Carnegie Institution of Washington. Department of Terrestrial Magnetism

Institutional History

Abstract

The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism was founded in 1904 to map the geomagnetic field of the Earth. Over the years the research direction shifted, but the historic goal to understand the Earth and its place in the universe has remained the same. Today the department is home to an interdisciplinary team of astronomers and astrophysicists, geophysicists and geochemists, cosmochemists and planetary scientists.

Important Dates

1902Louis A. Bauer submits a proposal to create a department to map the geomagnetic field of the entire Earth.

1904 – 1954John Fleming was on staff.

April 1, 1904Work at the Department of International Research in Terrestrial Magnetism starts, Washington (D.C.).

1907Name shortened to Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.

1913Experimental studies of magnetism and atomispheric electricity begin.

1913 – 1917William Swann was on staff.

1914Moved to their Broad Branch Road site, Washington (D.C.).

1924 – 1929Gregory Breit was on staff.

1926 – 1982Merle Tuve was on staff.

1927 – 1969Scott Forbush was on staff.

1928High-voltage studies start using Tesla Coil as a particle accelerator.

1928 – 1945Lawrence Hafstad was on staff.

1932Committee of Coordinaton of Cosmic Ray Investigations in formed and centralized at the department.

1933 – 1941Lloyd Berkner was on staff.

1935First of ten Washington Conferences on Theoretical Physics co-sponsored with George Washington University.

1938 – 1956E. Harry Vestine was on staff.

1939 – 1942James Van Allen was on staff.

1940Proximity fuse development starts.

1942Fuse research and development transferred to Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

1946Merle A. Tuve as the new Director initiates the modern research directions in seismology, geochronology, and radio astronomy.

1946 – 1953Philip Abelson was on staff.

1953 – 1960George Wetherill was on staff.

1954Committee on Electronic Image Converters for Telescopes begins work.

1958Paleomagnetism studies finished.

1966Broad-band seismograph developed.

1966First non-human computer, an IBM 1130, installed.

1974 – 1976Biophysics group phased out.

1975 – 2006George Wetherill was on staff.

January 30, 1989Ground broken for New Research Building, Washington (D.C.).

1990Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory moves to Department of Terrestrial Magnetism's Broad Branch Road campus.

1998Becomes founding member of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astrobiology Institute.

Places

Headquarters

Washington (D.C.)

Subjects

Physical laboratories.

Citations

Historical information from "Celebrating 100 Years of Discovery at DTM: 1904 to 2004" timeline (https://dtm.carnegiescience.edu/celebrating-100-years-discovery-dtm-1904-2004).

Relationships

People

Employees & Officers

Abelson, Philip Hauge

Chair, Biophysics Section.

Ault, J. P. (James Percy), 1881-1929

Bauer, L. A. (Louis Agricola), 1865-1932

Founder of the department with his goal to map the geomagnetic field of the Earth.

Berkner, Lloyd V. (Lloyd Viel), 1905-1967

Physicist.

Breit, Gregory, 1899-1981

Mathematical Physicist.

Donahue, Thomas M.

Visiting Associate.

Fleming, J. A. (John Adam), 1877-1956

Chief Magnetician; Assistant Director; Acting Director; and Director.

Forbush, Scott E., 1904-1984

Observer and Mathematical Physicist.

Hafstad, Lawrence, 1904-

Associate Physicist and Physicist.

Mindlin, Raymond D. (Raymond David), 1906-1987

Consultant Physicist.

Swann, W. F. G. (William Francis Gray), 1884-1962

Chief Physicist.

Tuve, Merle Antony, 1901-1982

Associate Physicist; Physicist; Chief Physicist; Director; and Distinguished Service Member.

Van Allen, James A. (James Alfred), 1914-2006

Carnegie Research Fellow in Nuclear Physics and Physicist.

Vestine, E. H. (Ernest Harry), 1906-1968

Section Chief, Land Magnetic Survey and Section Chief, Theoretical Geophysics.

Wetherill, George West

Staff Member; Director; and Director Emeritus and Staff Member.

Associates & Members

Alpher, Ralph, 1921-2007

Baum, William A.

Beams, Jesse W. (Jesse Wakefield), 1898-1977

Fraser, Lorence

Goddard, Richard Halsey

Herman, Robert, 1914-

Mansfield, Robert H. (Robert Hubbard)

Roberts, Richard B. (Richard Brooke), 1910-

Ruark, Arthur Edward, 1899-

Shapley, Alan H.

Silver, Paul G.

Tatel, Howard E. (Howard Edwin), 1913-

Vacquier, Victor

Wheeler, John Archibald, 1911-2008

Institutions

Institutional Hierarchy

Carnegie Institution of Washington

Collaborators

George Washington University. Department of Physics

Co-sponsored ten Washington Conferences on Theoretical Physics.

Associates

Johns Hopkins University. Applied Physics Laboratory

Work on proximity fuses started at Carnegie was transferred to the laboratory in 1942.

Maud expedition, 1918-1925

United States. National Bureau of Standards

Resources

Archival Resources

Author

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Biophysics Program records, 1931-1969 (bulk 1945-1969).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Cooperative Expedition records, 1921-1972, 1935-1937.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism general files, 1904-present.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism instrument and equipment records, 1892-1970 (bulk 1905-1945).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism instrument photograph collection, 1909-circa 1956.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism International Polar Year records, 1931-1936.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Ionospheric Section records, 1927-1959 (bulk 1942-1946).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Land Magnetic Survey records, 1905-1945.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Nuclear Physics Program records, 1927-1963 (bulk 1933-1955).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Ocean Magnetic Survey records, 1905-1946.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Radio Astronomy Program records, 1950-1976 (bulk 1953-1960).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Section T "Proximity Fuze" records, 1940-1999 (bulk 1941-1943).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Seismology Program records, 1932-2001 (bulk 1947-1965).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism World War II-era records, 1941-1952, undated.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Monthly reports of Merle A. Tuve, 1928-1940.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Subject

Arthur E. Ruark biographical material, 1963.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Gregory Breit papers, 1929-1980 (bulk 1960-1970).

Manuscript and Archives.

Yale University Library

Box 208240, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

Gregory Breit selected papers [microform], (bulk 1950-1973).

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Howard Edwin Tatel papers, 1924-1960 (bulk 1945-1957).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

James Percy Ault papers, 1904-1957 (bulk 1904-1931).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

James Van Allen papers, 1938-1990.

Archives

University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA 52242-1420, USA

Jesse W. Beams selected correspondence, 1945-1949.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

L. A. Bauer papers, 1892-1939.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Lawrence Hafstad papers, 1939-1976.

St. Olaf College

Norwegian-American Historical Association

Northfield, MN 55057, USA

Maud expedition records, 1918-1925.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Merle Antony Tuve papers, 1901-1982 (bulk 1941-1966).

Manuscript Division

Library of Congress

James Madison Memorial Building, First Street and Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20540, USA

Oral history interview with Alan H. Shapley, 2003 August 21 and 22.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with John Archibald Wheeler, 1967 April 5.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Lawrence Hafstad, 1984 June 4.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral History interview with Lorence Fraser, 1983 March 9.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Merle Antony Tuve, 1967 March 30.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Merle Antony Tuve, 1967 May 6.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Merle Antony Tuve, 1982 January 13 and February 5.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral History interview with Philip Hauge Abelson, 2002 June 19, 26 and July 3.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Ralph Alpher and second session is joint interview with Robert Herman, 1983 August 11 and 12.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with Victor Vacquier, 1988 February 17 and 1989 January 24.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Oral history interview with William A. Baum, 2004 June 18.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Paul G. Silver papers, circa 1982-2003.

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Richard Brooke Roberts (1910-1979) autobiography, 1979.

Niels Bohr Library & Archives

American Institute of Physics

One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA

Richard H. Goddard papers, 1916-1971.

Rauner Special Collections Library

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH 03755, USA

Robert Hubbard Mansfield papers, 1932-1988 (bulk 1932-1935).

Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Library and Archives

Carnegie Institution of Washington

5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA

Published Resources

Subject

Merle A. Tuve and his program of nuclear studies at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism : the early career of a modern American physicist / by Thomas D. Cornell.