Title: History of Atomic Energy Collection, 1872-2014
ID: MSS Atomic
Extent: 2.61 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The collection is arranged by format into four series: Series 1: Publications; Series 2: Ephemera; Series 3: Audiovisual Materials; and Series 4: Artifacts.
Date Acquired: 00/00/1990
Languages of Materials: English [eng], French [fre], German [ger], Dutch;Flemish [dut], Swedish [swe], Russian [rus], Danish [dan], Italian [ita], Portuguese [por], Japanese [jpn], Chinese [chi], Polish [pol], Czech [cze], Afrikaans [afr]
The History of Atomic Energy Collection is the largest collection related to nuclear history in SCARC collections. Containing over 3,000 published items and other cultural artifacts, this collection is a significant resource for research on the political, scientific, economic, technological, and social issues that have characterized the nuclear age. Materials date from the late 19th century to 2014.
All topics related to the nuclear era appear in this collection, including early scientific discoveries, the Manhattan Project and World War II, military aspects of atomic energy, civil defense, nuclear testing, nuclear engineering, the effect of the atomic age on society and culture, biographies of key figures in nuclear history, and fiction, poetry, drama, and music related to the atomic age. Other key concentrations are in nuclear industries including uranium mining, nuclear reactor operations, and materials documenting the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The original online finding aid for the collection (RB Energy) is archived and available here. Series 1: Publications includes all cataloged materials including books, scientific offprints, magazines, journals, and other printed material. A current list of cataloged materials included in the collection can be found in 1Search here. Series 2: Ephemera includes all uncataloged materials from the original accession as well as items added since acquisition. Five of these items from the original accession are missing as of 2022. Series 3: Audio includes four recordings, two of which have use copies. Series 4: Artifacts includes several 3D items including two Geiger-counters.
Accruals: Since 1990, publications and ephemera have been added to the original accession through gift and purchase. Since 2012, purchases have been primarily publications.
More Extent Information: 5 boxes, including 2 oversize boxes and one map folder; 3 photographs
Statement on Access: The collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: The bulk of this collection was purchased in 1990 from dealer Leif Laudamus of Amherst, Massachusetts.
Separated Materials: Two manuscript collections were identified in 2012 from the original accession and treated separately: the David Marcus Letters and the Charter Heslep Papers.
Related Materials: Other large collections of nuclear history materials include the Robert Dalton Harris, Jr. Collection of Atomic Age Ephemera, the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers (especially Series 12: Peace), and the Nuclear Free America Records.
Related Publications: A catalogue of the original accession was issued in 1999: The History of Atomic Energy Collection at Oregon State University: A Catalogue of Holdings. Compiled by Leif Laudamus and Ramesh Krishnamurthy. New York: James Cummins, 1999.
Preferred Citation: History of Atomic Energy Collection (MSS Atomic), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Processing Information:
We acknowledge that materials in SCARC collections and the language that describes them may be harmful. We are actively working to address our descriptive practices; for more information please see our SCARC Anti-Racist Actions Statement online.
Some materials in this collection use derogatory language to describe ethnic groups. We acknowledge the racism represented by the use of these phrases and the harm they may cause our users. Providing access to these historical materials does not endorse any attitudes or behavior depicted therein.
[Date of acknowledgement: April 2022]
An online finding aid was created for the original Laudamus accession in 2002. That finding aid (RB Energy) is archived and available here as a crosswalk to the original catalog numbers. This finding aid was updated in 2022 to bring into compliance with current descriptive practices and standards. The current guide supercedes the earlier finding aid and incorporates material that had been added to the original accession but did not appear in the earlier finding aid.
Finding Aid Revision History: An online finding aid was created for the original Laudamus accession in 2002. That finding aid is archived and available here as a crosswalk to the original catalog numbers. This finding aid was updated in 2022 to bring into compliance with current descriptive practices and standards. The current guide supercedes the earlier finding aid and incorporates material that had been added to the original accession but did not appear in the earlier finding aid.
Antinuclear movement.
Atomic bomb.
Civil defense.
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
History of Science
Manhattan Project (U.S.)
Nagasaki-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Nuclear arms control.
Nuclear disarmament.
Nuclear energy
Nuclear engineering.
Nuclear industry.
Nuclear nonproliferation.
Nuclear physics.
Nuclear propulsion.
Nuclear warfare.
Nuclear weapons--Testing.
Nuclear weapons.
Radioactive fallout
Artifacts (object genre)
Ephemera (general object genre)
Sound recordings.