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Finding Aid to the Lillian Hoddeson addition to papers, 1913-2006

Publisher:

American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library & Archives
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
USA
nbl@aip.org

2012

Encoding Information:

Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Amanda Nelson in 2012. Any revisions made to this finding aid occurred as part of the editing and encoding process.

Finding aid is written in English.

Description of the Collection

Repository:

American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives.

Title and dates of collection:

Lillian Hoddeson addition to papers 1913-2006

Papers created by:

Hoddeson, Lillian.

Size of collection:

1.25 linear feet
1 records box1 half manuscript box

Short description of collection:

Addition to the professional papers of Lillian Hoddeson that include interviews she conducted and working files of published articles, as well as research material and correspondence.

Language(s) of material:

English

Biographical Note

Lillian Hoddeson was a professor of the history of science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 1989, as well as a research physicist, an affiliate of the Beckman Institute, and a Campus Honors Program professor who holds a doctorate in physics. She specializes in the history of 20th century science and technology, including modern physics, electronics, atomic weapons, "big science," and oral histories.

During her career she has written no less than seven books and over 50 articles in refereed journals and collections in the history of science of technology. Between 1975 and 1980 she explored the roots of industrial research and solid state physics at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where the first transistor was developed. In 1980, she was research director of the American section of the International Project on the History of Solid-State Physics where she organized the writing of "Out of the Crystal Maze: Chapters From the History of Solid-State Physics" with Ernest Braun, Jurgen Teichmann and Spencer Weart. Later she worked on "Crystal Fire" which chronicles the invention of the transistor and "True Genius" that discusses the life and work of physicist John Bardeen. She has helped found the Los Alamos archives and history program during her studying of the history of the atomic bomb and co-wrote the first technical history of the building of the A-bomb. Additionally, she established a national archives and history program focusing on particle accelerators and particle physics at Fermilab. With her extensive use of oral history interivews in her research she became interested in individual and collective memory and explored this idea through an interdisciplinary collaboration with other historians. In 2010, she retired from her position at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Scope and Contents of Collection

The addition to the Lillian Hoddeson papers extend from 1913 to 2006. Most of the collection contains Hoddeson's working files (Series II) that are comprised of correspondence, notes, published articles, newspaper clippings, photographs, and research materials on topics such as the American Institute of Physics, John Bardeen, Bell Telephone Laboratory, Walter Brattain, Karl Ferdinand Braun, Clinton Davisson, Conyers Herring, Nick Holonyak, Howard Huff, Mervin J. Kelly, Francis Wheeler Loomis, Robert Millikan, John Mills, Gordon Moore, Rudolf Peierls, Hans Queisser, radar, Chih-Tang Sah, Frederick Seitz, William Shockley, Morgan Sparks, and transistors.

The other two series include a transcript of her interview (Series I) with John R. Pierce on transistors and an audio cassette recording (Series III) with Vernon Hughes.

Organization and Arrangement of Collection

Collection is arranged into three series:

Series I: TranscriptsSeries II: Working filesSeries III: Tapes

Each series is arranged alphabetically and then chronologically.

Access to Collection

Researchers must have an approved access application on file in order to access archival materials. http://www.aip.org/history/nbl/access.html.

Provenance and Acquisition Information

Gift from Lillian Hoddeson, 2012

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Amanda Nelson in 2012.

Preferred Citation of Collection

Box [number], Folder [number], Lillian Hoddeson addition to papers. American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.

Container List

Series I: Transcripts
Box 1 Folder 1 Pierce, John - interview by Lillian Hoddeson and Michael Riordan, June 29, 1992
 
Series II: Working files
Box 1 Folder 2 American Institute of Physics (AIP) Advisory Committee on History of Physics, 1992
Folder 3 Bardeen, John, 1956
Folder 4 Bardeen, John - photos, undated
Folder 5 Bell Telephone Laboratory, 1976
Folder 6 Bell Telephone Laboratory - post-war planning, 1943-1944
Folder 7 Braun, Karl Ferdinand, 1955-1981
Folder 8 Cold War Workshop, 1994
Folder 9 Crystal Fire - articles and marketing material, 1997-1998
Folder 10 Davisson, Clinton, 1978
Folder 11 Herring, Conyers - "Recollections of John Bardeen", undated
Folder 12 Holonyak, Nick, undated
Folder 13 Huff, Howard, 1998
Folder 14 Jewett Chapter News - "West Street Reminiscences", 1989
Folder 15 Kelly, Mervin J. - "Research and Development Problems of Engineering Management in the Electronics Industry", 1953
Folder 16 Loomis, Francis Wheeler, 2006
Folder 17 Millikan, Robert A. - "Mobilizing Science for War", 1950
Folder 18 Mills, John, 1924-1940
Folder 19 Moore, Gordon, 1997
Folder 20 Oxford, 1990-1992
Folder 21 Peierls, Rudolf - "Early Work on Solids", 1992
Folder 22 Photos - miscellaneous, undated
Folder 23 Photos - miscellaneous, undated
Folder 24 Pierce, John, 1943-1968
Folder 25 Pippard, Brian, 1992
Folder 26 Queisser, Hans J., 1998
Folder 27 Radar and the Bell System, 1945
Folder 28 Riordan, Michael - correspondence, 1996-1998
Folder 29 Sah, Chih-Tang, 1988
Folder 30 Science, Technology and Human Values, 1993
Folder 31 Seitz, Frederick, 1993
Folder 32 Seitz, Frederick - chapter of reminiscence, 1992
Folder 33 Seitz, Frederick - session, 1992
Folder 34 Seitz, Frederick - talk, 1992
Folder 35 Shockley, William, 1936, 1974, 1993
Folder 36 Shockley, William, 1948, 1974
Folder 37 Shockley, William, 1950-1953
Folder 38 Shockley, William, 1956-1986
Folder 39 Shockley, William - paper by John Moll, 1992
Folder 40 Silicon Rectifier, 1947-1955
Folder 41 Sparks, Morgan, 1949-1950
Folder 42 Supertex, inc., 1983-1993
Folder 43 Transistor, 1950-1975
Box 2 Folder 1 Transistor - general, 1949-1954
Folder 2 WWA - article on H. R. (Bert) Moore and the transistor, 1968
Folder 3 WWA - articles about Walter Brattain, 1967-1970
Folder 4 WWA - articles and papers by Walter Brattain, 1948-1968
Folder 5 WWA - correspondence between Brattain, Seitz, and Pegram, 1951
Folder 6 WWA - correspondence between Robert and Walter Brattain, 1965
Folder 7 WWA - correspondence from Lee DeForest, 1948
Folder 8 WWA - general articles about transistor, 1972-1979
Folder 9 WWA - miscellaneous, 1940, 1958
Folder 10 WWA - miscellaneous correspondence between Walter Brattain and others, 1931, 1967, 1979
Folder 11 WWA - "Wagon Wheel Blood" by Ross R. Brattain and short biography of John Houser, undated
Folder 12 WWA - Walter Brattain's early school records, 1913-1924
 
Series III: Tapes
Box 2 Folder 13 Hughes, Vernon, April 14, 1981