The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Enrico Fermi Collection 1918-1974
© 2009 University of Chicago Library
| Title: | Fermi, Enrico. Collection |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1918-1974 |
| Size: | 35 linear feet (65 boxes) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), Charles H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago and 1938 Nobel Prize winner in physics, is best known to the general public for having produced the first controlled, self-sustained nuclear chain reaction. This experiment, which was carried out at the University of Chicago on December 2, 1942, made possible the development of the atomic bomb. Fermi's papers document his career as a research physicist and professor in Italy and the United States, including his work with the U. S. Department of War, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Office of Naval Research, the American Physical Society, the Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago, and the Los Alamos, Brookhaven, and Argonne National Laboratories. The collection consists primarily of professional correspondence, publications, research and lecture notes, and patent claims. Personal materials in the collection include correspondence, identification papers, schoolbooks, engagement calendars, books from Fermi's personal library, financial records, and a large number of awards and memorials. |
Portions of Series IX, Audio-Visual Materials, are currently restricted due to their fragile condition or need for special equipment. The remainder of the collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Fermi, Enrico. Collection, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), Charles H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago, and 1938 Nobel Prize winner in physics, is best known to the general public for his leadership of the Manhattan Project team, which succeeded in obtaining the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. This experiment, which was carried out at the University of Chicago on December 2, 1942, made possible the development of the atomic bomb. Fermi was also among those who developed the bomb, at Los Alamos, New Mexico, to operational level. Even after his acceptance of a professorship of physics at the University of Chicago at the close of the war, he continued to work in an advisory capacity for the Atomic Energy Commission, the Office of Naval Research, and related bodies.
Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on September 29, 1901, the third child of Alberto and Ida (de Gattis) Fermi. Alberto was employed by the Italian railroads as an administrator; Ida had been a school teacher prior to her marriage. While still a teenager, Fermi developed a strong interest in mathematics, which, under the guidance of Adolfo Amidei, an engineer colleague of Alberto's, developed into an interest in physics too. Also during his adolescence, Fermi, along with his close friend and future physicist Enrico Persico, spent many of his days designing and conducting scientific experiments, including one to determine the precise density of Rome's drinking water. According to Amidei and to the evidence of an early research notebook in this collection, Fermi was a prodigy as a theoretical physicist. In November 1918, just after he turned seventeen, Fermi began his higher education at the Scuola Normale Superiore at Pisa on a scholarship. Less than four years later he received the degree of Doctor of Physics, magna cum laude, from the University of Pisa, based on experimental work that he had conducted on X-rays.
Following his studies in Pisa, Fermi used a fellowship from the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction to study at Göttingen, a university then at the height of its fame in physics. He worked there with Professor Max Born and was a fellow student of Werner Heisenberg, who was to make some of his most important contributions to the field of theoretical physics within the next two years. During the subsequent academic year, Fermi taught at the University of Rome and then, in 1924, at Leyden in Holland, where he worked with Professor Ehrenfest and his pupils, who included Sam Goudsmit. During the next two academic years, Fermi held an appointment at the University of Florence, where he began work on what would later come to be known as the “Fermi-Dirac statistics.” The Fermi-Dirac statistics enabled not only a deeper understanding of the conduction of electricity in metals, but also the development of a widely used statistical atom model.
Fermi was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Rome in 1926, where he lectured until 1938. From 1926 to 1932, he joined other European physicists in working primarily on the theory of atomic structure, which Fermi helped to complete in the form that it is known today. By 1932 his attention shifted to the growing fields of theoretical and experimental nuclear physics. Soon thereafter, he developed his theory of -ray emission, in which he gave mathematical evidence for the existence of the neutrino. This proved to be one of his major achievements in physics. Working with several collaborators at the University of Rome, including Edoardo Amaldi and Bruno Pontecorvo, Fermi then went on to study the slowing down of the neutron, another recently discovered atomic particle, in hydrogenous materials. By capturing the slow neutron in atomic nuclei, he made a comprehensive study of a big class of artificially radioactive substances. His work on neutron physics was recognized in 1938 when he received the Nobel Prize for Physics. The techniques and theories that he worked out during this period were also those that he later used in the “exponential pile” experiments which led to the development of the first controlled uranium-graphite reactor.
During this remarkably productive period scientifically, Fermi was finding the political situation in Italy increasingly intolerable. In 1928 he had married Laura Capon, the daughter of a respected Jewish family in Rome. While Fermi, like many of his colleagues in this period, was a member of the Fascist Party for reasons of professional necessity, Italy's enactment of anti-Semitic racial laws in 1938 caused him to consider emigration as a protection for his family. That family now included two children, Nella and Giulio. Recognizing the occasion of his family's travel to Stockholm for the Nobel awards ceremony in 1938 as an opportunity for escape, Fermi and his family departed for the United States from the ceremony. Shortly thereafter he was appointed to a professorship of physics at Columbia University.
Soon after his arrival in the United States, Fermi became instrumental in sparking the U. S. government's interest in developing atomic energy for military purposes. Working with other physicists at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago, which had been established for precisely this reason, he led a team to design and construct an exponential pile in an empty room under one of the university's athletics fields. The first-ever controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place in that pile on Decmber 2, 1942. During the subsequent two years, Fermi conducted various experiments using the reactor, as well as assisted in the development of a larger reactor at the nearby Argonne Laboratory. On July 11, 1944, Enrico and Laura Fermi were naturalized as citizens of the United States.
Following a brief period during which he worked primarily with the DuPont Company developing plutonium on an industrial scale, Fermi moved his family in August 1944 to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the War Department's top-secret Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb was already well underway. As Associate Director of the project, he oversaw all experimental physics projects already in progress, conducted a few experiments on neutron cross section measurments, and observed the first test of the bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Fermi then served as one of four scientific consultants to President Truman's advisory Interim Committee, which, after lengthy deliberation, recommended that the bomb be used for military purposes. Fermi received many citations and awards for his contributions to the war effort, including the Congressional Medal for Merit in 1946.
Resuming his academic work in 1946 at the University of Chicago as the Charles H. Swift Distinguished Professor of Physics, Fermi became a member of the newly formed Institute for Nuclear Studies at the university (the present Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies). During the subsequent eight years of professional activity, he assisted in the development of Chicago's 450 Mev synchrocyclotron and of several electronic calculating machines. He worked in an advisory capacity to the Atomic Energy Commission and its associated laboratories, served as the President of the American Physical Society in the early 1950s, delivered many lectures, taught several university courses, and published numerous papers on various theoretical and experimental topics in physics. These papers included studies of neutron diffraction by crystals, of analogies between the properties of neutrons and optical waves, of the physics of mesons, of the origin of cosmic rays, and, in the last year of his life, of the polarization of proton beams on scattering.
Fermi spent the summer of 1954 in France, Germany, and Italy where he toured, delivered lectures, and reunited with various European friends, relatives, and colleagues. He was already in the final stages of an incurable cancer. Returning to Chicago in September 1954, he spent the last two months of his life visiting with friends and family and undergoing various medical procedures. Just days before he died, the Atomic Energy Commission created a special award for Fermi in recognition of his distinguished service to the nation as a scientist.
Enrico Fermi died in his sleep at his Chicago home on November 29, 1954.
The Enrico Fermi Collection has been divided into nine series:
Series I contains personal papers.
Series II contains Fermi's correspondence.
Series III contains Fermi's academic papers.
Series IV contains the papers related to professional organization.
Series V contains papers relating to the federal government.
Series VI contains research by Fermi.
Series VII contains Fermi's notebooks and course notes.
Series VIII contains writings.
Series IX contains audio-visual materials.
The collection relates primarily to Fermi's academic and professional career, and the heaviest concentration of material relates to the years 1939-1954, the period of his residence in the United States. Fermi was a prolific researcher and letter writer, as well as a frequent lecturer, and thus much of the collection consists of research notes, correspondence, and published and unpublished articles, lectures, books, and courses. Divisions between series are not strict and the subjects often overlap within series subdivisions. Because many of Fermi's closest friends were also professional colleagues, the classification of “personal” is reserved strictly for materials that are biographical or that contain no recognizably professional content. Most correspondence is located in Series II, but some letters can also be located in Series I, III, IV, V, VI, and VII (see the Series II series description for a more complete outline of the types of correspondence housed in these locations). Distinctions between academic and professional work must be somewhat arbitrary in Fermi's case, so for the purposes of this collection Series III, Academic Papers, contains only those materials that pertain exclusively to the work of teaching and/or of academic administration. Much of Series VI, Research, contains research notes organized according to Fermi's own cataloging system. Series VII, Notebooks and Course Notes, contains papers that relate in some instances to research and, in others, to academic work: it has been designated a separate series because Fermi himself collected these papers separately in notebooks.
Series I: Personal |
Subseries 1: Biographical |
| Box 1 Folder 1 | Biographical materials
|
| Box 1 Folder 2 | Correspondence, Adolfo Amidei to Emilio Segrè concerning the young
|
| Box 1 Folder 3 | Edoardo Amaldi, "Enrico Fermi, premio Nobel 1938 per la fisica," Società Italiana per il Progreso Delle Scienze, 1938 |
| Box 1 Folder 4 | "Enrico Fermi - Nobel Man in Physics for 1938," The Scientific Monthly 49 (August 1939), 182-184 |
| Box 1 Folder 5 | H. D. Smyth, General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes: Under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940-1945, August 1945 |
| Box 1 Folder 6 | Press release on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, U. S. War Department, December 1, 1946 |
| Box 1 Folder 7 | Henry L. Stimson, "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb," reprint from Harper's Magazine 194 (February 1947) |
| Box 1 Folder 8 | Enrico Fermi, Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1953 |
| Box 1 Folder 9 | Transcript of Senate proceedings announcing Fermi's award from the AEC, Congressional Record, November 16, 1954, pp 14946-14950 |
| Box 1 Folder 10 | Laura Fermi, Atoms in the Family, French and Italian Translations
|
| Box 1 Folder 11 | Laura Fermi, Atoms in the Family, German and Japanese Translations
|
| Box 2 Folder 1 | Official documents
|
| Box 2 Folder 2 | Licenses and identification cards, including U. S. passports, social security card, and Los Alamos AEC identity badge |
| Box 2 Folder 3 | AEC "Personnel Security Questionnaire," with accompanying correspondence, 1953 |
| Box 2 Folder 4 | School papers, including childhood penmanship exercise books, and typescript English language exercises and word lists, with pronunciation guides in manuscript, undated |
| Box 2 Folder 5 | Miscellaneous manuscripts and notes from student days |
| Box 2 Folder 6 | Pocket engagement calendars, 1938-1944, 1946-1949 |
| Box 2 Folder 7 | Pocket engagement calendars, 1950-1955 |
| Box 2 Folder 8 | Royalty reports from Nicola Zanichelli, Bologna, 1930, 1946, and University of Chicago Press, 1976-1977 |
| Box 2 Folder 9 | Miscellaneous financial records; City of Chicago parking ticket, 1949 |
| Box 2 Folder 10 | Correspondence concerning TIAA/CREF life insurance policy, 1954-1956 |
Subseries 2: Personal Papers |
| Box 3 | Daily engagement calendars, 1946-1953 |
Subseries 3: Honors |
| Box 4 Folder 1 | Correspondence about honors, arranged by date, 1938-1950
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| Box 4 Folder 2 | Correspondence about honors, arranged by date, 1951-1954
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| Box 4 Folder 3 | "Laurea," certificate of graduation, University of Pisa, July 7, 1922 Diploma from the Royal Superior Normal School, the University of Pisa, July 7, 1922
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| Box 4 Folder 4 | Teaching certificate from the Italian Minister of Public Instruction, March 2, 1925
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| Box 4 Folder 5 | Nomination to be Academician of Italy, March 22, 1929, signed by Benito Mussolini
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| Box 4 Folder 6 | Appointment to the Professorship of Theoretical Physics in the University of Rome, March 26, 1930
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| Box 4 Folder 7 | Certificate of election to membership, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, April 21, 1939
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| Box 4 Folder 8 | Certificate, Medal for Merit of the United States of America, January 12, 1946, signed by Harry Truman
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| Box 4 Folder 9 | Franklin Institute report of work and bestowal of the Franklin Medal, Philadelphia, January 8, 1947
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| Box 4 Folder 10 | Photocopies of Enrico Fermi documents in the Italian State Archives, 1929-1930
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| Box 4 Folder 12 | Photocopies of Enrico Fermi documents in the Italian State Archives, 1938
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| Box 4 Folder 13 | Photocopies of Enrico Fermi documents in the Italian State Archives, 1939
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| Box 4 Folder 14 | Photocopies of Enrico Fermi documents in the Italian State Archives, 1940-1941
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| Box 4 Folder 15 | Certificate of degree, Rockford College, Doctor of Law, February 23, 1947, in black leather folder with gold embossed lettering |
| Box 4 Folder 16 | Certificate of degree, Rochester University, Doctor of Science, January 4, 1952, in black leather folder with gold embossed lettering |
| Box 4 Folder 17 | Nobel Prize Book, December 10, 1938, blue binding with gold embossed lettering, gilt-edged pages |
| Box 4 Folder 18 | Certificate of award, Gold Medal of the Italian-American Charitable Society, Boston, October 11, 1954, black leather folder |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Italian-American Charitable Society, Inc., October 1954, gold, 1.5 inches in diameter (boxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Dr. Bimal Churn Law Gold Medal of the Indian Assn. for the Cultivation of Science, 1951, gold, 2 inches in diameter (boxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute, April 1947, gold, 2.5 inches in diameter (boxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | American Academy of Arts and Sciences Rumford Medal for Discoveries in Light and Heat, 1953, gold, 2.5 inches in diameter (boxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei Medaglia Donegani per la Chimica, 1948, gold, 2 inches in diameter (boxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Alfred Nobel Prize Medal, 1938, gold, 2.5 inches in diameter (boxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Columbia College Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science, June 1950, 3 inches in diameter (boxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Congressional Medal of Merit, United States of America (with ribbon), 1946, gold, 1.5 inches in diameter (boxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, gilt, 2.25 inches in diameter (unboxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Reaction en Chaine Medal, 1939, bronze, 2.5 inches in diameter (unboxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | University of Liège Trasenster Medal of the Assn. Des Ingenieurs sortis de l'Êcole de Liège, February 1947, nickel-coated bronze, 2.75 inches in diameter (unboxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Premio Matteucci Medal of the Società Italiana delle Scienze, 1926, gold, 1.75 inches in diameter (unboxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Alessandro Volta Medal, Como, 1949, silvered bronze or nickel, 2.25 inches in diameter (unboxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Princeton Bicentennary Medal, 1946, bronze, 3 inches in diameter (unboxed) George Westinghouse Centennial Medal, 1946, bronze, 2.75 inches in diameter (unboxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Columbia University, World War II, for Participation in the Work of the Division of War Research, recognition plaque, bronze, 2 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches (unboxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Unidentified medal, "Henri Becquerel, 1852-1908; [obverse] Radioactivite, 1896," undated, bronze, 2.5 inches in diameter (unboxed) |
| Box 5 (Medals) | Caraffa, Andrea, e Societate Jesu, Elementorum Physicae Mathematicae, 2 vols. (Rome, 1840): in December 1971, Professor Emilio Segrè of Californai formally presented to the library this two-volume work, which is signed by Fermi and assumed to be annotated by his hand. In April 1972, these volumes were rebound by Barbara Giuffrida of Florence and provided with a plain buckram box |
| Box 6a | American Philosophical Society fellowship, Philadelphia, April 21, 1939 |
| Box 6a | National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A., membership, April 24, 1945 |
| Box 6a | Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, honorary membership, April 16, 1946 |
| Box 6a | Order of the Sons of Italy in America, honorary member, New York, 1947 |
| Box 6a | Royal Society, London, fellowship, May 5, 1950 |
| Box 6a | Honorary Doctor of Science, Washington University, February 22, 1946 |
| Box 6a | Honorary Doctor of Science, Columbia University, June 4, 1946 |
| Box 6a | Certificate of honorary degree, Doctor of Science, Heidelberg University, June 30, 1936, brown leather folder |
| Box 6b | Certificate of honorary degree, Doctor of Science, Yale University, July 7, 1946, blue folder with gold-embossed lettering |
| Box 6b | Certificate of election to honorary membership in the Swedish Engineers' Society of Chicago, December 10, 1954, framed |
| Box 6b | Certificate of honorary degree, Doctor of Science, Harvard University, June 10, 1948, red leather folder with gold-embossed lettering |
| Box 6b | Award of Merit for Contributions to Basic Neutron Physics and the Achievement of the Controlled Nuclear Chain Reaction, by the President of the U.S.A. and the Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, DC, December 2, 1954, in a brown leather folder with gold-embossed lettering, inside a wooden box, inside a blue wool dust jacket |
| Box 6c Folder 1 | Report on a Public Information Project, 1942-1962, Division of Public Information, March 1963, 62pp Report on the press campaign and commemorative events celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the first atomic pile |
| Box 6c Folder 2 | Photograph with mat, 13 7/8" x 17", of a bronze medal, obverse, with head of Fermi and legend "Enrico Fermi Award, Scientia Progressum, 1901-1954" |
| Box 6c Folder 3 | Certificates of merit and of election to membership Diploma of recognition and merit, Regia Tavrinensis Academia, May 27, 1918
|
Subseries 4: Memorials |
| Box 7 Folder 1 | Transcripts of radio and television reports on Fermi's death, November 28-29, 1954 |
| Box 7 Folder 2 | Clippings from English language newspapers on Fermi's death |
| Box 7 Folder 3 | Clippings from English language newspapers and magazines on Fermi's death |
| Box 7 Folder 4 | Clippings from foreign language newspapers on Fermi's death |
| Box 7 Folder 5 | Clippings from foreign language newspapers on Fermi's death |
| Box 7 Folder 6 | Clippings from foreign language newspapers on Fermi's death |
| Box 7 Folder 7 | Typescript of prayer read at Fermi's funeral; press release announcing American Physical Society's memorial session in honor of Fermi, April 29, 1955, two copies |
| Box 7 Folder 8 | Unpublished eulogies, commemorative lectures and essays, 1954-62 Bernard Feld, "Enrico Fermi," typescript, undated
|
| Box 7 Folder 9 | Published eulogies, commemorative lectures, and essays, 1954-1955 Giuseppe Bolla, "Per Enrico Fermi," Energia Nucleare 2 (15 December 1954), 69-72
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| Box 7 Folder 10 | Published eulogies, commemorative lectures, and essays, 1955 P. G. Galli, "L'Importanza Storico-Sociale Di E. Fermi," Vita Sociale 12 (March-April 1955), 126-136
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| Box 7 Folder 11 | Published eulogies, commemorative lectures, and essays, 1955-1957
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| Box 7 Folder 12 | Published eulogies, commemorative lectures, and essays, 1963-1973 "Celebrazione del Ventisimo Anniversario della Prima Reazione Nucleare a Catena Controllata," Rome: Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1963, typescript transcripts of speeches on Fermi and the first controlled nuclear chain reaction
|
| Box 7 Folder 13 | Notices of tributes and memorial donations |
| Box 7 Folder 14 | Proposals for scientific research institutions bearing Fermi's name |
| Box 7 Folder 15 | Transcript of speech made on the occasion of the establishment of the site of the first controlled chain reaction as a Chicago Historic Landmark, typescript, with accompanying correspondence from Albert Crewe to Laura Fermi, August 12, 1971 |
| Box 8 Folder 1 | Correspondence, programs, and newspaper clippings relating to the dedications of the Enrico Fermi High School in Enfield, CT, and Enrico Fermi School No. 17 in Rochester, NY |
| Box 8 Folder 2 | Correspondence, programs, and newspaper clippings relating to the Enrico Fermi Scholarship Fund |
| Box 8 Folder 3 | Program from the dedication of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; newspaper clipping on the dedication of a marble memorial to Fermi at the University of Pisa; clipping from the Gordon Technical High School newsletter on Laura Fermi's speech at the school's 1974 "Italian Day" |
| Box 8 Folder 4 | Correspondence and Congressional Record entry regarding the edition of an Enrico Fermi commemorative U. S. postage stamp; first edition of the stamp |
| Box 8 Folder 5 | Correspondence relating to, typescript draft of, and 16mm film fragment from, a television program called "The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays," 1956 |
| Box 8 Folder 6 | Typescript draft outline of the film "The World of Enrico Fermi," 1967 |
| Box 8 Folder 7 | Correspondence relating to, and typescript draft of, an American Institute of Physics audio-visual program on "The beginnings of Nuclear Energy," 1974 |
Series II: Correspondence |
This series contains correspondence to, from, and about Enrico Fermi, ranging from 1918 to 1963. The materials are mainly of a professional nature, though they do include some letters related to personal and financial matters. In some cases, manuscripts and other pertinent enclosures are also present. The series is divided into two subseries: 1. Personal, and 2. Professional. Other correspondence can be found in: Series I (related to memorials; honors in the form of letters; Fermi correspondence in the Italian State Archives), Series III (related to teaching applications and research fellows; related to consulting contracts obtained while a University of Chicago professor; recommendation letters), Series IV (related to professional organizations), Series V (related to government affairs, including letters to Senators and Representatives about pending legislation and investigations), and Series VI (related to research institutes, councils, and foundations, including the Nobel Prize committee; related to patent claims).
Subseries 1, Personal, is divided into two sub-subseries: 1. Social, and 2. Business and Financial. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically within each sub-subseries.
Subseries 1, Sub-subseries 1, Social, contains social correspondence to, from, and about Fermi, ranging from 1919 to 1954. The bulk of this sub-subseries consists of photocopies of letters that Fermi wrote to Enrico Persico when both were young (1918-1925), including two letters from 1924-1925 that have been published in the last edition of Emilio Segrè's biography of Fermi. Also included are several letters from Fermi's friends and relatives in Italy that were written when communications with Italy were normalized in June 1944; postcards; and a few telegrams and letters concerning Fermi's illness in 1954. Portions of many of the letters in Series 2, Subseries 2, Sub-subseries 1, Professional Correspondence A-Z, are also social in nature.
Subseries 1, Sub-subseries 2, Business and Financial, contains miscellaneous business and financial correspondence to and from Fermi. For business and financial correspondence regarding publications, see Series 2, Subseries 2, Subsubseries 3, Publications. For business and financial correspondence concerning teaching and research, see Series 3, Subseries 1, Business and Financial.
Subseries 2, Professional, includes correspondence to, from, and about Fermi, regarding his professional work. Many of these letters also contain social information, particularly those written to colleagues who were also close friends (e.g. Edoardo Amaldi and Emilio Segrè). The subseries is divided into three sub-subseries: 1. Professional Correspondence A-Z, 2. Conferences, Invitations, and Final Trip to Europe, and 3. Publications
Subseries 2, Sub-subseries 1, Professional Correspondence A-Z, contains the bulk of this collection's professional correspondence to, from, and about Fermi during his lifetime. It is arranged alphabetically. Correspondents of note include Harry S. Truman, Dean Acheson, Charles Lindbergh, Emanuel Bloch (attorney for the Rosenbergs), F. La Guardia, W. Heisenberg, R. P. Feynman, Edward Teller, Max Born, Samuel Allison, Herbert Anderson, H. Urey, and Emilio Segrè. Also included is George Pegram's letter to Admiral S. C. Hooper outlining the possible use of uranium as an explosive. At the end of the sub-subseries are two files of "crank" letters directed to Fermi.
Subseries 2, Sub-subseries 2, Conferences, Invitations, and Final Trip to Europe, contains correspondence and enclosures relating to conferences, speaking engagements, and dinners to which Fermi was invited, as well as materials relating to his European trip on June 30-September 16, 1954. Invitations are divided into those that Fermi accepted and those that he declined, and materials within each of these divisions are arranged by date. The bulk of the invitations relate to the years 1952-1954. Materials relating to Fermi's last European trip appear at the end of the sub-subseries and are also arranged by date.
Subseries 2, Sub-subseries 3, Publications, contains Fermi's correspondence with various journals and publishers about his own and others' works. It also contains letters pertaining to the posthumous republication of various works by Fermi, including his two-volume Collected Works. General correspondence with journals and publishers is arranged alphabetically by journal or publisher. Correspondence relating to the attempted publication, publication, republication and/or translation of books by Fermi is filed separately, divided alphabetically by the name of the book, and arranged within each of these divisions by date.
Subseries 1: Personal |
Sub-subseries 1: Social |
| Box 9 Folder 1 | A-Pa
|
| Box 9 Folder 2 | Persico, Enrico
|
| Box 9 Folder 3 | Q-Z
|
Sub-subseries 2: Business and Financial |
| Box 9 Folder 4 | A-B
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| Box 9 Folder 5 | C-D
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| Box 9 Folder 6 | E-F
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| Box 9 Folder 7 | G-H
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| Box 9 Folder 8 | I-L
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| Box 9 Folder 9 | M-R
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| Box 9 Folder 10 | S-T
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| Box 9 Folder 11 | U-Z, and unidentified signatures
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Subseries 2: Professional |
Sub-subseries 1: Professional Correspondence A-Z |
| Box 9 Folder 12 | A-Al
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| Box 9 Folder 13 | Amaldi, Edoardo
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| Box 9 Folder 14 | Ame-Az
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| Box 9 Folder 14 | Ame-Az
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| Box 9 Folder 15 | B-Bg
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| Box 9 Folder 16 | Bh-Bn
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| Box 9 Folder 17 | Bo-Bz
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| Box 9 Folder 18 | C-Ca
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| Box 9 Folder 19 | Cb-Ci
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| Box 9 Folder 20 | Cj-Cz
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| Box 9 Folder 21 | D-Da
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| Box 9 Folder 22 | Db-Dz
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| Box 9 Folder 23 | E
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| Box 9 Folder 24 | F-Fex
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| Box 9 Folder 25 | Feynman, R. P. |
| Box 10 Folder 1 | Ff-Fz
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| Box 10 Folder 2 | G-Gi
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| Box 10 Folder 3 | Gj-Go
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| Box 10 Folder 4 | Gp-Gz
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| Box 10 Folder 5 | H-Hea
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| Box 10 Folder 5 | H-Hea
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| Box 10 Folder 6 | Heisenberg, W. |
| Box 10 Folder 7 | Hej-Hof
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| Box 10 Folder 8 | Hog-Hz
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| Box 10 Folder 9 | I-J
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| Box 10 Folder 10 | K
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| Box 10 Folder 11 | L-Ln
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| Box 10 Folder 12 | Lo-Lz
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| Box 10 Folder 13 | M-Mac
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| Box 10 Folder 14 | Maj-Maq
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| Box 10 Folder 15 | Mar-Metro
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| Box 10 Folder 16 | Metropolis, Nicholas |
| Box 10 Folder 17 | Metroq-My
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| Box 11 Folder 1 | N
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| Box 11 Folder 2 | O
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| Box 11 Folder 3 | P-Pa
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| Box 11 Folder 4 | Pegram, George B. to Admiral S. C. Hooper, outlining the possibility that "uranium might be used as an explosive," March 16, 1939 |
| Box 11 Folder 5 | Peh-Pi
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| Box 11 Folder 6 | Pj-Polu
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| Box 11 Folder 7 | Polv-Pz
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| Box 11 Folder 8 | Q-Ror
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| Box 11 Folder 9 | Rossi, Bruno (see also Volpi, Leopoldo Giulio) |
| Box 11 Folder 10 | Rot-Rz
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| Box 11 Folder 11 | S-Sak
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| Box 11 Folder 12 | Sal-Sef
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| Box 11 Folder 13 | Segrè, Emilio |
| Box 11 Folder 14 | Seh-Sk
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| Box 11 Folder 15 | Sl-Sph
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| Box 11 Folder 16 | Spi-Sz
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| Box 11 Folder 17 | Szilard, Leo, photocopy of correspondence between Szilard and
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| Box 11 Folder 18 | T-Te
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| Box 11 Folder 19 | Truman, Harry S. to Enrico Fermi, on the occasion of the expiration of the latter's term on the General Advisory Committeee to the Atomic Energy Commission, August 11, 1950 |
| Box 11 Folder 20 | Tf-Tri
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| Box 11 Folder 21 | U
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| Box 11 Folder 22 | V
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| Box 11 Folder 23 | W-Wd
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| Box 11 Folder 24 | We-Wif
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| Box 11 Folder 25 | Wig-X
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| Box 12 Folder 1 | Y
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| Box 12 Folder 2 | Z
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| Box 12 Folder 3 | Unidentified, four letters |
| Box 12 Folder 4 | Crank letters, consists of letters to and from amateur physicists who want Fermi to verify their theories about matter and the universe |
| Box 12 Folder 5 | Crank letters, consists of letters to and from various individuals who wish either to work with Fermi, to share various concerns with him, or to obtain various kinds of information from him |
Sub-subseries 2: Conferences, Paid Lectures, and Final Trip to Europe |
| Box 12 Folder 6 | Accepted invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, 1939-1947
|
| Box 12 Folder 7 | Accepted invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, 1948-1949
|
| Box 12 Folder 8 | Accepted invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, 1952
|
| Box 12 Folder 9 | Accepted invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, 1953
|
| Box 12 Folder 10 | Accepted invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, 1953
|
| Box 12 Folder 11 | Accepted invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, 1953-1954
|
| Box 12 Folder 12 | Declined invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, October - December 1953 |
| Box 12 Folder 13 | Declined invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, January - February 1954 |
| Box 12 Folder 14 | Declined invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, March - April 1954 |
| Box 12 Folder 15 | Declined invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, May 1954 |
| Box 12 Folder 16 | Declined invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, September 1954 |
| Box 12 Folder 17 | Declined invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, October 1954 |
| Box 12 Folder 18 | Declined invitations to professional conferences, lecture series, and dinners, November 1954 |
| Box 12 Folder 19 | Correspondence relating to Fermi's summer trip to Europe in 1954, by date, September 23, 1953 - August 27, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 12 Folder 20 | Complimentary book of Italian rail passes for Fermi's 1954 summer trip to Europe, with accompanying letter from Raffaello Morghen, Chancellor, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, December 17, 1953 |
Sub-subseries 3: Publications |
| Box 12 Folder 21 | General correspondence with publishers, A
|
| Box 12 Folder 22 | General correspondence with publishers, B-L
|
| Box 12 Folder 23 | General correspondence with publishers, M-P
|
| Box 12 Folder 24 | General correspondence with publishers, Q-Z
|
| Box 12 Folder 25 | Correspondence initiating the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers, published in two volumes in 1962-1965 by the University of Chicago Press and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei Press, by date, December 21, 1954 - April 4, 1955 |
| Box 12 Folder 26 | Correspondence regarding the attempted exclusion of Fermi's lecture notes on "Quantum Mechanics" from his Collected Papers, pursuant to an attempt by McGraw-Hill Book Company to publish those notes, by date, December 9, 1959 - February 29, 1960 |
| Box 12 Folder 27 | Correspondence between Laura Fermi, Emilio Segrè, Ernesto Gianni, Al Wattenberg, and Herbert L. Anderson relating to the preparation of Fermi's Collected Papers, by date, January 24, 1960 - July 15, 1963 |
| Box 12 Folder 28 | Letter from Iriah Jefferson to Emilio Segrè announcing the second printing of Fermi's Collected Papers, Vol. II, March 24, 1966 |
| Box 13 Folder 1 | Correspondence relating to the publication and foreign translations of Fermi's Elementary Particles, published in 1951 by Yale University Press, by date, November 8, 1957 - March 18, 1969 |
| Box 13 Folder 2 | Correspondence relating to the attempted translation and revision of Fermi's Fisica for use in American high schools by Enrico Fermi and Warren M. Davis for the Macmillan Company, by date, November 29, 1946 - November 10, 1952 |
| Box 13 Folder 3 | Correspondence related to the 1965 English translation and publication of Fermi's Molecules and Crystals (originally published 1934, M. Zanichelli) by W. A. Benjamin, Inc., by date, June 5, 1962 - June 14, 1965 |
| Box 13 Folder 4 | Correspondence relating to the publication and foreign translations of Nuclear Physics, a course of lectures given by Enrico Fermi and compiled by Jay Orear, A. H. Rosenfeld, and R. A. Schluter, and published in offset by the University of Chicago Press, by date, December 1, 1949 - July 13, 1955 |
| Box 13 Folder 5 | Correspondence relating to the publication of Fermi's Thermodynamics, published by Prentice-Hall in 1937, by date, August 14, 1936 - April 27, 1949 |
| Box 13 Folder 6 | Correspondence relating to the republication and foreign translations of Fermi's Thermodynamics, published in 1956 by Dover, by date, December 21, 1955 - August 25, 1976 |
| Box 13 Folder 7 | Requests to republish various articles by Fermi, by date, October 26, 1962 - April 25, 1969 |
Series III: Academic Papers |
Series III, Academic Papers, contains administrative and financial records, as well as miscellaneous papers connected with Fermi's work as a faculty member in various Italian and American universities. The bulk of the materials date from his work at the University of Chicago between 1945 and 1954. The series is divided into four subseries: 1. Business and Financial, 2. Department and Colleagues, 3. Examinations and Courses, and 4. Recommendations.
Subseries 1, Business and Financial, contains correspondence and records certifying Fermi's appointment to the faculty at various universities, and business and financial records pursuant to his work as a faculty member at the University of Chicago. These latter materials include earnings reports, and correspondence and documents regarding consulting contracts undertaken as a University of Chicago faculty member.
Subseries 2, Department and Colleagues, contains materials relating to the daily life of the University of Chicago Department of Physics during Fermi's tenure there. These materials include memoranda, agendas and minutes for staff meetings, lists of teaching and advising assignments, and employment application letters. The subseries also contains papers outlining the work of colleagues, including curricula vitae, bibliographies of publications, and lists of current research projects. Of particular interest is a 1950 memorandum from Dean Walter Bartky and Cyril Stanley Smith to the Physical Sciences Division reexamining the University of Chicago's policy on doing defense research.
Subseries 3, Examinations and Courses, includes student examinations and answer keys, course outlines, class lists, and grade sheets. For Fermi's notes for specific courses, see Series VII, Notebooks, Subseries 2.
Subseries 4, Recommendations, contains recommendation letters that Fermi wrote for students and colleagues. The subseries is arranged alphabetically by the subject of the recommendation.
Subseries 1: Business and Financial |
| Box 13 Folder 8 | Certificates confirming Fermi's appointments to the faculties of various Italian universities, 1922-1927 |
| Box 13 Folder 9 | Correspondence concerning Fermi's appointment to the position of Charles H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago, by date, May 27, 1944 - November 26, 1946 |
| Box 13 Folder 10 | Correspondence concerning pay raises as a University of Chicago faculty member, by date, May 28, 1948 - May 15, 1951 |
| Box 13 Folder 11 | Consultant agreements and correspondence, University of Chicago Carbide and Chemicals Corporation subcontract No. 77 under W7405 eng26, by date, June 30, 1949 - July 23, 1953 |
| Box 13 Folder 12 | Consultant agreements and correspondence, University of Chicago University of California-Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Prime Contract W7405 eng. 36, Project Y, by date, June 23, 1947 - July 28, 1947 |
| Box 13 Folder 13 | Consultant agreements and correspondence, University of Chicago Monsanto Chemical Company, Subcontract No. 53 of Prime Contract No. W35058 eng71, by date, June 26, 1947 - December 5, 1947 |
| Box 13 Folder 14 | Reports of and correspondence concerning outside earnings, with accompanying documents relating to 4E faculty contract regulations, University of Chicago, by date, December 1, 1949 - May 22, 1953 (see also Box 15, Folders 12-13) |
Subseries 2: Department and Colleagues |
| Box 13 Folder 15 | Miscellaneous intradepartmental memoranda, faculty teaching assignments, and staff meeting agendas and minutes, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, by date, January 26, 1949 - January 30, 1952 |
| Box 13 Folder 16 | Graduate student registers with faculty advising assignments, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, by date, 1949 - 1953 |
| Box 13 Folder 17 | "Proposed List of Courses of Instruction," Department of Physics, University of Chicago, typescript, undated
|
| Box 13 Folder 18 | "Information for Physics Students," Department of Physics, University of Chicago, typescript, June 30, 1948
|
| Box 13 Folder 19 | Application letters for teaching positions, A-Z by applicant
|
| Box 13 Folder 20 | Correspondence and memoranda about advising students and sponsoring research fellows, A-Z by student or research fellow
|
| Box 13 Folder 21 | Bibliographies of Department of Physics faculty, Univ. of Chicago, A-Z
|
| Box 13 Folder 22 | Curricula vitae of European physicists, A-Z
|
| Box 13 Folder 23 | Reports and notations of experimental work being carried out in the University of Chicago Department of Physics, A-Z, by experimenter, plus unidentifiable
|
| Box 13 Folder 24 | "Thoughts on the Place of the University in ‘Defense' Research," memorandum from Dean Walter Bartky and Cyril Stanley Smith to the Physical Sciences Division, University of Chicago, December 4, 1950 |
| Box 13 Folder 25 | Miscellaneous memoranda to Warren C. Johnson of the Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, by date, December 21, 1950 - March 26, 1952 |
Subseries 3: Examinations and Courses |
| Box 14 Folder 1 | Memoranda announcing PhD Qualifying Examination Results, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, by date, December 14, 1948 - June 11, 1954 |
| Box 14 Folder 2 | PhD Basic Examination grade charts and grading notation keys,
|
| Box 14 Folder 3 | PhD Basic Examinations, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, some worked, with corrections |
| Box 14 Folder 4 | Official and unofficial class lists, grade charts, and add/drop forms, University of Chicago, by date, Summer 1949 - Winter 1954 |
| Box 14 Folder 5 | Course outlines and syllabi, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, by date and course number, Autumn 1947 - Autumn 1949 |
| Box 14 Folder 6 | Course outlines and syllabi, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, by date and course number, Winter 1950 - Spring 1953 |
| Box 14 Folder 7 | Course outlines and syllabi, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, by course number, undated |
| Box 14 Folder 8 | Course outlines and syllabi, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, unnumbered, undated |
| Box 14 Folder 9 | Physics 342 Examination, Department Of Physics, University of Chicago, MS draft, mimeograph master, mimeograph copy, May 21, 1954 |
| Box 14 Folder 10 | Examination, untitled, mimeograph copy, October 25 |
| Box 14 Folder 11 | Examination, untitled, mimeograph copy, undated |
| Box 14 Folder 12 | Problem set with answers, Nuclear Physics I, undated
|
Subseries 4: Recommendations |
| Box 14 Folder 13 | A-B
|
| Box 14 Folder 14 | C-G
|
| Box 14 Folder 15 | H-K
|
| Box 14 Folder 16 | L-O
|
| Box 14 Folder 17 | P-R
|
| Box 14 Folder 18 | S
|
| Box 14 Folder 19 | T-Z
|
| Box 14 Folder 20 | Recommendations for two or more individuals at once
|
Series IV: Professional Organizations |
Series IV, Professional Organizations, contains correspondence and other materials relating to Fermi's professional involvement in the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society (APS) between 1947 and 1954. Most of the materials relate to the APS, and they include his correspondence with its staff and members, minutes and programs from meetings, and press releases. Correspondence is categorized by the meeting or topic to which it applies and then arranged by date within each category. For correspondence with APS members over the Astin case, see Series V, Federal Government.
| Box 14 Folder 21 | American Institute of Physics, Director's Report for 1951 and accompanying correspondence from Henry Barton
|
| Box 14 Folder 22 | American Physical Society, general correspondence, by date, May 20, 1947 - October 7, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 14 Folder 23 | American Physical Society, correspondence and notes concerning committee and councilor action, by date, November 21, 1952 - May 5, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 14 Folder 24 | American Physical Society, correspondence concerning Denver meeting on June 30 to July 3, 1952, by date, April 7, 1952 - June 30, 1952, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 1 | American Physical Society, correspondence concerning St. Louis meeting on November 28, 1952, by date, June 23, 1952 - December 1, 1952, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 2 | American Physical Society, correspondence concerning Cambridge, MA, meeting on January 21, 1953, by date, November 25, 1952 - January 19, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 3 | American Physical Society, correspondence concerning Durham, NC, meeting on March 26, 1953, by date, December 22, 1952 - April 9, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 4 | American Physical Society, correspondence concerning Washington, DC, meeting on May 1, 1953, by date, February 18, 1953 - May 4, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 5 | American Physical Society, correspondence concerning Rochester, NY, meeting on June 23, 1953, by date, January 31, 1953 - May 29, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 6 | American Physical Society, correspondence concerning Albuquerque, NM, meeting on September 2-5, 1953, by date, May 22, 1953 - June 1, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 7 | American Physical Society, correspondence concerning Chicago meeting on November 17, 1953, by date, September 5, 1953 - November 17, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 8 | American Physical Society, meeting agendas, press releases, and minutes
|
| Box 15 Folder 9 | American Physical Society, Auditor's Report, December 31, 1951 |
| Box 15 Folder 10 | American Physical Society, "American Society for Engineering
|
| Box 15 Folder 11 | American Physical Society, miscellaneous documents
|
Series V: Federal Government |
Series V, Federal Government, contains correspondence with U. S. Senators and Representatives about pending government investigations and legislation, including the 1945 McMahon bill on Atomic Energy, the investigation into Bruno Pontecorvo's defection, and the National Science Foundation Act of 1947. The bulk of the subseries, however, is comprised of correspondence, contracts, and miscellaneous documents relating to Fermi's work with the AEC (including Argonne National Laboratory and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory), the Office of Naval Research (see also Box 17, Folder 15), and the U. S. Office of Scientific Research and Development. These materials are categorized alphabetically by agency, division, project, or office, and are subdivided further within each of these categories. At the end of the series are files of correspondence, legal briefs, press releases, and other documents pertaining to the 1953 dismissal and reinstatement of Dr. A. V. Astin as Director of the National Bureau of Standards, as well as to the 1954 AEC hearings on the suspension of J. Robert Oppenheimer's AEC security clearance.
| Box 15 Folder 12 | Correspondence with U. S. Senators and Representatives, A-Z
|
| Box 15 Folder 13 | Correspondence with Edward Shils about the 1945 McMahon bill, including several typescript drafts of a statement entitled "Comments on the McMahon bill on ATOMIC ENERGY" |
| Box 15 Folder 14 | 79th Congress, 1st Session, Bill S. 1717 ("The McMahon Bill "), reprint
|
| Box 15 Folder 15 | 80th Congress, 1st Session, Bill S. 526 (National Science Foundation Act of 1947), reprint |
| Box 15 Folder 16 | "Comparative Summary of Key Senate Bills for Domestic Control of Atomic Energy," typescript, undated |
| Box 15 Folder 17 | Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), general correspondence with enclosures (reimbursement forms, payment receipts, faculty outside earnings forms, etc.), by date, January 25, 1950 - June 15, 1950, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 18 | AEC, general correspondence with enclosures, by date, June 27, 1950 - November 3, 1950, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 19 | AEC, general correspondence with enclosures, by date, November 30, 1950 - May 18, 1954
|
| Box 15 Folder 20 | AEC, Argonne National Laboratory, correspondence and enclosures (patent forms, security questionnaires, shipment memoranda, etc.), by date, July 15, 1947 - February 2, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 21 | AEC, Argonne National Laboratory, "Access Agreement," signed, October 1, 1953 |
| Box 15 Folder 22 | AEC, Argonne National Laboratory, "Resume of Discussion of Meeting of May 10 of Committee on ‘Argonne National Laboratory,'" May 14, 1954 |
| Box 15 Folder 23 | AEC, Brookhaven National Laboratory (Prime Contract No. AT-30-2-GEN-16, Subcontracts 244 and 544), correspondence, contracts, travel vouchers, meeting minutes, and classified material receipt form, by date, June 4, 1953 - June 28, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 24 | AEC, Isotopes Division, correspondence and enclosures (isotope request and shipment forms, data forms, miscellaneous Isotope Division reports, etc.), by date, January 19, 1950 - September 12, 1952, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 25 | AEC, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, correspondence and enclosures (contracts, travel receipts, room inventories, housing forms), by date, January 22, 1951 - September 25, 1952, correspondents
|
| Box 15 Folder 26 | AEC, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, correspondence and enclosures (expense account rules, arrival procedure, house inventory, library inventory, contracts, classified materials receipt form, security clearance form, transportation tax exemption forms), by date, January 22, 1951 - September 25, 1952, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 1 | AEC, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Document Security Bulletin Revisions, October 20, 1952, and December 15, 1953 |
| Box 16 Folder 2 | AEC, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, citation for outstanding achievements, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, July 8, 1954 |
| Box 16 Folder 3 | AEC, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, correspondence and press release on controversial claims made in James Shepley and Clay Blair's book The Hydrogen Bomb (1954), by date, September 23, 1954 -October 4, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 4 | AEC, Midwest cosmotron/bevatron project, correspondence, by date, January 30, 1953 - August 18, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 5 | AEC, Midwest cosmotron/bevatron project, "Feasibility Study," no date |
| Box 16 Folder 6 | AEC, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, Fellowship Board, correspondence and enclosures (application forms, questionnaires), by date, February 24, 1950 - February 28, 1952, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 7 | AEC, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 4 (October 1953); Annual Report, No. 7, July 1, 1952, to June 30, 1953 |
| Box 16 Folder 8 | AEC, "Theory of Nuclear Forces" contract, draft of contract proposal, and correspondence, by date, June 8, 1953 - March 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 9 | AEC, University of Chicago, Basic Nuclear Physics Research Contract [AEC Contract No. AT(11-1)-264], account information, expenditure summaries, salary chart, manuscript list of "possible lecturers," contract extension proposal, budget proposal, and correspondence, by date, July 8, 1953 - June 11, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 10 | AEC, University of Chicago, High Speed Electronic Computer Contract, preliminary proposal, proposal, telephone conversation notes, and correspondence, by date, April 5, 1954 - September 10, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 11 | AEC, University of Chicago, High Speed Electronic Computer Contract, blueprints for possible computer locations in the Enrico Fermi Institute |
| Box 16 Folder 12 | U.S. Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR), correspondence, September 3, 1946 - October 7, 1947, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 13 | U.S. Navy, ONR, Chicago Branch Office personnel list |
| Box 16 Folder 14 | U.S. Navy, ONR, research proposals for "Atomic Nuclear Plate Developer," "Pair Spectrometer," and "Research on Low Energy Proton Studies" |
| Box 16 Folder 15 | U.S. Navy, ONR, receipt of printed material forms, by date, September 6, 1950 - October 9, 1950 |
| Box 16 Folder 16 | U.S. Navy, ONR, Security Guide for ONR Contractors, and Contractors' Manual |
| Box 16 Folder 17 | U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, correspondence from V. Bush to Enrico Fermi, August 19, 1941 |
| Box 16 Folder 18 | The Astin Case, correspondence and notes, by date, March 31, 1953 - April 7, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 19 | The Astin Case: correspondence and notes, by date, April 8, 1953 - April 13, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 20 | The Astin Case, correspondence and notes, by date, April 14, 1953 - June 11, 1953, correspondents
|
| Box 16 Folder 21 | The Astin Case, newspaper clippings, March 31, 1953, to April 17, 1953 |
| Box 16 Folder 22 | The Astin Case, Federation of American Scientists, press releases and newsletters, by date, March 31, 1953 - October 19, 1953 |
| Box 16 Folder 23 | The Astin Case, Atomic Scientists of Chicago, press release, mimeograph copy, April 11, 1953 |
| Box 16 Folder 24 | The Astin Case, American Institute of Physics, press releases, April 13, 1953 |
| Box 16 Folder 25 | The Astin Case, reprint from Congressional Record of Rep. DeWitt S. Hyde's speech on the Astin case, April 15, 1953 |
| Box 17 Folder 1 | The Oppenheimer Case, correspondence with Lloyd K. Garrison and enclosures, including transcript of summation to the AEC Personnel Security Board and brief filed to the same board on behalf of Oppenheimer, by date, March 30, 1954 - May 17, 1954 |
| Box 17 Folder 2 | The Oppenheimer Case, correspondence with Allan B. Ecker and enclosures, including brief filed to the AEC on behalf of Oppenheimer and a packet of press releases, by date, June 5, 1953 - June 11, 1953 |
| Box 17 Folder 3 | The Oppenheimer Case, correspondence with Hans A. Bethe andenclosures, including Council of the American Physical Society press release, June 9, 1954 |
Series VI: Research |
Series VI, Research, contains notes, correspondence, and reprints of publications relating to Fermi's scientific research, patent claims, and relationship to organizations sponsoring and/or conducting research. The bulk of the series consists of the files of research-related notes and publications that Fermi called his "artificial memory." The series is divided into four subseries: 1. Research Institutes, Councils, and Foundations, 2. Patents, 3. Artificial Memory, 4. Miscellaneous.
Subseries I, Research Institutes, Councils, and Foundations, contains correspondence and other materials relating to Fermi's research for, and professional relationship to, various scientific research institutes, councils, and foundations between 1946 and 1954. Materials are arranged alphabetically by organization and then further subdivided within each division. Organizations covered are the Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago, the National Research Council, the National Science Foundation, and the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences (Nobel Prize Committee). Materials include research proposals, evaluations of research proposals, expense reports, personnel lists, sponsor lists, Nobel Prize nomination letters, and various administrative records.
Subseries 2, Patents, contains correspondence and legal documents relating to patent claims made by Fermi and Fermi et al. in the U. S. and in Canada, as well as copies of several U. S. patents issued to Fermi during and after his lifetime. These include the first patent ever issued for a basic nuclear reactor (U. S. Patent No. 2,708,656). The bulk of the correspondence and legal documentation relates to the patent claim of Fermi et al. against the Atomic Energy Commission for compensation for a process to produce radioactive substances (U. S. Patent No. 2,206,634).
Subseries 3, Artificial Memory, contains the files of scientific research-related materials that Fermi nicknamed his "artificial memory." The files consist of indexed folders of notes, formulas, calculations, graphs, blueprints, maps, memoranda, transparencies, pamphlets, writings by other physicists, and some correspondence. These materials remain foldered and indexed according to Fermi's own numerical cataloging system, the key to which can be found in Box 20. Fermi filed bound and/or published scientific papers separately within his "artificial memory." These files are contained in Box 23, Folder 11, through Box 39, Folder 11.
Subseries 4, Miscellaneous, includes a variety of scientific research-related notes, calculations, graphs, reprints, and data Notebooks, as well as materials related to industrial and wartime applications of nuclear energy. Of particular note in this subseries are: a diagram of the first atomic pile, a photograph of the galvanometer reading at the start of the first self-sustaining chain reaction, and the Manhattan Engineer District reports on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Box 41 contains two sets of files of research-related notes and reprints that Fermi housed in two portable accordion-style Notebooks. These files remain arranged and indexed according to the cataloging codes that Fermi devised for them. The key to the alphabetical codes used to organize the first of these Notebooks is located in Box 41, Folders 21. The numerical codes used to organize the second Notebook (Box 41, Folders 22-27) appear to match those used to organize the "artificial memory," but the numerical and alphabetical codes written on the materials contained in these files often do not match the codes on the files themselves.
Subseries 1: Research Institutes, Councils, and Foundations |
| Box 17 Folder 4 | National Research Council, Advisory Committee, correspondence with R. C. Gibbs about a third party's research proposal, by date, May 12, 1952 - May 19, 1952 |
| Box 17 Folder 5 | National Science Foundation, Advisory Committee, correspondence and enclosures (copies of, evaluations of, and guidelines for evaluating, third parties' research proposals for NSF grants; applications for NSF pre-doctoral fellowships), by date, March 18,1952 - April 30, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 17 Folder 6 | University of Chicago, Institute for Nuclear Studies (UC-INS), miscellaneous documents, administrative organization charts and memoranda; memoranda relating to the Round Table at the dedication of the Institutes, May 16, 1951; memorandum and plan for Institute construction program, April 30, 1947; summaries of INS research projects; announcements of Theoretical Physics Seminars, March 10, 1952, to April 2, 1954 |
| Box 17 Folder 7 | UCINS, brochure, "The University of Chicago, Research in Atomic Structure and Energy," June 15, 1946, mimeograph |
| Box 17 Folder 8 | UC-INS, personnel lists, fellowship action lists, and proposed appointments list, by date, May 13, 1947 - October 1, 1954 |
| Box 17 Folder 9 | UCINS, expense and budget reports, First Quarter, 1950-1951, to August 1954 |
| Box 17 Folder 10 | UCINS, classified materials and registered mail receipts, with accompanying letters of acknowledgment, by date, December 30, 1948 - June 1, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 17 Folder 11 | UCINS, summaries of INS research projects, with cover letter, dated January 14, 1947, from Emery T. Filby to the Manhattan District, Corps of Engineers |
| Box 17 Folder 12 | UCINS, list of research sponsors of the Institutes of the University of Chicago; reprint from Business Week, June 10, 1950, "Research: Anything Goes - Industry Foots the Bill"; correspondence, memoranda, and documents relating to Fermi's visit to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (an INS sponsor) on May 4, 1950, correspondents
|
| Box 17 Folder 13 | UC-INS, correspondence regarding the betatron
|
| Box 17 Folder 14 | UCINS, Greenewalt Nuclear Physics Research Fund, correspondence, memoranda, and documents (account balances; purchase requests), by date, September 26, 1950 - August 30, 1954,
|
| Box 17 Folder 15 | UC-INS, 170-inch Cyclotron Project with the Office of Naval Research, correspondence, memoranda, and proposals for its construction, budget, and operation, by date, January 29, 1947, to January 12, 1951, correspondents
|
| Box 18 Folder 1 | UC-INS, blueprints for Institute of Nuclear Studies, undated |
| Box 18 Folder 2 | UC-INS, blueprint for betatron, undated |
| Box 18 Folder 3 | Argonne National Laboratory Physics Division Electronic Computer Project, blueprints for "George," May-June 1954 |
| Box 18 Folder 4 | "Los Alamos Ranch School & Vicinity, including portions of Santa Fe & Sandoval Counties, December, 1943," map, 1inch=1mile |
| Box 18 Folder 5 | Tube Assembly, blueprint with annotations, two copies, April 15, 1947
|
| Box 19 Folder 1 | Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, Nobel Committee for Chemistry, Nobel Committee for Physics, correspondence over candidates to nominate for Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry, programs from Nobel Foundation meetings, lists of Nobel Prize winners, by date, January 2, 1941 - September 1, 1953, correspondents
|
Subseries 2: Patents |
| Box 19 Folder 2 | Patent claim of Enrico Fermi et al. against the Atomic Energy Commission (U. S. Patent No. 2,206,634: "Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances"), correspondence and enclosures, by date, July 31, 1941 - February 26, 1946, correspondents
|
| Box 19 Folder 3 | Patent claim of Enrico Fermi et al. against the Atomic Energy Commission (U. S. Patent No. 2,206,634: "Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances"), correspondence and enclosures, by date, May 24, 1946 - June 27, 1949, correspondents
|
| Box 19 Folder 4 | Patent claim of Enrico Fermi et al. against the Atomic Energy Commission (U. S. Patent No. 2,206,634: "Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances"), correspondence and enclosures, by date, July 15, 1949 - October 30, 1950, correspondents
|
| Box 19 Folder 5 | Patent claim of Enrico Fermi et al. against the Atomic Energy Commission (U. S. Patent No. 2,206,634: "Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances"), correspondence and enclosures, including summary of meeting of interested parties in Washington, Oct. 27, 1953, to discuss settlement of similar claims with the Canadian government, and of investigating patent rights in Britain, by date, November 24, 1950 - March 9, 1954, correspondents
|
| Box 19 Folder 6 | Patent claim of Enrico Fermi et al. against the Atomic Energy Commission (U. S. Patent No. 2,206,634: "Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances"), legal documents and issued patent, by date, October 7, 1935 - June 6, 1949
|
| Box 19 Folder 7 | U.S. Patent No. 2,206,634 ("Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances"), U. S. Patent Application No. 57,325 ("Composition of Matter and Method of Producing the Same"), and Canadian patent application No. 425,850 ("Composition of Matter and Method of Producing the Same"), correspondence, legal documents, and notes, by date, December 5, 1936 - June 6, 1949 Affadavit and supplemental oath of Enrico Fermi to the U.S. Patent Office in filing an application for a patent, Application No. 57,325, filed January 2, 1936, Affadavit dated December 5, 1939
|
| Box 19 Folder 8 | Patents by Enrico Fermi and Enrico Fermi et al. filed with the U. S. Patent Office and turned over to the AEC (Patent No. 641,625: "Shield"; Patent Nos. 323,451, 323,452, and 323,453: "Chain Reactions"), contracts, U. S. Patent Office memoranda, secrecy orders, rescinding orders for secrecy orders, payment receipt, and accompanying correspondence, by date, March 10, 1939 - March 9, 1954.
|
| Box 19 Folder 9 | Patents by Enrico Fermi and Enrico Fermi et al filed with the U. S. Patent Office and turned over to the AEC
|
| Box 19 Folder 10 | Patents by Enrico Fermi and Enrico Fermi et al filed with the U. S. Patent Office and turned over to the AEC
|
Subseries 3: Artificial Memory |
| Box 20 | Fermi's card index to his "artificial memory," 3x5 cards, with accompanying loose-leaf binder containing key to the index |
| Box 21 Folder 1 | 0-General Physics |
| Box 21 Folder 2 | 01-Research Topics |
| Box 21 Folder 3 | 12-Hydrodynamics and Aerodynamics |
| Box 21 Folder 4 | 15-Statistical Mechanics |
| Box 21 Folder 5 | 202-Magnetism |
| Box 21 Folder 6 | 203-Electromagnetism and Waves |
| Box 21 Folder 7 | 21-Electronics and Radiofrequency |
| Box 21 Folder 8 | 31-Relativity (Special) |
| Box 21 Folder 9 | 32-Relativity (General) |
| Box 21 Folder 10 | 34-General Quantum Mechanics Theories |
| Box 21 Folder 11 | 344-Quantum Electrodynamics |
| Box 21 Folder 12 | 345-Collision Theory |
| Box 21 Folder 13 | 346-Field Theories |
| Box 21 Folder 14 | 4-Elementary Particles |
| Box 21 Folder 15 | 41-Proton and Neutron |
| Box 21 Folder 16 | 415-Neutron (General) |
| Box 21 Folder 17 | 416-Neutron Cross Sections |
| Box 21 Folder 18 | 42-Mesons |
| Box 21 Folder 19 | 4232-Reactions |
| Box 21 Folder 20 | 4234-Passage Thru Matter |
| Box 21 Folder 21 | 4235-Theory |
| Box 21 Folder 22 | 4236-Production |
| Box 21 Folder 23 | 4238-Pion Measurements |
| Box 21 Folder 24 | 425-Field Theory of Mesons |
| Box 21 Folder 25 | 45-Cosmic Radiation |
| Box 21 Folder 26 | 47-Instruments on Elementary Particles |
| Box 21 Folder 27 | 471-Counters |
| Box 21 Folder 28 | 472-Nuclear Plates
|
| Box 21 Folder 29 | 4742-Gamma Spectrometers |
| Box 22 Folder 1 | 4752-Synchrocyclotron
|
| Box 22 Folder 2 | 4753-Betatron (Blueprint moved to Box 18, Folder 2)
|
| Box 22 Folder 3 | 512-Electron Wave Functions |
| Box 22 Folder 4 | 53-States of Matter |
| Box 22 Folder 5 | 532-Liquids |
| Box 22 Folder 6 | 533-Solids |
| Box 22 Folder 7 | 60-General Properties
|
| Box 22 Folder 8 | 601-Nuclear Models
|
| Box 22 Folder 9 | 612-Beta |
| Box 22 Folder 10 | 613-Gamma Rays |
| Box 22 Folder 11 | 62-Nuclear Reactions |
| Box 22 Folder 12 | 66-Radiation Thru Matter |
| Box 22 Folder 13 | 901-Algebra and Calculus |
| Box 22 Folder 14 | 902-Functions (special) |
| Box 22 Folder 15 | 903-Group Theory |
| Box 22 Folder 16 | 907-Numerical Calculations |
| Box 22 Folder 17 | 9072-Electronic Computers |
| Box 22 Folder 18 | 90721-Maniac |
| Box 22 Folder 19 | 90721a-Phase Shifts Problem
|
| Box 23 Folder 1 | 90722-AVIDAC
|
| Box 23 Folder 2 | 90723-George (Argonne National Laboratory Physics Division
|
| Box 23 Folder 3 | 912-Sun |
| Box 23 Folder 4 | 913-Stars |
| Box 23 Folder 5 | 914-Galaxy |
| Box 23 Folder 6 | 915-Universe |
| Box 23 Folder 7 | 92-Geophysics |
| Box 23 Folder 8 | 951-Social Sciences |
| Box 23 Folder 9 | 952-Politics
|
| Box 23 Folder 10 | 953-Law
|
| Box 23 Folder 11 | 04-Constants |
| Box 23 Folder 12 | 203-Electromagnetism and Waves |
| Box 23 Folder 13 | 204-Electric Properties of Materials |
| Box 23 Folder 14 | 21-Radiofrequency Properties |
| Box 23 Folder 15 | 23-Electrical Instruments |
| Box 23 Folder 16 | 3-Relativity and Quantum Theory |
| Box 23 Folder 17 | 32-General Relativity |
| Box 23 Folder 18 | 34-General Quantum Mechanics Theory |
| Box 24 Folder 1 | 34-General Quantum Mechanics Theory |
| Box 24 Folder 2 | 343-Dirac Theory |
| Box 24 Folder 3 | 344-Quantum Electrodynamics |
| Box 24 Folder 4 | 344-Quantum Electrodynamics |
| Box 24 Folder 5 | 344-Quantum Electrodynamics |
| Box 24 Folder 6 | 344-Quantum Electrodynamics |
| Box 24 Folder 7 | 346-Field Theories |
| Box 24 Folder 8 | 346-Field Theories |
| Box 25 Folder 1 | 346-Field Theories |
| Box 25 Folder 2 | 346-Field Theories |
| Box 25 Folder 3 | 4-Elementary Particles |
| Box 25 Folder 4 | 4-Elementary Particles |
| Box 25 Folder 5 | 4-Elementary Particles |
| Box 25 Folder 6 | 41-Proton and Neutron |
| Box 25 Folder 7 | 41-Proton and Neutron |
| Box 26 Folder 1 | 410-Nucleons |
| Box 26 Folder 2 | 411-Proton (General) |
| Box 26 Folder 3 | 415-Neutron (General) |
| Box 26 Folder 4 | 415-Neutron (General) |
| Box 26 Folder 5 | 416-Neutron Cross Sections |
| Box 26 Folder 6 | 416-Neutron Cross Sections |
| Box 26 Folder 7 | 417-Neutron Scattering |
| Box 26 Folder 8 | 417-Neutron Scattering |
| Box 26 Folder 9 | 418-Neutron Diffusion |
| Box 27 Folder 1 | 42-Mesons |
| Box 27 Folder 2 | 422-Experimental |
| Box 27 Folder 3 | 423-π Mesons |
| Box 27 Folder 4 | 4232-Reactions |
| Box 27 Folder 5 | 4232-Reactions |
| Box 27 Folder 6 | 4235-Theory |
| Box 27 Folder 7 | 4236-Production |
| Box 27 Folder 8 | 4237-Experimental Methods |
| Box 27 Folder 9 | 424-Mu Mesons |
| Box 27 Folder 10 | 425-Field Theory of Mesons |
| Box 28 Folder 1 | 43-Neutrino and Other |
| Box 28 Folder 2 | 44-Electron and Positron |
| Box 28 Folder 3 | 45-Cosmic Radiation |
| Box 28 Folder 4 | 45-Cosmic Radiation |
| Box 28 Folder 5 | 450-General Data Origin |
| Box 28 Folder 6 | 450-General Data Origin |
| Box 28 Folder 7 | 451-Electron-Photon Component |
| Box 28 Folder 8 | 451-Electron-Photon Component |
| Box 28 Folder 9 | 452-Nuclear Component |
| Box 29 Folder 1 | 453-Meson Component |
| Box 29 Folder 2 | 453-Meson Component |
| Box 29 Folder 3 | 454-Geographic and Time Dependence |
| Box 29 Folder 4 | 454-Geographic and Time Dependence |
| Box 29 Folder 5 | 455-Primary Radiation |
| Box 29 Folder 6 | 455-Primary Radiation |
| Box 29 Folder 7 | 456-Stars |
| Box 29 Folder 8 | 456-Stars (Schein) |
| Box 30 Folder 1 | 456-Stars |
| Box 30 Folder 2 | 457-Experimental Techniques |
| Box 30 Folder 3 | 47-Instruments on Elementary Particles |
| Box 30 Folder 4 | 471-Counters |
| Box 30 Folder 5 | 472-Wilson Chambers |
| Box 30 Folder 6 | 473-Nuclear Plates |
| Box 30 Folder 7 | 474-β Spectrometers |
| Box 30 Folder 8 | 4741-β Spectrometers |
| Box 30 Folder 9 | 4742-γ Spectrometers |
| Box 30 Folder 10 | 475-Accelerating Machines |
| Box 30 Folder 11 | 475-Accelerating Machines |
| Box 31 Folder 1 | 4751-Small Cyclotron |
| Box 31 Folder 2 | 4752-Synchrocyclotron |
| Box 31 Folder 3 | 4752-Synchrocyclotron |
| Box 31 Folder 4 | 4752-Synchrocyclotron |
| Box 31 Folder 5 | 4753-Betatron |
| Box 31 Folder 6 | 476-Neutron Spectrometer |
| Box 31 Folder 7 | 51-Atom |
| Box 31 Folder 8 | 512-Electron Wave Functions |
| Box 31 Folder 9 | 513-Hyperfine Structure |
| Box 31 Folder 10 | 52-Molecules |
| Box 31 Folder 11 | 52-Molecules |
| Box 32 Folder 1 | 52-Molecules |
| Box 32 Folder 2 | 53-States of Matter |
| Box 32 Folder 3 | 531-Gases |
| Box 32 Folder 4 | 532-Liquids |
| Box 32 Folder 5 | 533-Solids |
| Box 32 Folder 6 | 533-Solids |
| Box 32 Folder 7 | 533-Solids |
| Box 32 Folder 8 | 6-Nucleus |
| Box 32 Folder 9 | 60-General Properties |
| Box 33 Folder 1 | 601-Nuclear Models |
| Box 33 Folder 2 | 601-Nuclear Models |
| Box 33 Folder 3 | 601-Nuclear Models |
| Box 33 Folder 4 | 602-Light Elements A≤4 |
| Box 33 Folder 5 | 606-Origin of Elements |
| Box 33 Folder 6 | 61-Radioactivity |
| Box 33 Folder 7 | 61-Radioactivity |
| Box 34 Folder 1 | 612-Beta |
| Box 34 Folder 2 | 612-Beta |
| Box 34 Folder 3 | 612-Beta |
| Box 34 Folder 4 | 612-Beta |
| Box 34 Folder 5 | 612-Beta |
| Box 34 Folder 6 | 613-Gamma Rays |
| Box 34 Folder 7 | 613-Gamma Rays |
| Box 34 Folder 8 | 613-Gamma Rays |
| Box 35 Folder 1 | 614-Nuclear Levels |
| Box 35 Folder 2 | 62-Nuclear Reactions |
| Box 35 Folder 3 | 62-Nuclear Reactions |
| Box 35 Folder 4 | 62-Nuclear Reactions |
| Box 35 Folder 5 | 62-Nuclear Reactions |
| Box 35 Folder 6 | 63-Nuclear Forces |
| Box 36 Folder 1 | 63-Nuclear Forces |
| Box 36 Folder 2 | 63-Nuclear Forces |
| Box 36 Folder 3 | 64-Spin and Quadrupole Moments |
| Box 36 Folder 4 | 65-Interaction of Nuclear and Atomic Structures |
| Box 36 Folder 5 | 66-Radiation thru Matter |
| Box 36 Folder 6 | 66-Radiation thru Matter |
| Box 36 Folder 7 | 67-Nuclear Power |
| Box 36 Folder 8 | 68-Fission |
| Box 36 Folder 9 | 90-Mathematics |
| Box 36 Folder 10 | 901-Algebra and Calculus |
| Box 36 Folder 11 | 902-Functions (Special) |
| Box 36 Folder 12 | 904-Geometry |
| Box 37 Folder 1 | 907-Numerical Calculation
|
| Box 37 Folder 2 | 907-Numerical Calculation |
| Box 37 Folder 3 | 907-Numerical Calculation |
| Box 37 Folder 4 | 91-Astronomy |
| Box 37 Folder 5 | 911-Planets |
| Box 37 Folder 6 | 912-Sun |
| Box 37 Folder 7 | 912-Sun |
| Box 37 Folder 8 | 913-Stars |
| Box 38 Folder 1 | 913-Stars |
| Box 38 Folder 2 | 913-Stars |
| Box 38 Folder 3 | 914-Galaxy |
| Box 38 Folder 4 | 914-Galaxy |
| Box 38 Folder 5 | 914-Galaxy |
| Box 38 Folder 6 | 915-Universe |
| Box 38 Folder 7 | 921-Atmosphere |
| Box 38 Folder 8 | 923-Water Bodies |
| Box 38 Folder 9 | 924-Earth and its Interior |
| Box 39 Folder 1 | 925-Geomagnetism and Electric Phenomena |
| Box 39 Folder 2 | 925-Geomagnetism and Electric Phenomena |
| Box 39 Folder 3 | 925-Geomagnetism and Electric Phenomena |
| Box 39 Folder 4 | 93-Biology and Medicine |
| Box 39 Folder 5 | 931-Bacteriology |
| Box 39 Folder 6 | 933-Radiation Effects |
| Box 39 Folder 7 | 934-Sensory Organs |
| Box 39 Folder 8 | 936-Tracer Techniques in Biology |
| Box 39 Folder 9 | 938-Genetics |
| Box 39 Folder 10 | 94-Chemistry |
| Box 39 Folder 11 | 941-Inorganic Chemistry |
| Box 39 Folder 12 | 942-Physical Chemistry |
| Box 39 Folder 13 | 943-Organic Chemistry |
| Box 39 Folder 14 | 954-Philosophy, 991-Geography (contents in Box 18, Folder 4) |
Subseries 4: Miscellaneous |
| Box 40 Folder 1 | Documents pertaining to the first self-sustaining chain reaction, "Dec. 2 1942 Start-Up of First Self-Sustaining Chain Reaction, Neutron Intensity in the Pile as Recorded by a Galvanometer," photograph
|
| Box 40 Folder 2 | Malmberg, John H. and L. J. Koester, Jr., Tables of Nuclear Reaction Kinematics at Relativistic Energies, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Physics Department, July 10, 1953 |
| Box 40 Folder 3 | Pion trajectories from Chicago cyclotron, charts in manuscript, 2pp, 1952 |
| Box 40 Folder 4 | Notes on the calibration of, and on experimental work with, the synchrocyclotron, in manuscript and in carbon copy of manuscript, 33pp, by date, April 21, 1951 - June 6, 1951 |
| Box 40 Folder 5 | Graphs with annotations and [3 transparencies?] from experimental work with the synchrocyclotron, manuscript, 5pp, undated |
| Box 40 Folder 6 | Graphs and calculations on the sensitivity of counters, manuscript, 4pp, undated
|
| Box 40 Folder 7 | "Details of Calculation on the Efficiency of Counters No. 3 and No. 4," no author or date, typescript, with corrections and revisions in Fermi's hand, and carbon copy, 5pp |
| Box 40 Folder 8 | Notes on experiments with recoil protons, in carbon copy of manuscript, 46pp, by date, May 21, 1952 - June 26, 1952 |
| Box 40 Folder 9 | Unidentified experiment notes and calculations, manuscript, 4pp, undated |
| Box 40 Folder 10 | Unidentified experiment notes and calculations, manuscript, 13pp, one page dated January 29, 1954 |
| Box 40 Folder 11 | Unidentified experiment notes and calculations, manuscript, 16pp, and series computations, 4pp, undated |
| Box 40 Folder 12 | Unattributed typescript annotated "corrected pages for Dr. Anderson's notes," holograph, 2pp, undated |
| Box 40 Folder 13 | Unidentified graph, manuscript, 1p., undated |
| Box 40 Folder 14 | Goudsmit, S. A., "A Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer," typescript, undated |
| Box 40 Folder 15 | Hughes, D. J. et al., "Coherent Neutron-Proton Scattering by Liquid Mirror Reflection," carbon copy of typescript, December 5, 1949 |
| Box 40 Folder 16 | Balazs, Nandor I., "The Thomas-Fermi Theory of the Atom as a Solution of the Density-Matrix-Hierarchy," copy of typescript, 45pp, undated |
| Box 40 Folder 17 | Shankland, R. S., et al., "A New Analysis of the Interferometer Observations of Dayton C. Miller," typescript, July 7, 1954 |
| Box 40 Folder 18 | Latham, R. and J. M. Cassels, "The Scattering of Neutrons by Lead," typescript with annotations in an unknown hand, undated |
| Box 40 Folder 19 | "I Atom-Værkstedet paa Blegdamsvej - ," Berlingske Tidende, newspaper clipping, Friday, September 10, 1954 |
| Box 40 Folder 20 | The Industrial Utilization of Fission Products (Gross, Mixed, Separated). A Prospectus for Management, Stanford Research Institute, a study commissioned by the AEC, March 1951 |
| Box 40 Folder 21 | Notes and specifications for infantry weapons, and notes on other military applications, manuscript, 14pp, undated |
| Box 40 Folder 22 | Duroux, J. W., "The Situation in Aerial Photography Today," Working Paper No. 33, Air Weapons Research Center, University of Chicago, typescript, holograph, February 23, 1951 |
| Box 40 Folder 23 | Manhattan Engineer District, The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, undated
|
| Box 41 Folder 1 | Research notes and reprints, coded AG [Atom, General] by Fermi AG 1, 51 (Atom): reprint of a German-language article by Fermi, with annotations and attached manuscript notes in Fermi's hand, undated
|
| Box 41 Folder 2 | Research notes and reprints, coded AP [Astronomy, Planets] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 3 | Research notes and reprints, coded AS [Astronomy, Stars] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 4 | Research notes and reprints, coded CP [Physical Constants] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 5 | Research notes and reprints, coded EE [Electromagnetism] by Fermi EE 1, 203 (Electromagnetism and Waves): notes in manuscript, no date
|
| Box 41 Folder 6 | Research notes and reprints, coded EM [Electric Measurements] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 7 | Research notes and reprints, coded EO [Electric Waves and Vibrations] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 8 | Research notes and reprints, coded ER [Relativistic Electricity] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 9 | Research notes and reprints, coded ES [Equations of State] by Fermi ES 1, 53 (States of Matter): notes in manuscript, undated |
| Box 41 Folder 10 | Research notes and reprints, coded MA [Mathematics, Analysis] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 11 | Research notes and reprints, coded ME [Mathematics, Differential Equations] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 12 | Research notes and reprints, coded MG [Mathematics, Geometry] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 13 | Research notes and reprints, coded MI [Mathematics, Integrals] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 14 | Research notes and reprints, coded MP [Point Mechanics] by Fermi MP 1: notes in manuscript, undated |
| Box 41 Folder 15 | Research notes and reprints, coded MR [Relativistic Mechanics] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 16 | Research notes and reprints, coded MT [General Mechanical Theorems and Theories] by Fermi:
|
| Box 41 Folder 17 | Research notes and reprints, coded NC [Numerical Calculations], NG [Nuclei, General], and NN [Neutrons] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 18 | Research notes and reprints, coded QF [Quantum Theories of Fields] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 19 | Research notes and reprints, coded QG [Quantum Theory, General] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 20 | Research notes and reprints, coded RC [Cosmic Radiation] by Fermi RC 1: notes in manuscript, undated
|
| Box 41 Folder 21 | Key to the cataloging system for files AG-RC |
| Box 41 Folder 22 | Research notes and reprints, filed under 60 [also NG Nuclei, General] by Fermi (files 40-44, and 46-47, which preceded file 60 in this Notebook were empty)
|
| Box 41 Folder 23 | Research notes and reprints, filed under 601 [also NG Nuclei, General] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 24 | Research notes and reprints, filed under 602 [also NN Neutrons] by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 25 | Research notes and reprints, filed under 611 by Fermi (file 606, which preceded this file in the Notebook, was empty)
|
| Box 41 Folder 26 | Research notes and reprints, filed under 612 by Fermi
|
| Box 41 Folder 27 | Research notes and reprints, filed under 613 by Fermi (files 62-66, which succeeded this file in the Notebook, were empty)
|
Series VII: Notebooks and Course Notes |
Series VII, Notebooks and Course Notes, includes Fermi's research Notebooks, which contain notes and calculations relating to experiments, to various topics in theoretical physics, and to conversations with other physicists. The series also contains his notes for courses, many of which are also bound in Notebooks. Most of the material dates from 1940 to 1954, but there is one Notebook from 1919, when Fermi was a teenager. The series is divided into four subseries: 1. Experimental and Theoretical Physics, 2. Courses, 3. Personal Notes on Physics, and 4. Miscellaneous
Subseries 1, Experimental and Theoretical Physics, includes Notebooks containing notes and calculations on various topics in theoretical physics (Notebooks D01-D16 ), as well as on experiments belonging both to the period that Fermi was calibrating the Chicago cyclotron and to the early period after its inauguration in September 1951 (Notebooks E1-E2, FA, and ME). These Notebooks cover the years 1940 to 1954 and are arranged in chronological order in the subseries. Fermi carefully indexed and dated most of these Notebooks.
Subseries 2, Courses, contains Fermi's notes for Columbia University and University of Chicago courses, as well as for the Silliman Lectures at Yale University in April 1950, which became the basis for his Elementary Particles book. These Notebooks and unbound notes cover the years 1939 to 1954 and are arranged in chronological order.
Subseries 3, Personal Notes on Physics, contains Notebooks and unbound notes that Fermi compiled on various topics in physics. Many of the Notebooks are undated and sparsely filled. Of particular note, however, is a small Notebook from 1919 which contains notes on physics that Fermi compiled as a teenager.
Subseries 4, Miscellaneous, includes Notebooks containing unindexed and undated notes and calculations pertaining to various theoretical topics and experiments. Most of the Notebooks date to the 1940s, but Notebook S6 contains a few pages of notes regarding the pre-war state of the financial affairs of the Fermi family.
Subseries 1: Experimental and Theoretical Physics |
| Box 42 Folder 1 | Notebook D16, "Enrico Fermi, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.,
|
| Box 42 Folder 2 | "E. Fermi, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.," June 18, 1940, to November 29, 1940, no index, 192pp, photocopy, contains dated calculations and a few notes |
| Box 42 Folder 3 | Notebook D14, "Numerical Calculations," November 12, 1943, to May 27, 1944, no index, 20 x 27cm, this Notebook consists almost entirely of numerical calculations without, it would seem, much theory. Some of the calculations for the years 1941-1942 can be related to exponential experiments. The quality and format of this Notebook are the same as Notebook D13 (Box 42, Folder 5). It may be that D13 is a continuation of this Notebook |
| Box 42 Folder 4 | Notebook D15, "Enrico Fermi, Calculations," February 12, 1941, to November 1941, no index, 20 x 27cm, this Notebook consists entirely of numerical calculations. Some of these relate to Fermi's early ideas on chain reactions |
| Box 42 Folder 5 | Notebook D13, untitled, undated, no index, 20 x 27cm, 150pp, this Notebook consists almost entirely of calculations without, it would seem, much theory. Some of its calculations and drawings concern neutron diffraction. The Notebook most likely belongs the immediate post-war period, when Fermi used the reactor at the Argonne National Laboratory (CP-3) to work on, among other things, neutron diffraction. The possibility cannot be excluded, however, that it pertains to work that Fermi did during the war. Given that its quality and format are the same as Notebook D14, "Numerical Calculations," it may be a continuation of that Notebook |
| Box 42 Folder 6 | Notebook D12, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 100 (Also ES [i.e. "Equations of State"]), Oct 5, 1945 - Jan 7, 1947," index at the end (p. 298), 20 x 27cm, 298pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics, including neutron mirrors and the polarization of neutrons |
| Box 43 Folder 1 | Notebook D11, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 161, Jan 8, 1947 - June 12, 1947," index at the end (pp 138-140), 20 x 27cm, 140pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics, including the neutron-deuteron system, scattering of n by electrons in krypton, the form factor for Xe, and mesotrons in high atmosphere |
| Box 43 Folder 2 | Notebook D10, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 102, June 14, 1947 - Nov 28, 1947," index at the end (pp 136-138), 20 x 27cm, 138pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including Lamb shift and H. Bethe's theory for it, pseudoscalar and vector mesotrons, cosmic rays and stellar equilibria, and the scattering of slow mesotrons. Several of the entries for August 1947 pertain to 90 MeV neutron cross sections |
| Box 43 Folder 3 | Notebook D9, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 103, November 30, 1947 - May 25, 1948," index at the end (pp 142-144), 21 x 28cm, 144pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including the scattering of particles in emulsions, the charge near a neutron, Schwinger electrodynamics, the scattering of neutral pseudoscalar mesons, and relativistic quantum electrodynamics |
| Box 43 Folder 4 | Notebook D8, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 104, May 26, 1948 - Dec 5, 1948," index at the end (pp 142-144), 21 x 28cm, 144pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including Schwinger electrodynamics, Lamb shift, Majorana neutral particles, the annihilation of positrons, meson theories and β-decay, the expansion of space, and cosmic ray theory |
| Box 43 Folder 5 | Notebook D7, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 105, December 5, 1948 - June 21, 1949," index at the end (pp 118-120), 21 x 28cm, 120pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including stellar light, the origin of cosmic rays, interstellar clouds, neutral vector mesons, Feynman quantum mechanics, and quadrupole moments of nuclei |
| Box 43 Folder 6 | Notebook D6, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 106, June 21, 1949 - December 24, 1949," index at the end (pp 118-119), 21 x 28cm, 119pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including meson theories, pseudoscalar and pseudovector mesons, scattering of pions, Feynman electrodynamics, and pion decay |
| Box 43 Folder 7 | Notebook D5, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 107, December 24, 1949 - May 3, 1950," index at the end (pp 119-120), 21 x 28cm, 120pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including magnetohydro-dynamics, pions as two nucleon systems, meson decay and meson capture, eigenfunctions of various systems, the expansion of the universe, and statistical theory of multiple productions |
| Box 43 Folder 8 | Notebook D4, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 108, May 4, 1950 - November 17, 1950," index at the end (p. 119), 21 x 28cm, 119pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including statistical theory of multiple productions, reactions involving pions, and Feynman method (Goldberg on) |
| Box 43 Folder 9 | Notebooks E1 and E2
|
| Box 44 Folder 1 | Notebooks FA and ME
|
| Box 45 Folder 1 | Photocopies of Notebooks FA, ME, and portions of F1 (originals in Box 44, Folder 1, and Box 49, Folder 11) |
| Box 45 Folder 2 | Notebook D3, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 109, November 17, 1950 - May 17, 1952," index at the end (pp 159-160), 20 x 25cm, 160pp, this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including Feynman method, the nature of pions, V-particles, decay of neutral pions, and pion-nucleon interaction. It also seems to contain some theory relating to a subsequent period of experimental work following the inauguration of the Chicago cyclotron in September 1951. There is a gap in the entries between April 18, 1951 (pp 64-65), and November 3, 1951 (pp 66-67) |
| Box 45 Folder 3 | Notebook D2, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 110, May 17, 1952 - September 22, 1953," index at the end (pp 159-160), 20 x 25cm, 160pp, this Notebook contains extensive numerical analysis of phase shifts data using the Maniac computer, notes from the Rochester meeting of the American Physical Society (December 1952), and notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including pion scattering, proton polarization, V-particles, and pion photoeffect |
| Box 45 Folder 4 | Notebook D1, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 111, September 23, 1953 - April 16, 1954," index at the end (pp 161-162, plus back inside cover), 20 x 25cm, 162+pp, this Notebook contains notes from the Rochester meeting of the American Physical Society (December 1952), as well as notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including pion scattering, strange ("curious") particles, geophysics, decay of neutral pions, proton polarization, and the Bohr-Mottelson nuclear model |
| Box 45 Folder 5 | Notebook D01, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Notebook 112, April 16, 1954 - [June 30, 1954]," index at the end (p. 157), this Notebook contains notes and calculations on various topics of theoretical physics, including proton polarization, pion photoeffect, and K-mesons |
Subseries 2: Courses |
| Box 45 Folder 6 | Notebook C3, "E. Fermi, Statistical Mechanics, Spring 1941," Columbia University, 17 x 21 cm, contains 24pp notes for a course on statistical mechanics, 24pp, as well as (starting at the back of the book) research notes on "Pauli meson theory," 32pp |
| Box 45 Folder 7 | Notebook C 11, "E. Fermi, Mechanics, Spring 1941," Columbia University, 17 x 20cm, 55pp, contains notes for a course on mechanics, including notes for lectures on classical mechanics of systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom, short elasticity, and hydrodynamics |
| Box 45 Folder 8 | C14, "Geophysics," unbound, 1941 or earlier, Columbia University, 21 x 28cm, 22pp, contains notes for a course on geophysics (possibly Physics 138 at Columbia), including notes for lectures on gravitational effects, earthquakes, atmosphere water, earth's interior, and the electricity of the atmosphere |
| Box 45 Folder 9 | "Fission," 1945, typescript, 41pp, contains notes for weeks 12-14 of a neutron physics course in 1945 (see also Box 46 Folder 1) |
| Box 46 Folder 1 | "Neutron Physics, A Course by E. Fermi, February 5, 1946," Los Alamos University, mimeograph of typescript, bound, 21 x 28cm, 75pp, contains lecture notes from Fermi's course on neutron physics at Los Alamos in 1945. Topics include neutron sources, collisions of neutrons with nuclei, the chart of stable isotopes and what it implies about nuclear reactions involving neutrons, models of nuclei and of nuclear reactions, the scattering of neutrons, the slowing down of neutrons, the distribution of slow neutrons in a medium, and nuclear fission |
| Box 46 Folder 2 | Notebook C7, "Physics 202" and "Physics 242," missing cover, University of Chicago, Summer 1949, 19 x 13cm, 115pp, contains notes for a course on differential equations of classical physics (Physics 202), including notes for lectures on Bessel functions and spherical harmonics, and notes for a course on quantum mechanics (Physics 242) |
| Box 46 Folder 3 | Notebook C13, "The Growth of Physics in the Past Twenty Years," Silliman Lectures, Yale University, April 10, 12, 14, 17, and 19, 1950, 128pp, typescript transcription of Fermi's 1950 Silliman Lectures, delivered on the same visit to Yale that he gave the lectures which provided the basis for Fermi's Elementary Particles book. Does not contain formulas or slides. See also Notebook C9 (Box 46, Folder 8) |
| Box 46 Folder 4 | Notebooks C1 and C2 Notebook C1, "E. Fermi, University of Chicago, Nuclear Physics I,"Winter 1949, 13 x 20cm, 160pp, contains notes for a course on nuclear physics, similar to the course published as Nuclear Physics: A Course Given by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago (Box 46, Folder 5, and Box 52, Folder 9)
|
| Box 46 Folder 5 | Notebook C16, Nuclear Physics, A Course Given by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago, compiled by Jay Orear et al., rev edn, Chicago: University of Chicago,1950, 128pp; also contains manuscript notes from October 1954 for a revised edition of Nuclear Physics, 2pp (the last known physics-related notes in Fermi's hand) |
| Box 46 Folder 6 | Notebook C8, "Enrico Fermi, Physics of Solids (411), Winter 1951," University of Chicago, 21 x 28cm, 150pp, contains notes for a course on solid state physics, including notes for lectures on chemical bond, vibrations, and order-disorder. See also Notebook C17 (Box 46, Folder 7) |
| Box 46 Folder 7 | Notebook C17, "E. Fermi, Univ. of Chicago, Solids," undated, unbound, 12 x 19cm, 38pp, contains notes for a course on solid state physics that is similar to, but less extensive than, the course in Notebook C8 |
| Box 46 Folder 8 | Notebook C9, "Elementary Particles, Spring 1951," University of Chicago, unbound, 21 x 28cm, 80pp, contains notes for a course on elementary particles that is similar to the 1950 Silliman Lectures at Yale (Box 46, Folder 3) and to Fermi's Elementary Particles book |
| Box 46 Folder 9 | Notebook C10, "E. Fermi, Physics 351 and 352, Thermodynamics and Statistics, Fall 1951 and Spring 1952," University of Chicago, 21 x 28cm, 75pp, notes for courses on thermodynamics and statistics, including notes for lectures on classical thermodynamics with applications, statistical mechanics with applications to astrophysics, and He II. This Notebook is written to roughly the same degree of completeness as Notebooks C4 and C5 (Box 47, Folders 4-5). The courses bear strong resemblance to Fermi's Thermodynamics and Molecules and Crystals books, though with many added examples |
| Box 47 Folder 1 | Notebook C15, "E. Fermi, Physics 464 - Spring 1953, Elementary Particles," University of Chicago, 21 x 28cm, 58pp, contains notes for a course on elementary particles, including notes for lectures on types of elementary particles, symmetries, Dirac functions, s-matrix, nucleon-nucleon scattering, asymptotic behavior of phase shift, proton-proton scattering, isotopic spin, pion-nucleon systems, polarization of recoil neutrons, pion photoeffect, quanta as particles, Klein Gordon field, Yukawa interaction, charge independent Yukawa interaction, & Lamb shift. See also Notebook F1 (Box 49, Folder 11) |
| Box 47 Folder 2 | "E. Fermi, Physics 464 - Spring 1953, Elementary Particles," University of Chicago, 21 x 28cm, 58pp, bound photocopy of Notebook C15 (Box 47, Folder 1) |
| Box 47 Folder 3 | Notebook C4, Physics 341-342, University of Chicago, 1954, 21 x 29cm, contains notes for a two-semester course on nonrelativistic quantum mechanics |
| Box 47 Folder 4 | Notebooks C12 and C18, untitled, Spring 1954, 21 x 28cm, 35pp and 50pp respectively, these Notebooks contain notes for lectures on fundamental particles (including on isotopic spin and pion physics) that Fermi delivered at summer schools in Les Houches (France) and Varenna (Italy) in 1954. Notebook C18 is more complete and was taken to Europe and back |
| Box 47 Folder 5 | Notebook C5, "E. Fermi, Physics 341-342, Quantum Mechanics,Winter - Spring 1954," University of Chicago, 21 x 29cm, contains mimeographs of manuscript notes for a two-semester course on quantum mechanics, several manuscript and typescript additions pertaining to the portion of the course on relativity, a class list for the Spring 1954 course, and two reprints, Enrico Fermi, "High Energy Nuclear Events," Progress of Theoretical Physics, 5:4 (1950), and "Angular Distribution of the Pions Produced in High Energy Nuclear Collisions," The Physical Review, 81:5 (1951) |
| Box 48 Folder 1 | "Quantum Mechanics, E. Fermi, Physics 341, Winter 1954," University of Chicago, 21 x 28cm, contains another copy of the course contained in Notebook C5 |
| Box 48 Folder 2 | Notebook C6, "E. Fermi, Quantum Mechanics, 1939," University of Chicago, 19 x 24cm, 115 pp, contains notes for a course on quantum mechanics, an early version of the course contained in Notebooks C4 and C5 (Box 46, Folders 3 and 5) |
| Box 48 Folder 3 | Outline for a five-lecture series on general aspects of nuclear physics, typescript with annotations in Fermi's hand, 3pp, undated |
Subseries 3: Personal Notes on Physics |
| Box 48 Folder 4 | Notebook E3, untitled, 1950-1954, University of Chicago, 10 x 17cm, a loose-leaf Notebook that contains alphabetized entries on various topics and data relating to the Chicago cyclotron and to the development of early high-speed counting devices. Entries include topics such as energy of activation, pions, and V-particles |
| Box 49 Folder 1 | Notebook N1, "Alcune Teorie Fisiche [Some Theories in Physics]," all entries in Italian, last page bears the date September 27, 1919, 10 x 15cm, 100pp, consists of a collection of notes on several areas of theoretical physics, including "Dinamica Analitica" [Analytical Dynamics], "Irraggiamento" [Theory of Radiation], "Fisica Atomica" [Atomic Physics], and "Radioattività" [Radioactivity]. This Notebook gives insight into the enormous knowledge of physics that Fermi already possessed by age eighteen. It also contains a bibliography of, and notes on, papers he had read. A photocopy of the Notebook is in Box 49, Folder 2 |
| Box 49 Folder 2 | Photocopy of Notebook N1 (Box 49, Folder 1) |
| Box 49 Folder 3 | Notebook N2, "General Physics," not dated, postwar University of Chicago period, 13 x 20cm, 1p, contains a one-page list of universal constants |
| Box 49 Folder 4 | Notebook N3, "Quantum Mechanics," not dated, postwar University of Chicago period, partial index at the end, 13 x 20cm, 81pp, contains notes and calculations on various theoretical topics in physics, including quantum mechanics, second quantization, and Dirac electron theory |
| Box 49 Folder 5 | Notebook N4, "Mathematics," not dated, postwar University of Chicago period, no index, 13 x 20cm, 17pp, contains notes and calculations relating to various topics in mathematics, including spherical functions, differential equations, and asymptotic expansions |
| Box 49 Folder 6 | Notebook N5, "Electricity and Magnetism," not dated, postwar University of Chicago period, no index, 13 x 20cm, 3pp, contains notes on various topics in electricity and magnetism, including Maxwell equations in vacuum, electromagnetic moment, and electromagnetic potentials |
| Box 49 Folder 7 | Notebook N6, "Atom and Nucleus," not dated, postwar University of Chicago period, no index, 13 x 20cm, 6pp, contains notes on various topics in electricity and magnetism, including Gamov factors, thermonuclear reactions, and nuclear forces |
| Box 49 Folder 8 | Notebook N7, "Mechanics," not dated, postwar University of Chicago period, no index, 13 x 20cm, 15pp, contains notes on various topics in mechanics, including Hamiltonian principle and Lagrange equations, hydrodynamics equations, and hyperbolic Kepler motion |
| Box 49 Folder 9 | Notebook N8, "Astronomy and Geophysics," not dated, postwar University of Chicago period, no index, 13 x 20cm, 9pp, contains notes on various topics in astronomy and geophysics, including dimensional theory of stellar equilibrium, dimensional theory of equilibrium of white dwarfs, and the solar system |
| Box 49 Folder 10 | Notebook N9, "Group Theory," not dated, postwar University of Chicago period, no index, 13 x 20cm, 8pp, contains notes on various topics in group theory, including transformation groups, equivalence, and abstract groups and their realization |
| Box 49 Folder 11 | F1, "Elementary Particles," September 25, 1951 to Summer 1954, University of Chicago, looseleaf Notebook pages, no binder, key at the front, consists of notes, calculations, and reprints on theories of elementary particles. Some of these notes relate to conversations with other physicists. The numerical codes used to organize this material match the subject headings in the "artificial memory" (series VI, subseries 3) |
Subseries 4: Miscellaneous |
| Box 50 Folder 1 | Notebooks S1 and S2, untitled, undated, both contain miscellaneous calculations |
| Box 50 Folder 2 | Notebook S3, "Enrico Fermi, Eckart Hall, University of Chicago," undated, but probably dates back to Fermi's work in Chicago in either 1942-1944 or 1946-1948, contains miscellaneous calculations, possibly in preparation for lectures , undated |
| Box 50 Folder 3 | Notebook S4, "Miscellaneous (see inside), cosmic rays, nuclear structures, E. Fermi, Univ. of Chicago," March 1946 and earlier, 108pp, contains miscellaneous calculations and notes on cosmic rays and nuclear structures |
| Box 50 Folder 4 | Notebook S5, untitled, no date, contains miscellaneous calculations, some of which may be related to neutron diffraction in crystals (which would suggest that the entries date to the years 1946-1948). The Notebook was labeled "kept at home" during some earlier stage in the archiving process |
| Box 50 Folder 5 | Notebook S6, untitled, first page dated November 23, 1941, contains miscellaneous calculations. At the back, there are some notes labeled "Stato patrimoniale ricostruito 1 luglio 1938 [Patrimonial status of Fermi family by July 1, 1938, with further later additions]." These notes give insight into the pre-war state of the financial affairs of the Fermi family |
| Box 50 Folder 6 | Notebook S7, untitled, possibly dates to 1944, contains miscellaneous calculations |
| Box 50 Folder 7 | Notebook S8, untitled, no date, contains miscellaneous calculations, including some that appear to relate to neutron diffraction by oxygen, BeO, Be, etc |
| Box 50 Folder 8 | "Large Cyclotron, Pion Orbits, Direction of asymptotes as a function of momentum and angle of emission, as calculated for E. Fermi by Argonne digital computer," undated, bound typescript with annotations in unknown hand, 21 x 28cm, contains dozens of pages of computer output. For more on this Notebook, see the correspondence between Fermi and Jean Hall (Box 10, Folder 5) |
Series VIII: Writings |
Series VIII, Writings, contains published and unpublished articles, lectures, and books by Fermi and Fermi et al. It also includes bibliographies of Fermi's writings, books from his personal library, and papers relating to the posthumous publication of his complete works. The material spans the years 1921 to 1955. It is divided into three subseries: 1. Published Articles, Lectures, and Addresses, 2. Unpublished Articles, Lectures, and Addresses, and 3. Books.
Subseries 1, Published Articles, Lectures, and Addresses, consists mainly of reprints of articles by Fermi and Fermi et al., as well as published lectures and addresses by Fermi. These publications are arranged chronologically, spanning the years 1921 to 1955. In addition, various bibliographies of Fermi's writings are located at the start of the subseries, as are several uncorrected galleys and near-print typescripts of articles and lectures by Fermi and Fermi et al. that were later published. Of particular interest in this subseries are copies of three declassified scientific articles by Fermi concerning the first nuclear reactor (Box 52, Folders 9-11).
Subseries 2, Unpublished Articles, Lectures, and Addresses, contains texts of unpublished articles by Fermi, as well as texts of, and notes for, unpublished lectures and addresses that Fermi gave between 1941 and 1954.
Subseries 3, Books, includes materials relating to the posthumous publication of Fermi's Collected Papers and to the abandoned project of translating and revising Fermi's Fisica ad Uso dei Licei for use in American high schools. It also contains several books by Fermi, as well as books from his personal library, many of which contain inscriptions to Fermi and/or marginalia in his hand. One other book from Fermi's personal library, Andrea Carrafa's Elementorum Physicae Mathematicae (Rome, 1840), a book from which Fermi learned physics in the 1910s, is located in Box 5.
Subseries 1: Published Articles, Lectures, and Addresses |
| Box 51 Folder 1 | Bibliographies (see also Box 1, Folder 1, and Box 60, Folders 5-6) "Bibliography - Enrico Fermi," compiled in February 1949, mimeograph of typescript
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| Box 51 Folder 2 | Uncorrected galleys and near-print typescripts of articles and lectures by Fermi and Fermi et al. that were later published
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| Box 51 Folder 3 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1921
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| Box 51 Folder 4 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1922
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| Box 51 Folder 5 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1923
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| Box 51 Folder 6 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1924
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| Box 51 Folder 7 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1925
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| Box 51 Folder 8 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1926
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| Box 51 Folder 9 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1927
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| Box 51 Folder 10 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1928
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| Box 51 Folder 11 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1929
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| Box 51 Folder 12 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1930
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| Box 51 Folder 13 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1931-1933
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| Box 52 Folder 1 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1934
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| Box 52 Folder 2 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1935
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| Box 52 Folder 3 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1936
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| Box 52 Folder 4 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1937-1938
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| Box 52 Folder 5 | Nobel Lecture, 1938, "Artificial Radioactivity Produced by Neutron Bombardment," Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Sons, 1939, five copies |
| Box 52 Folder 6 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1937-1939
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| Box 52 Folder 7 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1940-1941
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| Box 52 Folder 8 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1942
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| Box 52 Folder 9 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1942
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| Box 52 Folder 10 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1942
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| Box 52 Folder 11 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1942
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| Box 52 Folder 12 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1946
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| Box 52 Folder 13 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1947
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| Box 52 Folder 14 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1947
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| Box 52 Folder 15 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1947
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| Box 52 Folder 16 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1949
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| Box 52 Folder 17 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1950-1951
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| Box 53 Folder 1 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1952
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| Box 53 Folder 2 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1952
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| Box 53 Folder 3 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1953
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| Box 53 Folder 4 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1954
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| Box 53 Folder 5 | Published articles, lectures, and addresses, 1955
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Subseries 2: Unpublished writings |
| Box 53 Folder 6 | Unpublished or yet to be published articles, 1951-1954
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| Box 53 Folder 7 | Unpublished or yet to be published articles, undated
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| Box 53 Folder 8 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, 1941-1947
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| Box 53 Folder 9 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, 1949
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| Box 53 Folder 10 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, 1950
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| Box 53 Folder 11 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, 1951
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| Box 53 Folder 12 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, 1952
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| Box 53 Folder 13 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, 1953
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| Box 53 Folder 14 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, 1954
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| Box 54 Folder 1 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, 1954
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| Box 54 Folder 2 | Unpublished lectures and addresses, undated
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| Box 54 Folder 3 | Unpublished lectures and addresses on the field of nuclear physics in general, undated
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| Box 54 Folder 4 | Unpublished lectures and addresses on atomic energy, undated
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| Box 54 Folder 5 | Unpublished lectures on the origin of elements and on cosmic rays, undated
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| Box 54 Folder 6 | Unpublished lectures on particles and high energy collisions, undated
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| Box 54 Folder 7 | Unpublished lectures on pion scattering, undated
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Subseries 3: Books |
| Box 54 Folder 8 | Draft text, with additions and revisions of the translation and revision of Fermi's Fisica ad Uso dei Licei for American secondary schools by Fermi and Warren M. Davis, unfinished. See Box 13, Folder 2, for correspondence relating to the venture |
| Box 54 Folder 9 | Typescript draft, with manuscript corrections, of an unrevised translation of Fermi's Fisica ad Uso dei Licei, Vol. I, Part 1 |
| Box 54 Folder 10 | Typescript draft, with manuscript corrections, of an unrevised translation of Fermi's Fisica ad Uso dei Licei, Vol. I, Part 2 |
| Box 55 Folder 1 | Typescript draft, with manuscript corrections, of an unrevised translation of Fermi's Fisica ad Uso dei Licei, Vol. II, Part 1 |
| Box 55 Folder 2 | Typescript draft, with manuscript corrections, of an unrevised translation of Fermi's Fisica ad Uso dei Licei, Vol. II, Part 2 |
| Box 55 Folder 3 | Enrico Fermi, Fisica ad Uso dei Licei, Vol. I, Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1929, 205pp and ix, hardbound |
| Box 55 Folder 4 | Enrico Fermi, Fisica ad Uso dei Licei, Vol. II, Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1929, 238pp and ix, hardbound |
| Box 55 Folder 5 | Enrico Fermi, Fisica ad Uso dei Licei, Vol. I, New Edition, Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1946, 205pp and ix, paperbound |
| Box 55 Folder 6 | Enrico Fermi, Fisica ad Uso dei Licei, Vol. II, New Edition, Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1946, 238pp and ix, paperbound |
| Box 55 Folder 7 | Enrico Fermi and Enrico Persico, Fisica per Istituti Tecnici Commerciali, Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1938, printed paper binding, 310pp and ix |
| Box 56 Folder 1 | Enrico Fermi, Moleküle und Kristalle, Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1938, 234pp and vii, hardbound (German translation of Enrico Fermi, Molecole e Cristalli, Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1934) |
| Box 56 Folder 2 | "Neutron Physics," Enrico Fermi, Los Alamos, declassified in 1946 "Neutron Physics, A Course of Lectures by E. Fermi," notes transcribed by I. Halpern, Los Alamos University, mimeograph |
| Box 56 Folder 3 | Neutron Physics, A Revision of I. Halpern's Notes on E. Fermi's Lectures in 1945, ed. by J. G. Beckerley, Oak Ridge, TN: U. S. AEC, 1948, 96pp paperbound, two copies |
| Box 56 Folder 4 | Enrico Fermi, Nuclear Physics, A Course Given at the University of Chicago, Japanese translation |
| Box 56 Folder 5 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 57 Folder 1 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 57 Folder 2 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 57 Folder 3 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 57 Folder 4 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 57 Folder 5 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 57 Folder 6 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 58 Folder 1 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 58 Folder 2 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 58 Folder 3 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 58 Folder 4 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 58 Folder 5 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 58 Folder 6 | Books from Fermi's library
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| Box 58 Folder 7 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 59 | Books from Fermi's library |
| Box 59 | Poisson, S. D., Traite de mecanique, 2nd edition, 2 vols, Paris: Bachelier, 1833, vol. 1: 696pp, vol 2: 782pp, hardbound, inscribed to Fermi by Emilio Segrè |
| Box 60 Folder 1 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 60 Folder 2 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 60 Folder 3 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 60 Folder 4 | Book from Fermi's library
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| Box 60 Folder 5 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers Bibliographies of Fermi's published writings, dated 1949 to 1955 |
| Box 60 Folder 6 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers "A List of Publications by Enrico Fermi, furnished by Argonne National
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| Box 60 Folder 7 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers "Enrico Fermi: Honors and Awards," 1954, mimeograph of typescript, three copies
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| Box 60 Folder 8 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers: Biography of Fermi, 1953 or 1954, mimeograph of typescript, 3pp,two copies |
| Box 60 Folder 9 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers: Reprints, 1922-1926 |
| Box 61 Folder 1 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers: Reprints, 1927-1935 |
| Box 61 Folder 2 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers: Reprints, 1932-1954 |
| Box 61 Folder 3 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers: Reprints, 1938-1955 |
| Box 61 Folder 4 | Materials relating to the publication of Fermi's Collected Papers: Enrico Fermi, "On the Motion of Neutrons in Hydrogenous
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Series IX: Audio-Visual Materials |
Series IX, Audio-Visual Materials, consists primarily of visual aids that Fermi used for various lectures and of phonograph recordings of or concerning Fermi. It is divided into two subseries: 1. Visual Materials, and 2. Audio.
Subseries 1, Visual Materials, contains transparencies and slides that Fermi used in various lectures, as well as several "windows," a research-related punched computer tape, and four photographs of different stages in the explosion of a nuclear warhead. The slides remain arranged in the order that Fermi packaged them. Of particular note are slides depicting photographic views, drawings, and diagrams of the first pile and of the Chicago cyclotron.
Subseries 2, Audio, contains phonograph recordings of Fermi's addresses at the University of Rome and at the National Research Council in Rome in October 1949, as well as of Herbert L. Anderson's eulogy for Fermi at the American Physical Society's Fermi Memorial Session in Washington, DC, in April 1955.
Portions of Series IX, Audio-Visual Materials, are currently restricted due to their fragile condition or need for special equipment.
Subseries 1: Visual Materials |
| Box 61 Folder 5 | Transparencies for Fermi's lecture at the Sponsors Meeting, November 6, 1950, Figures 1-13, figures are untitled (notes for this lecture are located in Box 53, Folder 10) |
| Box 61 Folder 6 | Four envelopes from the Linde Air Products Company containing "windows" (these envelopes are inside a larger envelope)
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| Box 61 Folder 7 | Carbon copy of computer printout, with annotations in Fermi's hand and accompanying punched computer tape |
| Box 61 Folder 8 | Four individually matted photographs of different stages in the explosion of a nuclear warhead |
| Box 61 Folder 9 | Fermi's indices for his slides
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| Box 62 Folder Eighteen slides formerly housed in a box labeled "Dev. Before July 1951, NX5V, 4.12, 6/50," listed by title or description and by Fermi's personal identifying codes |
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| Box 62 Thirteen slides formerly wrapped and labeled "E. Fermi, Proton-neutron diagram of nuclei; Element abundance," listed by title or description and by Fermi's personal identifying codes |
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| Box 62 Seventeen slides formerly wrapped and labeled "E. Fermi, Cyclotron" |
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Subseries 2: Audio |
| Box 63 | Phonograph Recordings of and Concerning Fermi |
| Box 63 | Enrico Fermi, "Le Ricerche Scientifiche negli U.S.A.," address delivered at the National Research Council, Rome, October 15, 1949, two albums of two 12", 78 rpm records each |
| Box 63 | Enrico Fermi, "Recenti Progressi in Elettrodinamica quantistica," conclusion of a lecture held under the auspices of the University of Rome, Rome, October 14, 1949, two albums of one 10", 78 rpm record each |
| Box 63 | H. L. Anderson, "Address Given in Honor of Enrico Fermi," American Physical Society, Fermi Memorial Session, Washington, April 29, 1955, one 12", 33 1/3 rpm record in corrugated paper carton |