atomic years of the Bohr atom, 1913–2013,” presented his new understanding of model. The Bohr atom had tremendous which took place from 11 to 14 June the background of Bohr's contribution implications for physics in particular and 2013. Like the book described above, it based on the research for the book for our understanding of the world in was sponsored in part by the Carlsberg mentioned above. It was considered by general. Several events and publications Foundation. It had been planned over a many as the main lecture celebrating the mark the anniversary, and the Niels Bohr period of two to three years, with a call entire anniversary year. The lecture can Archive (NBA) is involved in a number for papers relating to Niels Bohr and his be seen on YouTube from the website of them. career broadly speaking. The call created of the Royal Academy, http://www. considerable interest, with 34 people royalacademy.dk/. The main publication in English (some of them presenting joint papers) celebrating the anniversary is the book from 15 countries accepted as speakers. Heilbron's lecture was held in the large Love, Literature and the Quantum Atom: The conference was quite appropriately conference hall on the top floor of the Niels Bohr’s 1913 Trilogy Revisited, held at the Royal Danish Academy of Academy, which was also the site for authored