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General Information

Description of Collection Biographical Note Scope and Contents of Collection Restrictions on Use and Access Selected Search Terms Organization and Arrangement of Collection Provenance and Acquisition Information Processing Information Preferred Citation of Collection Administrative Information

Container List

Series I: Transcripts Series II: Working files Series III: Tapes

Lillian Hoddeson addition to papers, 1913-2006

Description of Collection

Repository

American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives.

Papers created by

Hoddeson, Lillian.

Size of collection

1.25 linear feet
1 records box
1 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 collection

English

Collection number:

AR20121142

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.

Restrictions on Use and Access

Researchers must have an approved access application on file in order to access archival materials. https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/item-request.

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.

Organization and Arrangement of Collection

Collection is arranged into three series:

Series I: Transcripts
Series II: Working files
Series III: Tapes

Each series is arranged alphabetically and then chronologically.

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.

Administrative Information

Title

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.

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

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