Contact Info
Archive, Manuscript & Rare Book collections are accessed in Olin Library at the Special Collections reading room.
HOURS: Monday - Friday 9:00-5:00 by appointment
LOCATION: Olin Library, 1st floor, Danforth Campus
REQUESTS / APPOINTMENTS: 314-935-5495 spec@wumail.wustl.edu
*collections stored offsite require advance notice for retrieval and use
Questions about a specific topic? Contact:
University Archives: Sonya Rooney
Rare Books: Cassie Brand
Manuscript: Joel Minor
Local History: Miranda Rectenwald
Modern Graphic History Library: Skye Lacerte
Film & Media Archive: Andy Uhrich
WU Archives and Special Collections
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 Papersin 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 PapersThe 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 RecordsFocused 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 PapersHughes 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. PapersConsists 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 RecordsSeries 3 and Series 10 contain files related to atomic work done by the company, primarily during World War II.
- Charles Allen Thomas PapersAfter 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)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)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)A small set of publications, reports, and history of the two related organizations.
- Dan Bolef Papers (WUA00168)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: CountdownPamela White Hadas
- Poem: Nuclear DisarmamentHoward Nemerov
- Talk: St. Louis Blues Revisited, Nuclear Madness, c. 1990Michael Castro (Box 16 MC8 CASS.257)
WU School of Medicine Archives
The following collections are located at the Bernard Becker Medical Library, Archives & Rare Book department.
How to access: Contact the Becker Archives for further information about materials listed below.
Location: 7th floor, Becker Library
Hours: M-F 9am-5pm, or by appointment
Telephone: (314) 362-4236
Email: arb@wusm.wustl.edu
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 CollectionsSearch keywords: Atomic, Nuclear, Radioactive, Uranium
Published Sources (Secondary Sources)
- Nuclear democracy : a history of the Greater St. Louis Citizens' Committee for Nuclear Information, 1957-1967 byCall Number: LD5791.8 AB82 S95Publication Date: 1982
- "How Baby Teeth Put an End to Nuclear Testing" by Luke RitterMissouri Historical Society Blog
Published: Dec 14, 2017
Chapter 2: The St. Louis Baby Tooth Survey and women's environmental activism/ by Luke Ritter, in Left in the Midwest by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9780826274809Publication Date: 2022 DecIncludes 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 Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781607328483Publication Date: 2019-02-15Includes extensive citations to newspapers, archives, and other relevant publications.
Resources from other Archives and Museums (not WU)
State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO)
To access materials in these collections, contact the St. Louis branch https://shsmo.org/visit/saint-louis located on the campus of UMSL.
- 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 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.
- S0677 St. Charles Countians Against Hazardous Waste/Weldon Springs (Sccahw), Records, 1946-1996SCCAHW, 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.