Research Guides: St. Louis Atomic and Nuclear History Guide: Atomic and Nuclear St. Louis

Archives - WashU

The Department of Special Collections has many archive collections about St. Louis-area nuclear history, such as:

notable physicists who taught at Washington University
advocacy and education groups, often with community members, faculty and faculty spouse
records of local corporations involved in atomic research

Also, the Modern Literary Manuscripts includes notable authors, several who spoke on the topic of nuclear and atomic power.

Please note: Collection inventories (finding aid) are linked below, however most materials are in original (paper) format and not available online. Contact the Department of Special Collections by phone or email to access the collections.

Early atomic research / Manhattan Project

Eugene Feenberg Papers
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in the mid-1930s, Feenberg was among the first to document the charge independence of the nuclear force and to interpret it as a new symmetry of nature. After World War II he laid a sound basis for the development of modern nuclear shell theory. He was Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis from 1946 to 1977.
Arthur Holly Compton Personal Papers
The papers of Arthur Holly Compton consist of personal correspondence files, lecture and research notes, diaries and journals, publications, biographical data and memorabilia.
Washington University Cyclotron Records
Focused on the cyclotron built on the Danforth Campus in 1940 and subsequent redesigns of the cyclotron. It also includes information on the preliminary work towards the Positron Emission Transaxial Tomography Scanners (commonly abbreviated PET) at the School of Medicine. The collection does not include specific information about the cyclotrons at the School of Medicine.
Arthur Hughes Papers
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Hughes worked on the Manhattan Project in St. Louis on the cyclotron from 1939-1945 and plutonium production and at Los Alamos, New Mexico during World War II. He served as an assistant director at Los Alamos atomic energy project, acting as recruiting officer.
Alexander Langsdorf, Jr. Papers
Consists of two boxes that chronicle Langsdorf’s research in experimental nuclear physics, the birth of the atomic age, and the legacy of McCarthyism.
Monsanto Company Records
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Series 3 and Series 10 contain files related to atomic work done by the company, primarily during World War II.
Charles Allen Thomas Papers
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After establishing Thomas and Hochwalt Laboratories (1926) in Ohio, In 1926 Thomas joined Monsanto. Thomas specialized in Atomic Energy (specifically Plutonium Purification), Oil Fire Extinguishing, Fossil Fuel Additives, and Synthetic Rubber.

Baby Tooth Survey / Nuclear Advocacy and Education

Edna Gellhorn Papers (WUA00118)
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Includes work by Gellhorn and the League of Women Voters focused on pure milk and against nuclear proliferation. Gellhorn was an original organizer of the Baby Tooth Survey, and member of Greater St. Louis Citizens Committee for Nuclear Information.
Harold Rosenthal Papers (WUA00041)
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Dr. Rosenthal served as chair in the Physiological Chemistry Department of the Washington University School of Dentistry. Included in his papers are detailed records about the testing for Strontium 90 (Sr90) as part of the St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey, 1959 -1963.
Committee for Nuclear Information and Committee for Environmental Information Collection (WUA00018)
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A small set of publications, reports, and history of the two related organizations.
Michael W. Friedlander Papers (wua00444) Series 1
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Joining the WashU Physics department in 1956, Michael Friedlander was part of the St. Louis “Baby Tooth Survey” / Committee for Nuclear Information (C.N.I.). Serving as an executive member, he concluded that children close to nuclear testing sites were testing positive for radioactive particles.
Dan Bolef Papers (WUA00168)
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A physicist, Bolef worked in nuclear magnetic resonance at Westinghouse Research Laboratories (1953-1963), and then in 1963 Bolef he joined the faculty at WashU as Professor of Physics. He was a passionate activsit on topcis including nuclear energy and proliferation, Vietnam, the draft, civil rights, and other social issues covering the 1960s through the early 1980s.
See especially materials in Series 3: Nuclear Energy and Series 4: Pollution Series.

Poetry and Literature on nuclear topics

Poem: "I tried to write yesterday about the experience of coming upon the chimney's of the nuclear power plan in France"
Mary Jo Bang
Poem: Countdown
Pamela White Hadas
Poem: Nuclear Disarmament
Howard Nemerov
Talk: St. Louis Blues Revisited, Nuclear Madness, c. 1990
Michael Castro (Box 16 MC8 CASS.257)

Archives - WashU School of Medicine

The following collections are located at the Bernard Becker Medical Library, Archives & Rare Book department, on the campus of the School of Medicine. Contact the Becker Archives for further information about materials listed below.

How to access:
Location: 7th floor, Becker Library
Hours: M-F 9am-5pm, or by appointment
Telephone: (314) 362-4236
Email: arb@wusm.wustl.edu

Becker Archives Database
Washington University School of Dental Medicine Records
Box 21, Folder 14
Baby Tooth Survey cards, undated.
Baby Tooth Survey, Vertical File (VF08651)
Bird, John T., Jr., Vertical File
Commoner, Barry, Vertical File
Rosenthal, Harold L., Vertical File

Digitized archives

Digitized primary source documents available online:

Strontium 90 (milk), 1959-1960.
Digitized from: Becker Archives, Robert E. Shank Papers, Local activities, 1950-1977. Box 22, Folder 10.
Missouri History Museum Online Collections
Search keywords: Atomic, Nuclear, Radioactive, Uranium

Published Sources (Secondary Sources)

"How Baby Teeth Put an End to Nuclear Testing" by Luke Ritter
Missouri Historical Society Blog
Published: Dec 14, 2017

Nuclear democracy : a history of the Greater St. Louis Citizens' Committee for Nuclear Information, 1957-1967 by William Cuyler Sullivan
Call Number: LD5791.8 AB82 S95
Publication Date: 1982
Chapter 2: The St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey and women's environmental activism/ by Luke Ritter, in Left in the Midwest by Amanda L. Izzo and Benjamin Looker (editors)
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Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9780826274809
Publication Date: 2022 Dec
Includes extensive citations to newspapers, archives, and other relevant publications.
Chapter 8: From Bomb to Bone: Children and the Politics of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, by J Sanders, in The Nature of Hope by Char Miller and Jeff Crane (Editors)
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Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9781607328483
Publication Date: 2019-02-15
Includes extensive citations to newspapers, archives, and other relevant publications.
Pure and Modern Milk by Kendra Smith-Howard
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Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9780199899128
Publication Date: 2013
Chapter 5: Reassessing the Risk of Nature, Milk after 1950 includes St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey history
Nuked by Linda C. Morice
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Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9780820363189
Publication Date: 2022
recounts the long-term effects of radiological exposure in St. Louis, Missouri... As part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II, the refining created an enormous amount of radioactive waste that increased as more nuclear weapons were produced and stockpiled for the Cold War. Unfortunately, government officials deposited the waste on open land next to the municipal airport. An adjacent creek transported radionuclides downstream to the Missouri River, thereby contaminating St. Louis's northern suburbs.

Archives @ other libraries & musuems

State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO)

To access materials in these collections, contact https://shsmo.org/visit/saint-louis

St. Louis branch of the State Historical Society (SHSMO) is located on the campus of UMSL in north county.

CALLAWAY COUNTY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT COLLECTION, 1970S-1990S (CA6184)
Contact: State Historical Society of Missouri
Committee for Environmental Information Records (S0069)
Includes includes the Baby Tooth Survey, a project spearheaded by the Committee for Environmental Information (CEI) from 1958 to 1968
KAY DREY PAPERS, 1943-2012 (S0241)
Includes anti-nuclear power activism from the 1970s to the 2010s.
Contact: State Historical Society of Missouri
KAY DREY CALLAWAY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT COLLECTION, 1976-1987 (S1028)
Kay Drey Mallinckrodt Collection, 1943-2006 (S0826)
reports, files and correspondence accumulated by Drey in the course of her work as an anti-nuclear activist.
KAY DREY HEMATITE ADDENDA, 1945-2011 (S1045)
contains legal materials, reports, and newspaper clippings documenting the hazards posed by dumping nuclear waste in the town of Hematite in Jefferson City, Missouri.
EDWARD MALLINCKRODT JR. PAPERS, 1798-1981 (S0452)
Edward Mallinckrodt was an industrialist, scientist, and philanthropist in St. Louis. He Served as Mallinckrodt Chemical Works director (1901-1965), vice-president (19181928), and board chairman (1928-1965). The collection documents family and business history and Mallinckrodt’s contributions to medicine, conservation, and education.
S0677 St. Charles Countians Against Hazardous Waste/Weldon Springs (Sccahw), Records, 1946-1996
SCCAHW, a grass-roots environmental group, was founded in 1982 to protest a government
plan to ship more radioactive waste to Weldon Springs, Missouri

Harvard University Archives

Contact Harvard Libraries via link below

"The tooth of the matter : science meets public through Operation Tooth" Neville, Eileen Catherine. (1998)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-112).
Thesis (A.B., Honors in History and Science)--Harvard University, 1998.
Contact Harvard Archives for access.

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