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Description of Collection Biographical Note Scope and Contents of Collection Restrictions on Use and Access Selected Search Terms Related Collections Administrative Information

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Series I: Records of Edwin McMillan

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Office of the Director records of Edwin M. McMillan [microfilm], 1907-1991

Description of Collection

Repository

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Archives and Records Office

1 Cyclotron Rd. MS: 69R0102
Berkeley, California 94720
USA
https://commons.lbl.gov/display/aro/Archives+and+Records
aro@lbl.gov

Papers created by

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Office of the Director.

Size of collection

5 linear feet
4 records boxes

Short description of collection

This microfilmed files of Edwin McMillan include correspondence, conference and symposia papers, letters of nomination and recommendation, research reports, reprints, administrative records, consultant and advisory records.

Language(s) of collection

English

Filing code:

ARO-4050

Biographical Note

The laboratory was founded as the University of California Radiation Laboratory in 1931 by Ernest Orlando Lawrence, a University of California Berkeley physicist who won the 1939 Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of the cyclotron, a circular particle accelerator that opened the door to high-energy physics. It is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory, operated by the University of California. The name changed to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1995.

Edwin McMillan (1907-1991) was an American physicist and Nobel laureate credited with being the first ever to produce a transuranium element. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Glenn Seaborg in 1951.

Scope and Contents of Collection

These professional and scientific files of Edwin McMillan include correspondence, conference and symposia papers, letters of nomination and recommendation, research reports, reprints, administrative records, consultant and advisory records. The collection also includes technical drawings, including McMillan's invention, the synchrotron particle accelerator, and other major accelerators which he operated, designed or planned; sound recordings of selected speeches and lectures; and photographs of various early laboratory staff, cyclotrons and other accelerators, his discovery of neptunium and plutonium investigation (for which he won the Nobel Prize with Glenn T. Seaborg in 1951), high energy physics conferences, and visitors to the laboratory. Among McMillan's correspondents were Luis W. Alvarez, Hans Bethe, Raymond T. birge, Melvin Calvin, Owen Chamberlain, Karl T. Compton, Edward U. Condon, Martin Kamen, Ernest and John Lawrence, Linus Pauling, W. K. H. Panofsky, Glenn T. Seaborg, Emilio Segre, Robert Serber, Victor Weiskopf, and Robert R. Wilson, and Martin Gardner.

Restrictions on Use and Access

This collection requires permission for access. Please contact the repository for more information, via email at aro@lbl.gov.

Selected Search Terms

These papers have been indexed in the International Catalog of Sources for History of Physics and Allied Sciences (ICOS) using the following terms. Those seeking related materials should search under these terms.

Related Collections

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Office of the Director records of Edwin M. McMillan, 1907-1991 (259 records boxes). Filing code: ARO-2997 (NRHS 9NNS 434-90-002). Finding aid

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Office of the Director records of Edwin M. McMillan, 1940-1973 (1 records box). Filing code: ARO-5982 (NRHS 434-10-011). Finding aid

Administrative Information

Title

Finding Aid to the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Office of the Director records of Edwin M. McMillan [microfilm], 1907-1991

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 Melanie Mueller in 2012. Any revisions made to this finding aid occurred as part of the editing and encoding process.

Series I: Records of Edwin McMillan

Box 1

14 Rolls Original microfilm, Edwin M. McMIllan Papers

Box 2

14 Rolls Duplicate microfilm, Edwin M. McMIllan Papers

Box 3

14 Rolls Duplicate microfilm, Edwin M. McMIllan Papers

Box 4

Folder 1

Edwin McMillan Papers (1907-1984) Finding Aid

Folder 2

McMillan Papers Series I Correspondence 1925-1983

Folder 3

McMillan Papers Series II Awards and Honors 1924-1968

Folder 4

McMillan Papers Series Series III Early Career and Family Papers 1980-1984

Folder 5

McMillan Papers Series IV Correspondence 1933-1973

Folder 6

McMillan Papers Series V Laboratories and Scientific Conference Papers

Folder 7

McMillan Papers Series VI Correpsondence and papers 1973-1984

Folder 8

McMillan Papers Series VII Scientific Notes 1931-1982

Folder 9

McMillan Papers Series VIII Report Articles 1927-1984

Folder 10

McMillan Papers Series IX Crank File 1946-1980

Folder 11

McMillan Papers Series X Day Books and Calendars

Folder 12

McMillan Papers Series XI Historical Research Papers

Folder 13

McMillan Papers Series XII Director's Special Reports 1938-1973

Folder 14

McMillan Papers Series XIII High Energy Accelerator Study Group Papers

Folder 15

McMillan Papers Series XIV Paramount Picture Case Records

Folder 16

McMillan Papers Series XV Rand Corp. Board Papers

Folder 17

McMillan Papers Series XVI Diplomas and Certificates 1932-1968

Folder 18

McMillan Papers Series XVII Technical Drawings

Folder 19

McMillan Papers Series XVIII Scrapbooks 1940-1970

Folder 20

McMillan Papers Series XIX Sound Recordings

Folder 21

McMillan Papers Series XX Photographic Records

Folder 22

Radiation Laboratory History

Folder 23

Radiation Laboratory Reprints List

Folder 24

The Synchrotron [description of the synchrotron signed by Edwin McMillan dated July 4, 1945]

Folder 25

Letter from Edwin McMillan to Ernest Lawrence July 4, 1945 Re: Accelerators

Folder 26

Edwin McMillan Chemistry Notes

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